What's involved in increasing power to house

I upgraded about 5 years ago as we were getting constant trip outs- although the house had been totally rewired to French norms. The house is reasonably large (about 200 sq m habitable) and heated by a combination of electric heaters (room x room as required) and wood burners. It's an old house with massive granite walls. Current set up is 18 kva which costs about 2200 euros per annum. We changed the old water heater last year and it's costing much less than the old one (saving about 275 euros a year). The house is occupied year round and is occupied all day. We have lots of electrical gear. The meter reading is done electronically outside. I'm looking at Suez who MAY be cheaper and they are fixing prices.

I just increased our allocation from 6kva to 12kva. I called EDF to discuss our requirements and decide on what allocation we needed. We then arranged an appointment for a technician to come out and replace the breaker to accommodate the increase. Our billing has remained the same, and we just pay the excess at the end of the year as per usual.

As I remember, it is a very simple matter to get EDF to increase the power up to 18. After that you have to have the "box" replaced

We had ours increased some time back since then we have had two new meters since its all gone digital with no charge the last one was for special cheap rate in the evening

Ask edf, we had 9kw on our old house and increased it to 15kw over the telephone just said the heating (chauffage), oven (four) and kettle kept stopping the electric.

I think you would need your electrical installation inspected and if necessary bought up to the standard required before you can increase your supply. They are a lot stricter now. If you think your installation is out dated it may be quite a costly road to go down - but probably a good idea if trips are tripping, lights flicking etc. Find a reliable local electrician and have a chat.

As long as the incoming supply cable can support the increase it's normally just a matter of asking EDF to change the parameters on the meter, assuming you have a modern one. Strangely the standing charge will increase. It's the only thing I know of where the more one buys the dearer it is!

I'm not sure on this one but I think you need to talk to EDF about it in the first instance. As always, willing to stand corrected!

Had the trip replaced all is now ok

Wow, I know EDF can be slow, but 4 years to fix the problem must be a record…

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