I switched to a new electricity provider about 6 months ago (Vattenfall) HP/HC and contract states HC 22:00h-06:00h. So I’ve been happily setting appliances to run during this period. At beginning of this year, I started using hellowatt to check usage, where I noticed my HC being tracked was different (14:00h-17:00h and 03:00h-08:00h). When I questioned this, HelloWatt said my supplier provides this info. I then asked Vattenfall who said that Enedis sets the HC hours and they weren’t aware of this change. Which I find hard to believe, but whatever. I complained of course that I hadn’t been notified and the complaint has been ‘passed to management.’
Now as I’m looking at other suppliers and checking their HC timing, I notice they all have a caveat that actually states HC are not set by them, but is set (controlled) by Enedis.
Has anyone come across this or is it just me who has missed the boat?
Depends on how many other users are on same system, too many at once drains the power so they spread it out. In my old commune, I was on different hours to my two closest neighbours less than a few metres away. All to do with supply and demand and what is available after the big users.
The “plages horaires” are set by ENEDIS & not your energy supplier. The hours you have are historic & are now not available to a new subscriber.
If a user changed from Option Base to HC/HP they would now be set to 22.00-06.00. The same applies if you converted to Tempo, which I would recommend as the standard HC/HP rates are rubbish in comparison.
lol…funny you should say that - awoken this morning at 09:19 (unkown caller of course) that I didn’t answer as I figured it HAD to be an energy supplier…
Not exactly, I was on 22:00-06:00 and I was changed to the split time when I switched from EDF to Vattenfall last August. I never would have twigged if I hadn’t started using HelloWatt…
I agree re tempo! I did switch to tempo after some input from helpful SF users a year or two ago. My problem with that was inability to plan for red days!
The good news is that Vattenfall has just responded to me with a ‘flash’ offer for Tarifaire Base with 20% discount on the regular flat rate (and abonnement is cheaper too than HC plan). This will work out well for me, as my ch and water is gaz. I never knew utilities were ‘negotiable’. I may be pushing it, but I have now said that I’m looking at switching gaz fournisseurs, could they give me a better rate…Watch this space!
And thanks all for validating my original query. As always, SF comments are informative.
Well I think its funny.
From all the posts I have read around Tempo Tariff then I should be convinced by now to adopt it but life for me is more than worrying when the next red, blue or white day will be for the sake of hopefully saving a bob or two on my annual lecky bill which I have no doubt I could as confirmed by many SFers.
We have been with EDF HC and HP tariff for many years
and find the tariffs to work well for us.
It might have been in the past but having straightforward HC/HP is no longer the good deal it used to be.
Apart from red HP (which is for only 22 x 16 hour periods per year) ALL Tempo kWh prices are cheaper than your standard HC rate. The abonnement is cheaper too.
Put another way, for 8408 hours per year your power would be cheaper via Tempo, which is a fair exchange for being careful for 352 hours.
And as I said previously, with a heat pump that works with the outside temperature, the HC/HP tariff was not much use so got cheaper rate but abonnement slightly higher as I don’t use machines at night anyway or have a pool that needs daily filtering etc.
Badger via Survive France Thursday, 7 March, 16:43
Put another way, for 8408 hours per year your power would be cheaper via Tempo, which is a fair exchange for being careful for 352 hours.
Exactly how much cheaper?
I can do lots of things with 352 hours that would not impede my daily life as being on Tempo would do.
Life is a balancing act and if Tempo fits someone’s carry on then go for it but for me I am happy to stay as is. I also often look at our communications cost and think, could I get it cheaper, which I probably could but while ever income exceeds expenditure by an agreeable margin I cannot be doing adding even more hypothetical hours to the 352 looking for a better deal.
Your equation of 352 hours is one way of looking at it but put another way if you had to put aside 1 hour of your day for almost every day of the year to sit and contemplate electricity usage would any savings be worth the time lost?
Thanks for the rate comparison.
I was hoping to see the lump sum saving between HP/HC usage and Tempo over 8408 hours that @Badger used as an example so that the saving can be compared to the 352 hours of ‘being careful’.
There are always trade offs. I too liked the tempo tariffs, but the schedules don’t fit my lifestyle. I was forever running up big bills on the red days! My region’s current HC/HP hours don’t suit me either and I was just shocked that it was not only out of my control, but also out of the control of my supplier, despite what is written in the contract. However, happy ending: pricing is in my supplier’s control and they have made me an offer that offsets the slight price increase.
