A POPULAR way of paying for your electricity in France is via the Option Tempo tariff systems.
Run by Electricité de France it works by offering varying prices per kWh based upon the actual weather on particular days and according to hours of use.
The year is split up into 300 blue days when the price is advantageous; every Sunday is a blue day.
Then there are 43 white days when the price is increased, this occasionally occurs on a Saturday but very rarely.
And then the most expensive days are termed red days and there are 22 of these in a year.
These are kept for between November 1 and March 31 and occur between Monday and Friday, never at a weekend or on public holidays.
The system is designed to encourage people to think about when they use dishwashers, dryers and other electrical equipment.
Each day it is decided what colour the following day is to be and this is either sent to the control box on the wall in your house, which will have a light on it telling you.
Or for systems that are older the information is available over the telephone or via the internet.
On the Electricité de France website there is an extensive section that outline the different prices as well as providing details of the current rates as well as past costs.
To visit the site, please click here.