Obsolete EDF Tempo boxes, an option which can today only be activated from a Linky meter communicating, are on sale on the Leboncoin platform at astonishing prices.
You may be familiar with the Tempo option, which EDF offers to consumers who have a regulated tariff contract with a power of at least 6kVA. The latter, which allows you to benefit from electricity at a reduced price 343 days a year in exchange for a significant reduction in consumption on the 22 busiest days, is the subject of what one could call a ” opportunistic business” on Leboncoin.
The Tempo option allows you to make real savings
The information was unearthed by our colleagues at Energy Revolution a few days ago. On the classified ads site, there are multiple offers for “Tempo EDF Box”, generally sold for 100 euros. Problem: these small devices, which did exist and which are very real, are for the most part now obsolete.
The Tempo option can be subscribed to with EDF by all customers with a communicating Linky meter. The supplier explains it on its site, “ installation is done remotely and free of charge “. If you still have an electronic blue meter or an electromechanical meter, it is imperative to replace it with a Linky to subscribe and benefit from this option.
For those who have subscribed to Tempo, the year is divided into three parts of 300 blue days (with a very advantageous price during off-peak and peak hours), 43 white days (almost as advantageous as the blue days) and 22 red days “Tempo », where the price per kWh during peak hours is up to 3 times higher. The aim of this option is to allow customers to save money, while involving them in efforts to lower electrical voltage during periods when demand is very high.
A box that EDF has stopped manufacturing and which no longer has any use
The Tempo option is not new. In the 2000s, it even took the form of a physical box, called a “watch signal”. This had small cursors indicating the tariff color for the current day and the next day, using small LEDs and a resounding sound signal on days of electrical tension. At the time, the box was the only free method of finding out the fare color of the day.
It is in fact the gradual installation of Linky meters which precipitated the fall of the boxes. The Energy Mediator explained in 2018 that they had made Sagemcom’s Tempo box inoperable. Although EDF stopped distributing the devices a few years ago (the applications, RTE notifications and alerts by SMS or e-mails having taken over), offers to buy Tempo boxes nevertheless abound on Leboncoin.
In recent days, we have actually been able to discover several announcements of the same type, suggesting in the description that the devices are still functional. But the data may arrive later and, above all, the frequencies are no longer identical. The boxes could operate via the 175 Hz radio signal, while Linky uses a CPL protocol between 35 kHz and 90 kHz. Unless you are really nostalgic for the little machine, you will not get a good deal if you fall for one of these offers put online by energy opportunists.
Source : Energy revolution
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