Errr,… OK if the meter is upstream of the DJ I can’t see a mechanism for tripping the DJ (unless they run a wire back to connect downstream of the DJ and simulate an earth fault).
Also, to be frank, if reports of the Linky dropping connections on transient loads are true and it is as twitchy as people say it doesn’t sound all that well designed.
The Linky installation is a very quick straight swap of the meter, using spacing dictated by the historic meters. There is no liaison with the main DJ. I don’t know how the tripping is effected, but it surely is.
A chat with an ENEDIS tech the other day revealed that they are having issues as they’ve trained a load of non-electricians to do the swap-outs. Apparently connections have been left loose as they are in too much of a rush to get to the next job & fail to verify everything. They have to do 15 in a day, which is a lot, especially in a rural setting.
Just an idea, I am far from a conspiracy theorist but I do like an attractive financial opportunity but I feel I may be the victim of EDF with the same financial desire-
Selling wholesale electric is much more profitable than supplying consumer power. Power supply is heavily regulated in which the consumer is an inconvenient priority for power company’s.
If I wanted to increase my bonus running a large power company I would under the guise of green energy policy pursue a cap on peoples consumption. My power production from the power stations stays the same (this is not that flexible) but if I can limit all my low profit consumers by capping their consumption I will not need the excess capacity the regulator requires to accommodate consumer spikes. I can now sell the ‘excess’ that is no longer needed on the wholesale market.
Alternatively EDF could be just worried about our safety.
I think that you will find that it’s all about market trends. Your energy needs are beyond the norm.
If I were paying €4320 for 5 weeks of ‘house’ electricity, I would consider buying one of these (or similar)
You are “using” and paying for one helluva lot of electric for 5 weeks…but as you say your next bill should be considerably lower if not zero if you can’t switch anything on…we’ve got lots of wind farms in our neck of the woods…I don’t know why but I’m always surprised to see them switched off when it’s windy or when the electric goes off…In the U.K. it’s apparently much more profitable for the big energy corporations that own the wind farms to have them switched off…allegedly to the tune of £2 million pound a week…don’t know about France…x 
The electricity companies have to control the amount of power they produce to meet demand. It might well be more efficient to switch off some wind farms at certain times.
This can be interesting to use to see where the power is coming from.
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/france/
Hi Tony,
Thanks for this, I appreciate your help.
I had talked to one of my builders about a temporary generator & he said a decent one would cost approximately £12,000 & he seems to know what he is talking about. Your suggestion is significantly less expensive which would be welcome if it does the job, though the 60 days delivery is problematic. I may also investigate short term rental, though rental in France often seems more expensive than purchase.
I am not sure how long this will go on because EDF on an emergency will only provide a phone appointment to discuss on March 15th (scheduled 2 weeks ago), so God knows how long it will take for them to physically come out & do some work.
I just got back from St Emilion today (purely there to deal with the electric issue) after unsuccessfully trying to persuade 5 electricians to visit (they all wanted at least 2 to 3 weeks for an emergency visit) we finally had a very helpful French electrician come to the house, who immediately confirmed that EDF supply was ridiculous (dangerous) for our building. He said that EDF could not legally refuse to hook up the power needed & after I doubled the payment for his time as a reward for him showing up he insisted I let him know when EDF agreed to visit so he could directly meet the EDF representative. He said that we could adapt the panel in the house but it would be simpler to change it to one setup for 3 phase.
Usually I would not be worried about all of this because I would just fly somewhere else with less aggravation & let the bureaucracy take it’s course. The problem with this issue is that over Christmas a friend in her early 40’s asked to spend Easter with her family in the house. Her husband some years ago was diagnosed with brain cancer which has become progressively worst & I fear this may be his last holiday with her & his 2 young children. I cannot countenance disappointing them in light of the situation.
Usually the challenges of getting things done in France I find a source of amusement with friends over a glass of wine, this instance is anything but that.
Tony, one way of another this will be fixed (at least temporarily) by the end of the month by professional electricians. Next week I have an Enedis guy visiting to see whether he can reverse the electricity regulation caused by the smart meter & see whether we can go back to what we had before until EDF can supply the 3 phase.
Have a good evening & I will update as we progress.
Sh**, sorry that this is turing into a bit of a nightmare for you 
Your builder is in the right ballpark for buying a 30kVA set - though if you could limit usage when on generator you could probably get a 12kVA set for about 1/3 that.
A quick glance at a totally random web site suggests that a 20kVA set could be rented for €105 and a 40kVA set for €129 per day (plus diesel to run it - for 30kVA about 6l/hr
It sounds like it needed sorting properly though so hopefully this short term pain will be worth it.
Hi Saul,
My why not buy a Generator was a bit tongue in cheek but do-able suggestion, other then if you then pipe 20 odd KVA into your house the internal wiring will get the shock (no pun intended) of its life. Another thought I have had to reduce my 6 mths in/ 6 mths out occupation is to have the supply disconnected. However on talking to EDF they want about 1 months notice to turn it on, and as my 6 mths can be 2 x 3mths it was all too difficult.
The French domestic power supply is pitiful compared to others especially the UK. When we bought our house I was told it was on a 9KVA supply which I thought was low but do-able, to then find that 9KVA was actually 3 x 3KVA (3 phase). On bringing a number of UK appliances i.e a 3KW Kettle, it regularly tripped out, so at that time (2013) the only available (Domestic) options from EDF was to have a 12KVA single phase and rewire all the house, or upping to 18KVA 3 phase (3 x 6KVA), and leaving most of the wiring in place. There are higher options available if you are a factory/business on 3 phase, but I don’t know the criteria for being eligible, and the usual French house wiring 2.5mm and 4 mm (if you’re lucky) will start to get hot.
The biggest load user that I brought over with me was a Smeg Range cooker ~ 18KVA which works as long as you only turn on individual loads, i.e. small oven. The Hob is Gas so that’s not an issue, and when you pull the back off you find it was made for 3 phase, and converted to single phase for the UK market (perhaps one day I’ll have a go at changing it back). Going back to your 3KW Kettle point, yes for the UK market 3KW is the going rate, but for the French market 1300W is more the norm. They have a low supply and consequently most of their appliances are commensurately low rated.
So where does that leave you ?. From what I can establish unless you can get an ‘industrial’ supply (or Generator/Solar Panels) you are never going to fully power all the high load items you have. If you do get that supply then you need to make sure the house wiring is fully capable of taking it. It appears that your biggest problem is getting a reliable electrician and without that you’ll be lost. You need to find such a guy, you need the house wiring ‘mapped’ to know what goes where, on what size cable, and you need to consider doing away with some of your high load items. For example a (Bottle) Gas Hob will work extremely well on very little Gas, and apart from a few Watts for ignition, be of no load.
Lastly, I find it hard to believe the words from your latest electrician are true in that ‘EDF could not legally refuse to hook up the power needed’ as that is such an open ended statement it can’t possibly be law.
(Please note I am not a qualified electrician and my comments are from personal experience only.)
EDF seem to be happy enough to give Saul 36kW.
I’m not quite sure I get your comment about “usual French house wiring 2.5mm and 4 mm (if you’re lucky)”. If you had an old 3kW per phase supply I suppose that it is just possible that the original link from the main breaker to the tableau could have been made in 2.5 or 4mm2 but if you increase to 12kW per phase that would need to be upgraded as well, really to 16mm2 - in fact this is a situation where I would expect (but have no idea whether they would) EDF to politely but firmly say “non” to doing the work until that was dealt with.
As to the runs to the sockets from the tableau those should be 2.5mm2 for up to 12 outlets (6 if in the kitchen) protected by a max 20A breaker or 1.5mm2 for up to 8 outlets protected by a max 16A breaker. 4mm2 doesn’t figure in normal socket or lighting wiring - in fact I don’t think that it figures in modern wiring practices (maybe very old installations) as the individual 32A circuits for hobs, ovens etc have to be in minimum of 6mm2.
Besides Saul mentioned that the place had been re-wired so the house wiring itself should be OK.
So, it’s Good Friday today, and presumably the ones you knew who had to visit before passing away have arrived.
If that’s the case, curious minds would like to know how you fixed your supply problem ?
Hi Tony,
Thank you for asking.
They arrive this evening & are very excited.
Tony, your last 2 posts were inciteful because I really could not understand how people get by on the 6KW that Enerdis says over 80% of the French population are on & I am also sensitive about upsetting anyone’s feeling about questioning their power usage. As I have been dragged into this power supply issue I am pretty sure some people on this blog are not aware of their peak usage which will become quickly apparent when Enedis regulate whatever cap applies to them.
Anyway back to where we are. I have over the last 3 weeks had 3 very inconvenient unscheduled flights to France to try & get a solution but fortunately my skepticism that Enedis would not provide any reasonable or timely answers were well founded. Just to provide a little background, my wife is French (who harbors a healthy strong distrust of her compatriots), my twin brother owns a reasonable size construction company & my younger brother owns a large building supply operation that also manufactures material. So as you can imagine I have many of opinions beyond those on this blog about the technical & cultural issues I have faced.
The Enedis guy showed up 2 weeks ago to meet the French electrician & my translator & he immediately agreed with the 36kw supply (without questions) but explained the communist era process of approvals, documents & payments that would be needed. He said based upon the 'emergency this could be expedited & the 36kw could be provided in 6 to 8 weeks.
Yesterday I happily wrote & posted a cheque to Enedis for 1,500 Euros which is the cost of them watching my builders & electrician doing the work. We have chosen to run the supply underground in which Enedis just runs a supply box to the bottom of their pole on the street to which we have to connect. They placed what they described as important safety requirements such as cutting all tree branches near the pole - they were not amused when I asked how that would improve the safety for an underground cable. Also they required a sizable hole be cut into the limestone walls for the new meter box (why it cannot be attached to the wall is beyond our understanding). Anyway the bottom line is that the job is getting done while I temporarily help improve French employment figures through a merry band of artisans & the Enedis crew.
I will let everyone know about the exact details when Enedis show up in the coming weeks (months, whenver).
My solution for my guests.:
As well as the suggestions above my friends not based in France made contributions such as running an extension cable from London & I expect I & my wife will be receiving many sarcastic Christmas gifts which will include many candles
I had when I was 30 years old lived in Nice for a year & quickly came to the conclusion that one of the worlds most beautiful places could also be one of it’s most frustrating & changing a culture to bend to my will was way beyond my capacities. Therefore when in France I try & think of making the best of awful situations & this is what informed my solution for my guests:
The above will allow the house to operate on just 12kw & considering there are only 4 of them (includes 2 children I am not worried about 3 blow dryers being used simultaneously).
All in All it should be a very nice time for our guests despite the crisis caused by Enerdis & this is really all that matters.
I will add that this is an issue I have experienced before. I was with my wife last year staying in a suite in the Palazzo Manfredi in Rome & upon arrival in our room which was a Friday evening I went o boil a cup of tea. As I switched the kettle on the power for the whole floor went off. The hotel had to relocate & pay for other hotels for all of the guests on that floor. We chose to stay (I like the view of the Colosseum more than the tea), the hotel manager who was off work for the weekend came back into work to profusely apologize & buy us dinner. I explained to the hotel manager that he had my French problem where the supply was insufficient & it had nothing to do with his hotel’s wiring. It turns out that typical Italian house supply is just 3kw (one kettle’s worth of power) & the power company had installed that Friday a smart box to supply floor for the suites. The only benefit of Italy according to the hotel manager is that it is a place that you can make an offer that cannot be refused & come Monday the power company would be back to remove their box.
Also during one of my trips to France 2 weeks ago, I stopped at the local Marie because the pool company we paid to install the pool had failed to get the permits they had been paid to obtain (no significant disappointment, it was better than the typical level of local unreliability). While with the head of building dept I mentioned my Enedis problem & he confirmed they were terrible & the town had many problems with it’s electricity including the Marie’s building we were standing in.
I hope everyone has a nice Easter & thank you for your support.
As mentioned I will let everyone know once this is completed. I am estimating my next cup of tea in France will have cost approximately 4,000 Euros to get my 36kw. As I write this post I get the feeling my choice of beverage may actually be part of the problem.
In summary, I am sure everyone will be happy to know my guests will be both warm & very well fed during this Easter holiday.
Wow… someone is keeping the place warm… and a chef to do the cooking… please, please can we all come and stay… 
Seriously, I do hope things get amicably sorted… sooner rather than later.
Well done 
, at least you have a temporary working solution, and it appears you clearly have budgeted for emergencies, because many on here don’t, and then suffer when things go wrong.
As and when your installation is finally complete, and you have a stable and consistent 36Kw, you must let us know. Especially as I suspect that you will have some more Enedis incompetence to endure before you get to the finish.
Good Morning Stella,
I hope you are well.
The progress with my electricity is that Enedis have cashed my check though no actual work has been done by them.
I did have a little bit of a dispute with the Enedis representative who was requiring that the new boxes be cut into a stone wall by my builders. This was the same chap who was requiring us to cut the tree branches for the underground cable (still remains a mystery ?). It was apparent he did not know what he was talking about claiming that my wall was on city land while his electric pole was on my land. Unfortunately I have years of experience with the apocalyptic attitudes of the locals when it comes to either work or progress so I headed down to the town planning office. The town planners laughed at Enerdis request & said screw it on the wall rather than cut it into the wall & it was not Enerdis decision & they were living in a fantasy world.
We have dug all of the cable ((25m) from the pole to the entry point into the house & are just awaiting the Enerdis people to do their 30 minutes of work to connect us to the 3 phase & give us our 36kw.
The power situation is not a problem at the moment (we are not there) but it is manageable in the summer without any heating needed. Enerdis have confirmed the date they will connect us is June 26th. They were supposed to come on June 6th but my wife made me reschedule because we are on a remote island in the Bahamas on that date & she wisely said she no way wanted to rely upon her countrymen while we are supposed to be relaxing. She takes the view that things that seem simple & easy often become complicated & difficult in ex-homeland. I must say my experiences over the years have disappointingly proved her correct & we now take the view that most local ‘experts’ are arsonists that portray themselves as firemen. Small problems just seem to become big problems & expensive in this place.
That said you can’t beat the food & wine ! I remind myself t is just what we have to suffer for beauty.
Have a lovely day.
I will let you know once I can light everything up at my holiday home.
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all having a great summer.
I wanted to conclude the power saga I had been experiencing which like all good comedy’s seems to have a reached a happy ending. Below is the end of the tale.
I had delayed the installation until July 20th when I & my wife were scheduled to be in France for 2 weeks because we feared that this was a place things invariably seem to go wrong. I also flew in an electrician who does a reasonable amount of work for me & who is familiar with the French electrical system (my wife had insisted he come so that all bases were covered).
The day before Enerdis were scheduled to make the upgrade a man in a van with a shovel unexpectedly showed up from the electric company to pre-install the boxes. We had a little bit of a standoff when we explained the box could be attached to the wall rather than cut into the stone wall but this was resolved by a cup of espresso & my threat to drive him to the village planning office to confirm both me & the city were happy to attach the box to the wall - it’s not a safety issue, it’s a property line issue (safety does not seem to be much of priority for them).
Now the location of the box was resolved we assumed the Enerdis chap could get on with his job except for the fact he had no tools outside of a shovel which would not help with the screws involved in attaching the box. We supplied him with a screwdriver & hammer & the box was soon affixed ready for the power connection which would happen the next day.
The next day 2 more fellows showed up & we were pleased to see they had the necessary tools to carry out the job. We promptly served them espresso (French builders tea!) to prime them for the job & within 2 hours we had 36 kw of power supplied to the house (it may be 32kw but I can no longer remember).
3 days after the installation I received an electric bill of just under 1,000 euros so decided to call in case I had been misled & my new monthly power bill was now 1000 euros a month. The english speaking assistant at Enerdis call centre was very helpful & explained that I had originally been told the wrong figures & that the new power would cost the same as the old per KW & that my monthly standing order would increase by 3 euros per month rather than the 10 euros I had been told originally. The 1,000 euro bill was just for my excess usage over the previous year that had not been covered by monthly charge.
In conclusion I now have 36KW which allows me to heat my house in the winter & enjoy a cup of tea while at the same time my wife enjoys her espresso.
For others that are considering this course I thought I would breakdown my cost of getting to this stage outside of the 3 euro a month increase to my electric bill. I had to pay 1,500 euros to Enerdis for their 3 hours work & plastic boxes, this cost you will have to pay. Next I elected to lay the cable underground which cost approximately 1,000 euros - this is not necessary because Enerdis would have run the wires off the top of the pole to the wall under the roof but I preferred the more expensive underground solution. Also if the cable is run underground for more than 30 metres Enerdis will insist their men dig the trench & install the cable at a cost. Next the electrical components which includes a new box, disjoncture, 30 metres of cable & other components was about 800 euros. Lastly the cost of labour of the electrician if you can get one to show up involves 5 hours work to rewire the all of the new boxes & other adjustments.
It sounds to me that some people on this website have some building skills so in their case I would estimate they have just the 1,500 euro Enerdis charge & the cost of purchasing the necessary components to upgrade to 3 phase (800 euros in my case).
Time wise, I would estimate it takes about 3 months from the time you request the upgrade to the actual power switch.
Lastly I would say that it was definitely worth it in my case for 2 reasons, first it makes the house habitable for our lifestyle, especially at Christmas when we spend 2 weeks. Second it was irresponsibly unsafe for the power company to have ignored for 5 years a situation where the equivalent of an extension cable was being run off the street to power a 360 sq metre building even though we repeatedly raised our concern (over 5 years).
I wanted to thank everyone’s lively input, it was more helpful than you probably know.
Hopefully no one else experiences our challenges but if you do then maybe my story may prove of some help & encouragement.
Phew… so glad you have finally got there…
Thank you Stella, that is kind of you - I hope you are well.
We had a great time in France over the 2 weeks & it reminded of us why we love coming here so much.
