Across France, millions of electricity customers are seeing their cheaper electricity hours change. Some residents with water heaters, however, will need to make a manual adjustment to keep costs down.
Here's what to know
France's heures creuses — which means "off-peak time" — electricity contracts will retain a daily split of eight discounted hours and 16 peak-priced hours, according to The Connexion. Spring and summer daytime periods will account for some of those discounted hours as schedules change.
Customers may learn about the change through a letter, an email, or a notice posted to their online account with the supplier. Households must receive at least one month's notice before their schedules change.
Residents will need to consult their supplier's information to identify all eight cheaper hours. A Linky electricity meter provides only the current tariff status, peak or off-peak, rather than the complete timetable.
More background
According to The Connexion, the shift is intended to accommodate changes in France's energy portfolio and electricity use. For households that schedule appliances to save money, however, a familiar overnight routine may no longer line up with the lowest rates.
Keeping an old appliance timetable could mean paying peak prices for tasks previously scheduled to cost less. Avoiding that expense means reprogramming laundry machines and dishwashers around the revised off-peak periods.
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Water heaters on a manual schedule need the resident's own adjustment. Enedis, France's grid operator, instead handles the switch automatically for any system wired straight into a Linky meter through a day/night contactor.
What can be done?
At the electrical panel, set both the heater and its day/night contactor to "auto." These are the settings The Connexion advises residents to check on a Linky-connected system.
An "off" or "0" setting stops the heater from functioning. By contrast, "on" permits heating at any time, including during expensive peak hours; this setting may be marked "1" and is also known as marche forcée, or forced mode.
The controls for entering a manually scheduled heater's revised hours may be on the heater itself or at the electrical panel.
A quiet click from the electrical panel's contactor can help residents confirm that an automatically controlled system is switching over. Listen there when the new off-peak period begins.
After adjusting the settings, compare the revised off-peak timetable with consumption records available through the supplier's app or online account. That comparison lets residents check whether the heater is running during the cheaper hours.
Where can I learn more?
As France shifts its off-peak hours, households may need to rethink when they heat water and run appliances.
• In France, a startup says existing water heaters can store cheap electricity without tank replacements.
• In France, power was cheaper than free for 800 hours, creating opportunities for battery storage.
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