Electricity and electrical installations when restoring property in France

Electricity

It is not recommended that you do your complete electrical installation yourself unless you are a qualified electrician familiar with French electricity regulations. A few points for consideration arise when you buy an old property. See PLANNING AN ELECTRICAL LAYOUT for suggestions about how to plan your own electrical system. See below for general information.

Old Installations

Clearly if your property has an old electrical installation, the priority is to get a qualified electrician to verify that it is safe. Ancient ceramic sockets, dangling wiring, wooden conduits and plugs that fizzle when you unplug them are all often encountered. You will probably want to have your whole electrical system replaced professionally if you have any or all of these.

I suggest getting these done quite early in the renovation process, since apart from the 'physical danger' aspects, the channelling of walls and adding new wiring can be very disruptive to the entire house. 

 

Restricted Power Supply

In France, every property has a pre-agreed level of supply of electricity. Typically this will be 9, 12, 15 or 18kw, although it can be higher or lower than these ratings. To increase the power supply to your property is usually straightforward - you simply ask EDF to increase it -  but you will need to pay a bit extra on your standing charge for higher power.

Some old houses are still on very low supplies, as low as 3kw. You will know if yours is one of them as soon as you have the kettle and the microwave on at the same time! For most properties 18kw is more than enough unless there are lots of electric heaters on at the same time.

 

Tariffs

See the EDF website for full details of all the tariffs available and choose the one best suited to your needs. In particular look at the TEMPO tariff if you have no electric heating at all, and avoid it if you do. With the Tempo tariff you pay roughly half price for your electricity for ten months of the year, normal price for 40 days and an astronomical ten times normal price for 21 days of the year. This is good news if you can avoid electricity consumption on those 21 days (broadly speaking, the coldest days of winter)but bad news if you rely on electricity for heating.

 

Earth

In France the 'earth' lead does not usually arrive at your house with the electricity, in the way it does in the UK for example. So your property should provide its own earth connection, usually to a rod buried in the garden.

You should locate this (follow the earth cable from the electricity distribution box to find it) and verify that it is clean and protected around the connection to the earth rod, and that the connection is solid. Ideally you will also get it tested by a professional electrician.

It is easy to inspect the wiring inside the property, and decide it is adequate, but not check this earth connection. If the connection to earth is not made correctly then the earth connections in the house - in the sockets etc - won't work properly either, even if they look fine.

 

Wiring System

In the UK, electricital wiring is based on a 'ring' system, with cabling for sockets and lights running in a ring from the distribution box, through the sockets, and back to the distribution box.

This system does not exist in France. In France the sockets and lighting are all on 'spurs' from the distribution box, each of which supports several plug sockets or several light fittings - regulations fix maximums on the numbers that can be supplied by each spur, typically 7 or 8.

Several appliances must have their own separate spur from the distribution box - e.g. washing machines, dishwashers.

 

Thunderbolts and Lightning

In the southern half of France dramatic thunderstorms are common. The electrical regulations take this into account. There is a map of France in the regulations that designates each department in France according to the level of risk, starting from low risk in the north and north-west and progressing through medium and high risk to certain areas of south-east France classified as 'very high risk' or even 'exceptional risk'.

Hence in certain regions, electrical  protection against potential damage caused by lightning is obligatory, in some others it is highly recommended. This protection comes firstly in the form of an additional device in your distribution box specially made for the purpose - a 'parafoudre'. Additional protection is also required in the regions of high risk. Your electrician will know the local requirements

Defining your electrical requirements

See PLANNING AN ELECTRICAL LAYOUT for suggestions about how to plan your own electrical system.