you are paying for the connection to the supply, not the electric itself.
I had a site wanting £5pn for electric this summer... I usually use C/S and they are usually £2-3p/n extra.
There is no law against charging for an electric hook-up. It is difficult for site owners to charge for amount of electric used without setting up expensive metering. What is spoiling it for everyone is the wasteful use of electricity such as fan heaters in awnings etc. It puts the price up for everyone eventually. There is an article in one of the club magazines about it.
Actually there is a law which states that sites cannot charge you more for electric than they pay for it. BUT, sites can charge for the connection point, or for an inclusive pitch where the cost is hidden. At the end of the day we need to make our own choices, if you think sites are ripping you off then dont stay there, or stay, and dont use electric, afterall, our vans are capable of running without it.
We were on a CL site a couple of weeks ago and next door had a 4kw fire on in the awning (the type from pound stretcher) with the flap/door open to regulate the heat
This is why sites are charging extra with a lot of sites changing the MCB,s to 10 amp rather than 16
Another one we know has fitted meters and the minimum card price is a fiver this was brought about by having workers caravans on site and them using baby belling type cookers and electric heaters etc..
some sites will charge using a meter (these are actaully very cheap to install now if they bollard has the appropriate connection space)...we have used metered and used only £1.60's worth over 3 days in the summer.
Of course you have to bare in mind that to get the leccy to your pitch is actually quite costly to install. I had a long chat with a new site owner only last week and his only challenge was installing the points as each one cost several hundred pounds to install...so he could only afford to do a couple at a time as and when funding was affordable...and dont forget the cabling alone is easily in to the thousands if you start considering the distances involved on some sites.
THey have to recoup this cost somehow. plus then there is the testing and maintenance (although this was ignored on another site we stayed at a few weeks back with their unusual 5amp hookup and last seen by an electrician in 1985 i reckon)
Its up to you....personally if i dont like the site's charging structure then i just find another site.
I'm inclined to think that sites will only resort to charging extra for it through need (i.e what it costs them) rather than as a route to ripping people off.
It's been said before, the extra for the hookup is because of the additional costs involved, each year the connections will need testing, and the initial cost of installing the points needs to be recovered.
The ROI (return on investment) on installing EHU points is something like 5 to 8 years.
This is one subject, from which one can identify from where the laughingly called "Clubs" stand on this matter.
Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravan Club circumvent the present regulation re the forward selling of electricity by charging a 'Service' fee for using a pitch with electric hook up. Neither 'Club' is in any hurry to install meters on their pitches. I wonder why?
The reason is of course that they both make (as do every other owner of sites) from the charging of 'fees' for the use of the connection.
The last time I visited a metered site I paid less than a £ a day for my usage. With a metered site there would be no 4Kw fires in the awnings because everyone would have to pay their fair share.
Keithandwend above makes a point when he(she) states that there is a ROI period of between 5-8 yrs. Looking at it through an accountant's eyes, this may be true but, just as your house price would rise immediately if one was to install 'extras'(think Conservatory, landscaped gardens.etc) so would the value of the campsite so although in hard cash terms it may be correct to say there would be a period of recouping the money,it doesn't actually work out that way.
All sites require to have their electricity supply checked annually. If it were to be made law (via a regulation) that in a certain period say the next 5-8 yrs, all sites reselling electricity had to have their pitches metered we would then see the mindset of the two 'Clubs' who are for me no more 'Clubs' than vast International Travel Organisations who regard their 'members' as a committed pool of potential customers.
Rant over. I'm off to Trago
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
Regarding the cost of the actual electric, its now round about 15p/Kwh IF you could maintain the full 3.5Kw load 24/7 you would be able to use approx £13 of electric.
However, this is very unlikely, even in deep winter we have only averaged just over 1Kwh over 24Hrs, which is £3.60, that's using only the caravan heater, water heater, fridge, charger, lighting...
No awning heating for us...
That said, most of our camping is done over the summer (due to work more than anything) so we probably use less than £1 a day running the water heater and fridge.
I generally don't have a problem with EHU charges, if I do, I don't use them, a few times over summer I've used non-ehu as the small cost of gas for the fridge/water when needed was a lot less than I would have paid on a hook up.
The most Im prepared to pay during the summer is £3
CCC sites mostly give you the option of ehu or not and if you take it you pay a fee of £3.85 a night. Accoording to my back of a matchbox maths this would mean that you can average just over 1kW per hour without paying less for the fixed fee than you would if you paid 0.15 per unit. I know very well that I use more than 24 units during the winter months with heating, hot water, cooking etc. In the summer I manage quite happily on PV panels and avoid the busy sites. At least the CCC give you the choice but CC do not.
------------- 'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
Whilst the CCC give an option of 'Serviced' pitch or not, try having a Serviced pitch when the unserviced pitches are all used up without paying for the EHU. They have no means of covering up the post a la Parking Meters to make the EHU unusable. As far as I'm concerned this shows their reluctance towards provided what their customers? sorry members want in any given circumstance.
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
While people are paying the prices they are setting why would they not charge.
And its like everthing if someone else can why can we not? Same with how they can charge 1/3 more for a bank holiday as its suply and demand.
If every one stopped using the more pricey sites they would have to start wondering why.
Yes they have to cover there set up cost, staff, maintenance and there service charges for waste disposal and so on.
------------- She may be old, she may be rough around the edges but she is our home from home and we love it.
Quote: Originally posted by emmitdb on 28/8/2013
Greetings,
This is one subject, from which one can identify from where the laughingly called "Clubs" stand on this matter.
Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravan Club circumvent the present regulation re the forward selling of electricity by charging a 'Service' fee for using a pitch with electric hook up. Neither 'Club' is in any hurry to install meters on their pitches. I wonder why?
The reason is of course that they both make (as do every other owner of sites) from the charging of 'fees' for the use of the connection.
The last time I visited a metered site I paid less than a £ a day for my usage. With a metered site there would be no 4Kw fires in the awnings because everyone would have to pay their fair share.
Keithandwend above makes a point when he(she) states that there is a ROI period of between 5-8 yrs. Looking at it through an accountant's eyes, this may be true but, just as your house price would rise immediately if one was to install 'extras'(think Conservatory, landscaped gardens.etc) so would the value of the campsite so although in hard cash terms it may be correct to say there would be a period of recouping the money,it doesn't actually work out that way.
All sites require to have their electricity supply checked annually. If it were to be made law (via a regulation) that in a certain period say the next 5-8 yrs, all sites reselling electricity had to have their pitches metered we would then see the mindset of the two 'Clubs' who are for me no more 'Clubs' than vast International Travel Organisations who regard their 'members' as a committed pool of potential customers.
Rant over. I'm off to Trago
With respect the CC make no charge for electricity on any of heir sites, there is no facility within the fee structure for them to do so. This has been the case since the regulations came into force. They took this route because virtually 100% of there pitches have EHU and to do otherwise would have broken the law. This conflicts with the CCC which does not have the same availability of EHU and so they charge for a serviced pitch as for them there was no other way to revoup the cost of the electric supply.
------------- Bill
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Topic: Electricity
