I've had a search through the forums but couldn't find much on this. I'm amazed at the prices we seem to be charged for electricity supplies on sites. Some site rates include the electric most don't and may charge up to £6.00 per night. I find this fee extreme, doesn't anyone else ?
According to Ofgem "From 1st January 2003 the maximum price at which gas or electricity may be resold is the same price as that paid by the person who is reselling it ("the reseller"), including any standing charges"
Well £6.00 pn equates to over £2000 pa something like 5 times my annual home electric bill. Now I know there are costs associated with providing the hook up hardware and annual testing but come on isn't this just taking the punters to the cleaners ?
I would love to hear how this is justified in actual figures.
We normally stay on CL's so the leccy price is included, but on the odd occasion when we stay on commercial sites the electricity has been charged via a "top-up" system which usually seems reasonable enough. I always check the pitch first, the last occupier sometimes over-estimates and you'll find credit on the meter already. Took the kids to Scarbrough a month or so back, used credits remaining from the last guest and still had a couple of quid on there when I left.
Yes I think some sites overcharge for electric as well. The sooner they are all metered supplies, the better, I think.
I know that technically, they are not allowed to overcharge, but the cost is averaged out over the year. Some use a lot, some use less (like me), but we are all lumped in together in the calculations to work it out. Which means, in effect, that I'm paying someone else's bill as well as my own.
Yes rip off we were just charged 4 quid one one site, if you add that onto every night it's a lot.
If it wasn't for her pesky hair straightners we could be totally off grid, I'm in the process of sorting it though. We've got refillable gaslow bottles for the heating and an inverter coming from china for the GHDs
This has been discussed many times. Most sites charge a flat fee and it isn't for the electricity used, but to cover the cost of installation, maintenance and actually supplying the electric to the pitch.
If you think a site is charging too much, don't go there.
New caravans now days have electric heating, electric cooker rings, external blown air vents to heat the awning plus fan heaters.
and all kinds of electrical equipment, ok £5 per night could sound expensive but talking to a site owner who is struggling to keep his electric supply from tripping out because of the above tells me he has been quoted £42000 to upgrade his supply.
If the cost was not shown on a nightly usage it would be on your normal daily tariff anyway.
So would you rather have, £25 per night inclusive
or would you rather it be £20 + £5 for for electric
If you think its to expensive then you dont have to have it.
We went to a super CL a couple of years ago where the owner had paid £65K to get the electric supply for the CL as far as his front gate. Probably cost another £25K to get it to the CL area itself and complete the installation.
Stopping on the site was worth every penny they charged, and even then the payback will probably be measured in decades rather than years.
As has been said many times by others, if you don`t think it`s value for money, then don`t use it. Lots of others will.
Well it is something I have never really thought about before, we just pay for the electric and use it as much as we can.
But having had a look at the campsite Tariff for were we were in the South of France back in July, it was interesting to see that electric in the peak months was £4.40 per night, but for the off season months it was just £1.20 per night.
Now the odd thing with that is you would imagine to use far more electric in the colder months.
So really the electric should be cheaper in the peak months, or should be priced the same all year.
So I guess it is all down to supply and demand, due to less campers using the campsite out of season.
£6 quid a night you have to be joking,some one mentioned that caravans have a lot of things in them these days which is true but,ive still to come across a site that would allow you to switch them all on without tripping the lecky...its a con..
Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 02/9/2014
Well it is something I have never really thought about before, we just pay for the electric and use it as much as we can.
But having had a look at the campsite Tariff for were we were in the South of France back in July, it was interesting to see that electric in the peak months was £4.40 per night, but for the off season months it was just £1.20 per night.
Now the odd thing with that is you would imagine to use far more electric in the colder months.
So really the electric should be cheaper in the peak months, or should be priced the same all year.
So I guess it is all down to supply and demand, due to less campers using the campsite out of season.
I've seen lots of people using air conditioners in the south of France, so that may be the reason for high charges - they certainly eat the electricity
You can pay 20k for van and then complain about the lecci charge? Bet it's still cheaper than using gas on a non electric site. But the price of electric hook up, compare it to your van and car depreciation and then you'll not feel so bad, and you've contributed to keeping a site open AND kept some guys employed.
Not all bad is it?
------------- Peripheral people don`t have as much excitement but they sure live longer
we went to wolds view in lincolshire 2 weeks ago where they use a card system we stayed 3 nights and paid £5 for a card when we handed it in after our stay we had only used £3.30 worth of electric
"You can pay 20k for van and then complain about the lecci charge? Bet it's still cheaper than using gas on a non electric site. But the price of electric hook up, compare it to your van and car depreciation and then you'll not feel so bad, and you've contributed to keeping a site open AND kept some guys employed.
At £6 per night if the pitch is occupied for app 6 months of the year the site owner would receive £1092 in charges,mutiply that by the no of pitches and all for doing nothing!
saxo1
If people were considerate this would not happen,but you get some idiots running a fan heater in the awning all day.I think it should be metered so you pay for what you use.Otherwise we are paying to heat someones awning.We use next to nowt.but still pay the premium.excessive users should be charged individually and not tar us all with the same brush
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Topic: Electricity hook up charges
excessive users should be charged individually and not tar us all with the same brush
