I am not an electrician & wish I had your knowledge. I can reassure you that I know what I am not & therefore everything will be dealt with by a professional electrician.
I would love to answer your questions but they are beyond my pay grade or my knowledge & being here in London I cannot check things like the ampage of hob’s breaker. We do have separate panels but I could not break out for you what each does.
Enedis when on site & the electrician all confirmed there was not sufficient allocated power for the property & 6mm was dangerous at the power I was drawing off the street. The Enedis guys only seemed to believe it when they saw it with their own eyes.
I will let you know what happens when I meet up with the electrician next week & what he proposes to replace & keep in anticipation of EDF’s arrival.
Enjoy the weekend & thank you for your suggestions.
I have never understood electricity, even when I was studying physics at school about 100 years ago.
I’m convinced there is some sort of magic or witchcraft going on. How can you provide power with something you can’t see and has no moving parts? An internal combustion engine I can understand as well as steam power and gas but electricity is just plain weird. Oh, and what’s the terminology all about? No idea what amps, volts and watts are or what the difference is. And isn’t tripping something to do with drugs?!
I have read this thread and you are all talking a different language. My mind is blown.
Please, please, please don’t try to explain any of it to me. I have a mental block.
Love it Mandy. I will tackle most things, tiling, plumbing, painting, a bit of tree felling, laying dalles, gravel etc; BUT I am scared of electricity. What I know about it will fit on the back of a postage stamp, I leave it firmly to the experts. I have a Linky but it sits there in the garage winking malavelantly at me each time I pass
Probably not relevant now but I came across this…I’ve yet to translate it fully but I am one of those who would rather not be press ganged into something I don’t want…and I don’t want a linky meter…maybe others more fluent than me can say whether this is worth joining up to…??? I’m also interested in zero point energy devices a la Nikola Tesla as a way forward but also conscious of the many vested corporate interests and patent holders who don’t have the best interests of humanity at heart… https://linky.mysmartcab.fr/
I am staggered by the amount you are spending on electricity.
We are also near St Emilion, therefore same climate, with electric heating also - having recently changed electricity provider our costs dropped from 110 euros per month to 70 euros per month - we visit for about 10 weeks per year. L
I’m here full time…main and only residence all electric on 6kw…just under €40 per month…my first readings indicated €20 per month but initially I was paying €90…I reduced it online and got a substantial refund…my next reading is this month…I use two paraffin fan heaters rather than my installed electric heaters as I would rather know I have prepaid my heating costs…I also have electric fan heaters which I only use to heat the bathroom enough to take a shower when it gets below minus…I only have 50 sq m to heat…YMMV…
Helen be careful with an electric heater in the bathroom, remember as you listen to Comme D’Habitude or Sha La La in the bath how Claude Francois met his premature end.
Thank you for your suggestion & I appreciate that less is often more, it sounds like you have a very cosy situation with much less problems than me.
It is interesting when I speak with my English or Americans friends they cannot believe how little power I have in France but the French commentary seems to see things the opposite way. I know in South Florida standard supply is set at 200amps on single phase for any house. which shows the difference to France where 80% of homes are on 6kw. Truth be told I bought the house to enjoy with friends & family & the only thing I am interested in is to be able to be able to safely turn on switches as & when I wish.
I am arranging for a French electrician this week to meet me at the house & also I will fly in a UK electrician so hopefully between them all I can put this all behind me & focus on the good food, wine & great lifestyle you all enjoy.
The English electricians know I need a resolution by the end of this month but it will be interesting to see whether EDF & French electricians will share the immovability of that deadline.
And I wish you only all of the very best… .don’t worry about me and my bathroom…lol…I plug it in only when temps drop below minus…I leave the door open and have my paraffin heater on in the space between bathroom and bedroom…if it cuts out then it’s not from any lack of kw but just safety switch/thermostat on the fan heater…All crossed that you are sorted…In-Joy…x
Beware of using English electricians (from England, as opposed to English electricians qualified to work in france) as the wiring is done very differently in france. The UK ring main type wiring is not allowed here.
We used to have 30kva but that was ridiculous. We were told it was that because we had kitchen, dining room, large lounge, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 2 corridors all with electric under floor heating, along with 2 electric water heaters and electric oven all powered by electric. Also the electric sockets and lights associated with a house of this size, so we are not talking about a small house. However on 15kva we are managing fine. Bit by bit we are going to remove the underfloor heating downstairs as it is expensive so we hope eventually to go down to 12kva. We are tri-phase.
The new Linky meter is now the device that detects overcurrent & then it trips the old disjoncteur. When a Linky is fitted they set the main disjoncteur to it’s maximum setting as the “abonnement” in now governed by the Linky i.e. you can’t just look at a disjoncteur setting to see what tarif someone has, you must check the meter.
I wonder what their reasoning is, that actually seems a bit pointless and the “then it trips the old disjoncteur” bit seems unnecessary and potentially unreliable - why not just integrate the whole unit?
The only advantage I can think of quickly would be “over the wire” upgrades on the amount of power that you can draw (within the limits of the EDF cabling to the property, of course) - but a fully integrated unit would still be better.
As already said, why would this be a good idea? Unless the English guy has proper knowledge of the French system you will be wasting your money. Also many UK domestic electricians will have scant, if any, knowledge of three phase systems in a domestic environment, but these are very common in France. If language is the issue you should find an English speaking local electrician, but do ensure he can speak French as well…
The “over the wire” thing is exactly why this has been done. The problem with an integrated unit is the complexity of dealing with older installations where the main disjoncteur is not placed in a predetermined relationship to the meter. Indeed, many older installations have the meter & DJ entirely separate e.g meter outside on a pole or wall, DJ inside.
I guess cost came into it too, as they have 35 million meters to change.
crossed that you are sorted…In-Joy…x 
