Have the “end of the world” and the “end of the month” become the same thing? As winter approaches, there are many reasons to pay attention to your energy consumption. In response to European sanctions linked to the Russian offensive, Moscow has almost stopped gas deliveries to its European neighbours. Bad timing for France, when half of its nuclear reactors are shut down due, in particular, to a corrosion problem.
Because of these limited resources and the anxiety of the markets, energy prices have exploded. The government has called on the French to “energy sobriety” to avoid cuts this winter… but also, in the longer term, to deal with the climate emergency. Seven French people, who nevertheless often consider themselves “privileged”told franceinfo about their daily efforts to limit their energy expenditure.
Véronique: “I will only turn on one radiator”
On the phone, Véronique, a recently retired nurse, has a trembling voice. The day before, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that French households should face, at the beginning of 2023, a 15% increase in the regulated price of gas and electricity. That is, on average, 25 euros per additional month for households that heat with gas and 20 euros for those that heat with electricity. “I expected worse, thank you ‘tariff shield’blows this resident of Limoges (Haute-Vienne), whose pension amounts to 1,420 euros monthly. It means giving up on going to the movies, but I can absorb it.”
But what really worries Véronique is the end of the regulated gas tariff, scheduled for June 30, 2023. “I always refused to leave the regulated tariff, because I felt safer there. What am I going to do? I don’t know where to turn”laments the sexagenarian, who refuses the financial assistance offered by her two children by “pride”.
“I am not close to 20 euros per month, but 60 euros, yes.”
Anticipating the rise in prices, Véronique has therefore decided to review her budget from top to bottom: she is keeping her car for the time being, which she uses “to visit [ses] old parents and [sa] aunt” settled in the region, but also a budget of several hundred euros a year to join his children and grandchildren by train or plane, in Salon-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Vancouver (Canada). In terms of deprivation, the 64-year-old retiree has converted to food “discount” and has drastically reduced her energy consumption: “I turn off the box every night, I wash with a washcloth so that I only take a shower once a week, and this winter I will only turn on one radiator.”
Hedwige: “My green electricity supplier is encouraging me to leave”
EDF, TotalEnergies, Mint Energie… Since 2018, Hedwige, 60, tenant of a house in Tours (Indre-et-Loire), has changed gas or electricity supplier four times. An economic question, for this professor of industrial design in high school who tracks down good deals. But also an ecological concern: “When you have five children, you worry about the world you’re going to leave them!” she advances to justify her choice to subscribe to a renewable electricity contract, in 2020.
But at the beginning of August, she learns that her “electricity bill will double”. Its supplier, Mint Energie, warns it that the tariffs will be “very high” from October 1, increasing his monthly payment from 43 euros … to 113 euros. The latter even encourages her to return to the regulated EDF tariff, covered by the “tariff shield”, ensuring that she would thus save “662 euros per year”.
/2022/09/16/phpnUapf7.png)
“I felt like I was being cheated.she sighs. My supplier advocated green electricity and consumer protection, but in the end, he encouraged me to leave.” After making inquiries, the teacher finally joined TotalEnergies, for a monthly gas and electricity payment of 210 euros, blocked for one year, the equivalent of what she would have paid at the regulated rate. , she assures. “It’s heartbreaking because I condemn what Total is doing to the planet, but I’m too afraid that if alternative suppliers disappear, EDF will take advantage of the regained monopoly to increase prices even more! And there, we don’t will have more alternatives.”
Aurélien: “Government aid is only a drop of water”
In 2012, Aurélien, a territorial civil servant, and his wife, a freelance photographer, acquired an old building in Panossas (Isère), classified G on the energy performance diagnosis, which makes it a “thermal sieve”. The thirties, who between them earn 2,200 euros net per month, do not have the funds to renovate everything. They therefore installed double glazing and replaced the old stove with boiler, which heated the house with coal, with a wood pellet boiler. An investment “ecological and economical”encouraged by the State: the couple receives aid from the National Housing Agency of 6,000 euros, or half the price of their new boiler.
But ten years later, Aurélien is disillusioned. In front of the increase in demand, but also to the explosion in the cost of raw materials, energy and fuels linked to the war in Ukraine, the price of a tonne of pellets jumped by 75% between 2021 and 2022, going from 309 euros to 540 euros. Result: the couple preferred to wait for the price to come down before going to checkout. “We have a little left of the four tonnes ordered last yearsays Aurélien. But we can’t last all winter. We will heat less than the recommended 19°C, that’s for sure!” Reacted against the government, which at first only supported those heating with gas and electricity via the “tariff shield”, the 30-year-old believes that the aid finally promised by Elisabeth Borne for fuel oil and wood is not “just a drop of water compared to the tidal wave of increases”.
Alexandre: “I first make efforts to preserve the environment”
Alexandre did not skimp on the work. In his house in Val-d’Oise, where he has lived for four years with his wife, a music teacher, and his 7-year-old daughter, he re-insulated his walls, installed a wood stove in 2018, insulated the roof in 2021 and installed photovoltaic panels in 2022 – to “compensate for” the energy used by the electric vehicle purchased the same year. An investment of more than 20,000 euros, despite state aid, that the couple in their forties was able to afford thanks to the compensation received by Alexandre as part of a voluntary departure plan. This former heat engine specialist left the automotive world and now provides technical support for an industrial group.
If the work undertaken has made it possible to halve the family’s electricity consumption and to eliminate gas consumption almost entirely, the benefits on the wallet are not yet felt. “The efforts we have made require investing in equipment, we will not be winners for ten or fifteen years”, calculates Alexander. A secondary gain, for the couple who earns 4,300 euros net per month. “I find it a shame to make efforts to preserve your wallet first, and not the environment.”
Sylvie: “I wondered what I could do at my level”
Sylvie has civic duty pegged to the body. This 59-year-old army officer, who lives in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), has changed her consumption habits because of “Ukrainian news”. “I knew we were going to run out of gas, so I wondered what I could do at my level”she explains.
“Some companies cannot live without gas, but I can reduce my consumption so that there is no ‘black out’ this winter.”
Last February, the 50-year-old therefore completely stopped heating her apartment at night during cold weather, preferring to close her shutters at dusk to prevent heat loss. She also set her mixers to the cold water position, to prevent water from being heated unnecessarily, reduced the time of her shower and spaced out her shampoos. “It’s a bit like the story of the hummingbird trying to put out the fire”, she admits, detailing her small daily gestures. Put together, his new habits have nevertheless enabled him to reduce his gas consumption by 30% between January and June 2022, compared to the same period the previous year.
Nathalie: “I’m crossing my fingers that the winter will be mild”
Natalie is “angry”. This resident of Brenouille (Oise) had to halve her domestic fuel order compared to last year. In question: the doubling of prices in one year. “I tried to make a bulk order with my neighbors to reduce the cost, but you had to buy at least 1,000 liters per household, which neither I nor them could afford”, laments this mother of two young adults who are studying in Paris. So, once the cold returns, “I will hardly be warming myself, except when my children come home. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll have a mild winter!”
Nathalie thought about changing the heating mode, but given her comfortable income (3,500 euros net per month), “I have almost no state aid”. However, between her mortgage (1,200 euros monthly), that of her car (540 euros) and her children’s rent (more than 1,000 euros), she cannot save enough for such an investment.
“Fuel oil may have increased considerably and be very polluting, but it remains the cheapest energy for me.”
Under these conditions, it is difficult for her to hear the government’s call for sobriety: “We have all seen the images of the ministers’ cars running at full speed in the courtyard of the Elysée to make the air conditioning work. As for the aid announced, it is still that, but it is a bandage on a leg of I’m privileged, but people on the minimum wage can’t get by anymore.”
Philippe: “We played on the prices by changing the contract”
Worried about rising energy prices, Philip, young retired computer scientist, started this summer benchmarking of electricity and gas offers via the online comparator of the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir. “As we changed the boiler in 2012 for a condensing gas boiler, we can no longer benefit from state aid to modify our heating mode. So we played on the prices by changing the contract”he justifies.
On the electricity side, this resident of Tourcoing (North) swapped his offer at the regulated tariff at EDF for the Tempo tariff, from the same supplier. This option allows it to benefit from a reduced price per kWh 300 days a year, from a tariff identical to the regulated tariff for 43 days, but forces it to a high tariff 22 days a year, when the network is most used. The sexagenarian and his wife thus hope “earning almost 15%” on their annual bill “arranging” : on high price days, “we will not run the washing machine or the dishwasher, and we will reheat dishes that we have prepared in advance”details the retiree.
On the gas side, the couple opted for the EDF Avantage Gaz Durable offer, which is theirs “50% more expensive than the regulated tariff, but whose price is blocked for four years”. A bet he hopes to win, while the regulated price must increase by 15% at the start of 2023, before disappearing on June 30.