Electicity consumption.

[9fingers]

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Third dial on the right hand edge shows the power import/export from France

Bob

 

[Jonzjob]

Atoms for energy that's wot I say!! 8) 8)

We probably have one of the greenest power productions with about 80% nuclear 8) 8)

 

[RogerS]

...
The fact that EDF is French is rather a moot point as quite a bit of our electricity is generated in France regardless of
who ever puts their name on the top of your bill.

Roy.

No, that's wrong, surely? I can tell when my electricity is coming from France as the electrons go down the right hand wire.

 

[devonwoody]

But can atomic energy generate power if there is a sudden peak demand?

That is a future problem of green energy and if not our life styles are going to change, my wife will be doing the dishes at 03.00 hours otherwise. :wink:

 

[Digit]

The only method of obtaining immediate increases of power DW is from hydro generators, all others require time, coal about 4hrs.
You can't miss it Rog, it smells of garlic!

Roy.

 

[devonwoody]

Hence the French period charges if they produce so much nuclear energy, they need to put some consumers off usage when high consumption needed.

 

[RogerS]

The only method of obtaining immediate increases of power DW is from hydro generators, all others require time, coal about 4hrs.
You can't miss it Rog, it smells of garlic!

Roy.

Looking at Bob's chart, there are two separate meters for Hydro and, what I think you are referring to, Pumped Storage such as that at Dinorwic...but then again I could be wrong !

 

[Digit]

Any form of hydro can be brought on line rapidly Rog, tothers need to work up a head of steam. That fact is the single largest objection to relying on wind power for large amounts of electricity.

Roy.

 

[Jonzjob]

...
The fact that EDF is French is rather a moot point as quite a bit of our electricity is generated in France regardless of
who ever puts their name on the top of your bill.

Roy.

No, that's wrong, surely? I can tell when my electricity is coming from France as the electrons go down the right hand wire.

That don't matter over this side of the ditch mate. The French quite happily mix line and neutral anyway. The reason is that both are 'protected' by the CBs in the main box being double pole jobbies. BUT if you have fuses then only line is protected. The smallest fuse before we had ours changed was 16 amp! Same with the CBs and the plugs ain't fused... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Digit]

We use belt, braces and chastity belts over here of course, but it must be the safest standard anywere.

Roy.

 

[bugbear]

Late to this thread;

Something like this is VERY helpful, and rather cheap.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plug-In-Power-a ... B000Q7PJGW

Some devices use more than you think, some less. Most devices are rated on the back for PEAK consumption, which is important for selecting the right fuse, but not helpful in making power consumption decisions.

Knowledge helps you make better decisions.

BugBear

 

[soulboy]

my 2euro worth, I know somebody who has a house in Charente Maritime, one of the buildings housed a large freezer, even though it had been removed the EDF still charged them for the industrial /3 phase supply. possibly something similar?
chris

 

[Jonzjob]

They will have to tell them to drop the tarrif and they will need to do it with a reciept of delivery!

 

[Smithy]

Continuing the saga of my electricity consumption. I have been keeping a daily log. Tuesday it was 17 kw and yesterday, Wednesday it rocketed to 33kw. I cannot understand it because it was a normal day and nothing out of the ordinary was used. Time to phone EDF.

Mike

 

[RogerS]

Continuing the saga of my electricity consumption. I have been keeping a daily log. Tuesday it was 17 kw and yesterday, Wednesday it rocketed to 33kw. I cannot understand it because it was a normal day and nothing out of the ordinary was used. Time to phone EDF.

Mike

Mike...have you tried all our suggestions? Such as switching off, checking your meter does not go round? Any close neighbours? Any signs of unusual wires disappearing from your consumer unit or meter ?

 

[devonwoody]

Continuing the saga of my electricity consumption. I have been keeping a daily log. Tuesday it was 17 kw and yesterday, Wednesday it rocketed to 33kw. I cannot understand it because it was a normal day and nothing out of the ordinary was used. Time to phone EDF.

Mike

Dont waste your breath, I have never got them to answer the phone, emails work tho. once I got a mail reply within 5 hours after I stopped a Direct Debit. :wink: , (and a letter of apology for their telephone trouble)

Mind you your meter reading will not interest them, they charge to inspect a meter, I suggest a subtraction error on your part?

 

[RogerS]

It's called Capitalism and Bullsh*t.

Take our supplier..nPower..£300million profit. How did they achieve that? Partly by not having hardly any customer service staff and ancient IT systems that don't talk to each other.

We've been trying to get our bill sorted out since August. Not helped by their reader or someone at nPower (not sure who) transposing the Night/Day readings. We fill in forms and post them off and they disappear into an abyss. Promises made by Customer Service staff (when you actually get through) are empty. No-one takes ownership of problems...their (and other companies) systems allow the Customer Service Agent to simply add some meaningless note and push it back into the system where it just sits. Emails go unanswered. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Remind you of any other companies?

In the end we wrote to the Customer Service Director and got a call back from a CSA within day. We explained the problem and not sure it was taken onboard as he was more anxious for us to say that the issues raised in our letter had been addressed. We, naturally, would not agree until our bill has been sorted out.

And the Bullsh*t? Here, taken from their webpage on Corporate Responsibility.

We are committed to listening to our customers to understand what they want and what’s important to them. We do this by making sure that we use regular feedback from our monthly satisfaction surveys, talk directly to our customers and have regular meetings with stakeholders who represent our customers’ interests. This enables us to decide where to focus our efforts in delivering the best possible service and products.

 

[devonwoody]

My beef at the moment is that they are upping direct debits with the story that I will use more energy in the coming months. Rubbish they will finish up in credit still at the end of January with the payments I am making.

All they are trying to do is get advanced payments so that their bank accounts are nice and fat.

I'm worried that the French bank will go bust who EDF pay into and they will not be able to repay my surplus credit. I wanna swear, but pineapples many times will have to do.

 

[Jonzjob]

Mike, this may help?

http://bleuciel.edf.com/particuliers-54272.html

English speaking and 8 regional phone numbers to boot. I haven't had a good look at it yet, but I will :mrgreen:

 

[Smithy]

Thanks John and everyone else. I think there must be a problem as the next day our consumption went down from 33 to 16kw without any obvious difference in usage. I will contact EDF and see what they say. I think it will be the beginning of a long saga.

Mike.