Badger Électricité

Why is there so little power in my house?

Unlike domestic supplies in the UK those in France are restricted in overall power according to what you need/want. This is what the "disjoncteur d'abonne" or "disjoncteur de branchement" does. This is a large switch/trip probably located close to your meter & somewhere it will have a window with the amperage setting showing. This can mean different things depending on whether you have a single-phase (monophasé) or three-phase (triphasé) supply. They look similar to the picture shown here.

EDF (Électricité de France) charge a different standing charge ("abonnement") depending on what amount of power you require. If you don't have a large enough supply, or have too much, you can ask to have it changed, but there is a minimum time allowed before you can change it again. In some locations it might not be possible to have a bigger supply without expensive works to the local distribution network. The maximum power available under "tarif bleu" (the standard domestic/small user tariff) is 36kVa, single or three-phase.
Apart from the very smallest supply available (15 amps, or 3kVa) the basic unit charge (kWh - kilowatt hour) for electricity is the same for all sizes of supply - it's just the standing charge that increases. You can also have a cheaper off-peak rate for 8 hours overnight; this is known as "heures creuse" (literally, empty hours) & is similar to the Economy 7 system in the UK. Many people use the overnight rate to run their dish washer & washing machine. Also French electric water heaters are sized according to being able to heat up in the 8 hours overnight & should be set up to only switch on during the cheap times.

The current cost of these two variations can be seen here: EDF tarifs - basic & off-peak

There is another system of metering in France, known as Tempo. I'll make this the subject of another posting on this site very soon.