COST OF ENERGY IN FRANCE AND BITS AND BOBS IN BRIEF: #5 AND LAST OF A SERIES

 

* Although France depends more on nuclear power than about any other European country, that has not translated into cheap rates. And the rates have been climbing. In 2023, we used 29% less electricity that we did the previous year, but the bill was only 5% lower. So far this year we've used 10% less than last year, but our bill is 10% higher. Last year, my total bill was just over 2,560USD. This year, our first six months will run just over 1,500USD. So yes. The cost of electricity in France can be painful. If I had to say it. we are wasteful. If it comes to it, I can identify ways to economize. It's getting to be time that we'll have to.

* Another cost of living in France that can be painful is fueling the family car. We own a used Renault diesel. I like Renault because they are still going racing. I like diesel because the motors last longer and the fuel is cheaper. But because France has to import all of its oil, it ain't very cheap at all. When we arrived, I was paying the equivalent of about 5.40USD per gallon. Today, I'm paying 6.80USD. I get 42 MPG, but it's still a hit to the wallet. And France takes climate change seriously. That means that the sale of diesel cars is being phased out and that diesel cars are prohibited from certain cities during bad air days, certain downtowns permanently. But for now, I'm keeping the Renault.

* We heat and cool with a heat pump, so our heating is covered in the electric bill. But we supplement with a wood-fueled fireplace insert. As the cost of electricity and fuel oil has risen, so has firewood. It takes about one cord of firewood to take me through the winter. In the past three years, the price has increased by about a third. I expect that when I order my next cord in a few months, I will pay over 400USD.

* Like everything else, the cost of water has increased, not least because we have been experiencing a lengthy drought, so the water tables are low. And water is essential to the main crop locally, grapes for winemaking . We're paying about 90USD per month for water/sewer, up about 30% over the last couple of years.

* We pay about 60USD monthly for our landline, two cell phones, and 4G wifi. Free calls to the USof A on the landline, but we are more likely to FaceTime or WhatsApp than phone. Just enough data to get by because neither of us are screenheads, particularly when we are out of the house. Fiber was installed throughout the village last year and we signed up. 5G and more data would run us an extra 25USD monthly. We passed on that.

As you can tell if you have been following this series, I have not attempted to present a detailed, all inclusive budget. Just snapshots of the sorts of things that I think might interest folks. Specific questions? I would be happy to answer in the comment section below.

WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT - JUNE, 2018: AIR CON, DIESEL, SCIENCE

Installing the first window air conditioner in the living room of our little ranch house in New Jersey in the 1960s didn't change our lives very much. The only unit in the house, its benefits didn't reach down the hall and into our bedrooms. We still slept under window fans. We still sweated in our sleep. My wife Cathey, on the other hand, spent her youth in Texas. She went from an air-conditioned house to an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned playground...well...not exactly. But AC was definitely a fact of life for her. So when the AC in our old Citroen Xantia went on the fritz last summer, it needed to be fixed. No question. Cathey laid down the law. No AC? No marriage.

Have you ever tried to find AC parts for a 20 year-old car? They exist but they are as rare as politicians with callouses. Hence the search began for a new...albeit used...car.

I searched for a diesel-powered vehicle with a manual transmission. Abundant trunk space. Big enough to carry five adults in a pinch. (On seats, not in the trunk.) Preferably a French marque because I will be depending on French mechanics to keep it running. Why manual? Because I like to feel as if I'm driving my car and not guiding it down the highway while sitting on a sofa. Why diesel? Because diesels last 50% longer on average than gasoline engines.

But wait. What about pollution? Diesels are dirty, aren't they? Don't you care about the environment?

Here's where it gets interesting.

You see, I believe in science. I believe that two plus two equals four and not some number approximating four. (And yes, I am aware of non-Euclidean geometry. I just don't choose to acknowledge it's existence until it demonstrates its practical use by providing the means for faster than light travel.) And science tells me that modern diesels are better for the environment, not to mention the body politic, than even electric cars.

Let me repeat that.

Modern diesels are better for the environment and for the body politic than electric cars.

In America, the federal government and many of the states provide tax breaks or other subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles. How can this be a bad thing? When you consider that more than half of the purchasers of electric vehicles have incomes above $100,000 annually and that a plurality of those have incomes of over $200,000, it's reasonable to ask why it's necessary to provide the most affluent among us with one more gift paid for by the average taxpayer. And when you add the subsidies that feds and local municipalities provide to utility companies for the establishment of charging stations, the most affluent 2% of Americans, whose EVs comprise 1% of the cars on American highways, have the rest of us to thank for their shiny new, quiet rides.

But spending taxpayer money to the benefit of rich folks is OK as long as the environment benefits, right? Wrong. The environment does not benefit, at least it doesn't in the US, the second biggest carbon polluter in the world. 30% of US electricity is still produced by coal-fired plants and the Trumpster has just directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to find ways to keep failing coal-fired plants open. (Luckily, putting a policy decision in Rick Perry's hands is like directing a monkey to type out a Shakespeare play. Eventually, the odds indicate that the monkey will be successful. It will just take time. Lots and lots and lots and lots of time.)

The point is, as long as the US is burning carbon-based fuels, the pollution generated by the power plants necessary to service the electric vehicles pollute more than the vehicles that the EVs replace. And that includes diesels. Yes, I know. Diesels have a reputation of being dirty. But modern diesel technology has fixed most of the problem, especially with improved particulant filters. So yes, new diesels are more environmentally sound than old gas engines, equivalent to modern gas engines, and when you add in the better fuel mileage and longer useful life, are actually superior. Then add in the cost to the environment posed by the necessity to mine the components for rechargeable batteries for the EVs. In sum, my purchase of a diesel-powered car is the most environmentally sound choice that I could make.

Do I need to drive in the major cities of France that have or will ban diesels? No. Will there come a time when the advantages of EVs will outweigh the environmental cost? Probably, particularly in societies committed to conversion to renewable energy production. But today? I'll take diesel, thank you very much.

What's really important? Two plus two equals four...
 

ELECTRICITY IN FRANCE: IT'S DIFFERENT

Moving across the Pond from the United States to France is easier than it sounds. And harder.

Language has to be the most difficult adjustment for those not already fluent. (Speaking English slowly and loudly really doesn't work. Trust me.) You need a basic vocabulary and an ability to speak to the present, the past, and the future. It's true that most of the French in the region have some English given that it's taught in the schools and that Brits have settled here in considerable numbers. But I didn't come here to make France more like America. They already have Kentucky Fried and Subway. I came here to learn. That includes the language.

Once you have the language basics in hand, you can conduct the business of day-to-day life surprisingly easily. I do all of my banking online as I do most of my bill paying. Most every retail establishment, including the post office, accepts credit cards. At restaurants, they can even come to your table with a little wireless device that reads your chip. We do keep a little cash on hand for our fresh bread at the bakery every other day and for Fanny, the local farmer who sets up her produce stand in the church square twice a week. We get our cash from the ATM in the next village over. But otherwise, our commerce is all electronic and works as well as it should.

Which brings us, boys and girls, to our lesson for today. Finally. Electricity. It's different.

If you've traveled at all, you know that electrical service is fundamentally different in Europe. Not only are French outlets configured differently than American outlets, but French outlets deliver 230 volts as opposed to the 120 volt American supply. Thus most American appliances will not work in France, will in fact overload dangerously. Exceptions can include such items as the power supplies for laptops and chargers for cell phones and tablets. Always check to make certain. Find the small print on the device or its power supply. American chargers that will accept the more robust European current will have something like Input: AC 100V - 240V printed on them.  With the use of an adaptor, not a voltage converter that actually steps down the voltage but a device that simply configures the plug so that it will fit into the wall socket, you can use that device in France. And keep in mind, if you are going to travel to other European countries, that French sockets are configured differently from those of the rest of Europe. One size does not fit all.

In addition to a supply of adaptors for my laptop and those of our chargers that would accept French current, we brought a high-end voltage converter to France with us. Somewhat smaller than a bread box and heavy as lead, the converter steps the 230 volt supply down to 110 volts, allowing my wife Cathey to plug in various of her American kitchen appliances that she would otherwise have had to replace. The cost of replacing her KitchenAid alone would have been several times the cost of the converter.

So, we're set to go. We have an account with EDF, the major supplier that serves Quarante. I'd prefer a local co-op like we had in Cazouls, but we'll see. I pay EDF an estimated bill monthly, drawn automatically from our bank account and, in another six months or so they'll read the meter again and we'll settle up. We haven't had problems until recently. Lights, washer, dryer, fans in the summer, all OK. So far, so good.

But...

When we turned on our oil-filled electric radiators in mid December, the main breaker tripped and we lost all power. Here's the deal. Every room in the house has its own individually thermostatically controlled radiator with some fancy programming available. You can turn the radiator on or off manually and you can set the temperature up or down manually. Or you can use one of four 'Eco'
presets: heat for a couple of hours in the morning, heat for a few hours in the evening, heat both morning and evening but not in the middle of the day or at night, or heat right through from morning to evening but not at night. Of course, none of that matters if you can't turn on multiple radiators at once without tripping the main. We can't turn on multiple radiators at once without tripping the main.

I checked our EDF contract. In France, you don't simply pay for the electricity that you use. First, you decide how much electricity that you think that you will draw and pay an annual fee for the right to draw that much. Without going into too much detail, I discovered that our contract was for less than would be recommended for a house of our size with electric heat, hot water, and laundry. So when we turned on the radiators in several rooms at once, the main breaker determined that we were drawing more electricity than we were entitled to draw and shut us down.

After determining through trial and error just how much electricity we could afford to pull and therefore how warm we could be without tripping the main, I went to the EDF office in Narbonne and contracted for a higher level of draw. By appointment two days later, an EDF worker came by the house. He inspected our equipment and decided that the outside feed and the main breaker leading into our relatively new interior breaker panel wouldn't handle the extra power. They would need to be replaced. There would be an extra cost. He took pictures with his phone and promised to get back to us. This was on December 17th. I asked if we might have the better service by Christmas. He gave a very French shrug of the shoulders and noted that the holidays were coming up. Who could tell?

Three weeks later, well past the holidays, having heard not a peep from EDF, I called EDF's English language customer service help line. Even though my French is reasonably sufficient for face-to-face conversations, telephone conversations are difficult. I can't see the other person. I can't use my hands. I don't seem to have time enough to think of what I want to say. So I called the English language number. I talked to a nice, thoroughly unhelpful fellow. Unfortunately, technical services is different from customer service. And this particular guy in customer service didn't particularly want to talk to the folks at technical services. And the folks at technical services don't speak English.  So back I went to the Narbonne office.

There, the young lady was most helpful. Once she understood the depth (shallowness) of my language skills, she promised me that she would speak doucement (slowly). She pulled up our file. She called technical services. She waited patiently on hold. She were connected. She explained our problem. She took notes. I picked up a bit of what she was saying. They knew who we were. They had our file. They would call us at home after lunch. They would speak doucement.

We went home and waited for the call that never came. Instead, Miles called. You remember Miles. Franglo Fix It. He had set up our EDF account for us before we arrived and they still had his phone number attached to the account. Apparently, the call from the Narbonne office had stirred up the ant hill. Check your email, Mies said. And I did. And there was the devis (estimate) from the technical guys at EDF. 514.14 Euros. Print, sign and mail back the contract. Pay by credit card online. So I did and I did.

I'm a little concerned that I wasn't provided with a receipt for my online payment. And we haven't been given a date for the work to be done. So stay tuned. I'm going to post this and update later.

Electricity certainly is difference in France.

EDIT: The guys from EDF have come and gone. No nonsense, hardworking guys who came to do a job and did the job. Installed a new branch feed and remote meter reader outside and a new meter, breaker, and other bits inside. Made a mess and were good about cleaning it up. I'll need to build a cabinet to hide the workings but I was planning on doing that anyway and I'm glad that I didn't get to it before this work had to be done. All of the heaters are up and running. So far, so good. We'll see how long it will take to warm the house up to a comfortable temperature and keep it there. The only problem I can foresee is that the meter won't be read for several months. We may be in for a shock. Maybe one more edit in spring?