How to check if your water heater has changed to new cheaper energy hours in France

Millions of electricity contracts in France have started to switch their off-peak hours this month, as the national grid operator looks to deal with France’s changing energy portfolio and usage. 

These heures creuses contracts will still provide eight hours of cheaper electricity and 16 at ‘peak’ cost.

However, the hours when electricity is at off-peak rates will switch, including periods of cheaper power during the day during the spring and summer.

Households must be informed of the change to hours at least one month in advance.

This may come through a letter, email, or a message in the online personal space with the electricity supplier, so contract holders are advised to regularly check their account. 

You will also be able to see whether you are currently on peak or off-peak rates when checking your Linky meter, although you cannot see the full schedule using the device.

If changes are being made to their hours, households are advised to programme their appliances to run on the newer, cheaper hours, to avoid excess bill costs. 

This includes items such as dishwashers, washing machines, and tumble dryers. 

What about water heaters? 

For other appliances, however, this can be more complex, including water heaters (chauffe-eau). 

Systems linked directly to your Linky meter and using a day/night contactor (contacteur jour/nuit) will automatically update their hours to run on the new schedule. Grid operator Enedis is responsible for updating these.

To confirm this, check your electricity panel board, and ensure the water heater and the contactor are set to ‘auto’.

It should not be set to ‘on’, sometimes called forced mode (marche forcée), which sees the corresponding contactor set to ‘1’ and heats the water during any period, including peak hours.

Additionally, if the heater is set to ‘off’ or ‘0’, it will not function. 

If the heater is not set to ‘auto’, change this manually.

You can double check that the system is working properly by checking for a noise when your off-peak hours start. It should come in the form of a faint click emitting from the contactor in the panel, and not the water heater itself. 

Alternatively, heaters with manual settings must be changed by the resident, usually through a control panel on the heater or the electricity panel. 

For a final check, log into your personal account or your app with your energy supplier to check your energy usage.

If there is a spike corresponding to your previous off-peak hours, it is likely that the water heater is still set to this time.