I know the topic gets raised from time to time, but it's been a while, and personally used my first metered EHU site, and it spurred curiosity as to how other site metered/paid for EHU systems work, perhaps especially the more automated ones! There do seem to be a number of different ways EHU gets metered/charged for.
The site I was on had 10 units/night 'bundled' into the pitch fee, extra usage charged at £0.26/unit. The EHU had a meter on it, which was read on my arrival by site owner, then read again on departure, and any accumulated usage excess to be paid for by cash/card direct to the owner before departure. It wasn't read/charged per day as such.
As it turned out I hadn't exceeded my accumulated bundled usage, so no fee to pay. But I know how much power I use from an onboard power meter I'd fitted, and that told me some days I'd exceeded the 10 units/night, whilst other days I hadn't used as much power, this averaged out that over the 10 day stay, the overall reading was just under the accumulated 10x10 figure.
Now, do other 'bundled unit' systems charge for the days in excess of bundled units, and ignore days under, or do they all take an arrival and departure reading and charge only for an accumulated over use?
I assume those sites that don't 'bundle' any units simply charge for ALL power used, and it doesn't matter if charged daily or accumulated usage over the entire stay.
Idle curiosity really at the novelty of having EHU metered. At a pitch fee of only £20/night with 10 units of power bundled in, even if I'd paid for the days I'd exceeded the bundle, it'd have cost me a whopping £1.23 by my reckoning over the 10 days, so REALLY not complaining.
I'm not a total skinflint, but the metering did make me perhaps more mindful of my usage, but that said, never been one to be totally cavalier about 'free' electric, and the onboard power meter is invaluable for keeping a personal tally, to that end, been using it for past couple of seasons to get a 'feel' for my normal usage, and this trip didn't really vary much from that.
I certainly didn't skimp on heating, daytimes were warm enough, but it did drop to 8/9 degrees overnight a few times and the heating kicked in on the thermostat, and being a CL site with no facilities, I did have to heat water for showers and washing up etc. I did make a point of turning off heating and water heating when not required. I also used the electric hob on the cooker, the Microwave, an electric toaster a few times, and a small Air Fryer, so not being paranoid about avoiding EHU usage.
The EHU charge at a reasonable £0.26/unit didn't inspire me to use gas instead of electricity because that works out at £0.30/unit with the gas cylinder I use, so not making any economic sense to do so.
I've little doubt that most sites will go metered EHU in due course, so just trying to get a feel for what's in store, and/or looking for the break even point of using gas more.
Before anyone suggests it, I'm NOT going down the LPG DIY refillable (Gaslow etc.) gas cylinder route, I simply don't, nor ever likely to, use enough gas to justify the significant cylinder outlay cost, there would NEVER be a payback/breakeven point in my remaining caravanning lifetime! Think I've only used 3 exchange Calor/Flogas cylinders (including the current half full one!) in 9 years of caravanning and that includes nicking the gas cylinder a couple of times to do a week of off-grid camping in a tent to power the gas fridge and two burner stove!
Monty
There is a view, certainly with motorhomes, that with a switch to lithium batteries and solar panels the need for EHU will diminish. Heating is the problem as that generally pulls too much power but agian with motorhomes the likihood that motorhomes will probably gradually swap over to diesel heaters as they have the fuel on tap. More of a problen for caravans as diesel is not really an alternative. ( Check out the Motorhome Matt podcast on Youtube) I thnk the CMC use Meter Macs to pay for their metering although not all sites use it as yet. It's not a bad system as its all done online and you add credit with any balance being refunded or used at the next site. Meter Macs is also used by some commercial sites which is handy.
Up here, it’s still pretty rare. No CAMC sites meter EHU (yet?). The one we have experience of is a good independent site at Braemar. Low pitch fee (compared to CAMC nearby), you put money for EHU onto a card that you load into the stanchion to turn it on. When you leave, you turn it off, drop the card back into the office & your credit card gets refunded with what you didn’t use. Electricity at current rate, displayed in the office window. Helpful email suggests ways to minimise electricity use, like not leaving the water heater on all the time. We were surprised at how little we used.
Interesting to read David’s predictions. We don’t anticipate buying a new MH again so we’ll continue with gas & electricity (diesel heating seems quite common in campervans, for off grid camping). Our MH has an electric hob, so we very rarely use gas (underslung tank, we go to Morrisons for auto-gas but can’t remember when we did that last).
Heading off for a week of autumn colour soon, filling with diesel at over £2 is going to be an ouch.
I do think, the commercial viability of equipping campsites with metered EHU may have past to some extent, the heady days of a unit of electricity costing £1 or thereabouts, have gone away at least for now, a unit costing under £0.30 is far less grounds for justifying a significant investment in new metered EHU outlets, and for some sites, the ongoing cost to 3rd parties of the automated management systems!
CAMC never seem to be shy of taking cash off members, but after their trials on two sites with metered EHU, and establishing a functional system, then promising a rollout across most of their sites over time, that plan seems to have gone VERY quite, AFAIK they have not expanded on the two trial sites from a couple of years back! What they do seem to be offering now is reduced cost Non-EHU pitches where you can opt out of having a connection to the EHU, even if it's physically available for the pitch!
I never believed the hype from some sites that they lost money on bundled EHU, or the additional say £5/£8 per night block fee didn't cover costs in summer months. Some, the likes of whom heat awnings and/or charge EVs may have pushed close, but for the vast majority of campers, it's near impossible to use so much power in a caravan or camper. Metering my own electricity on a particularly cold spell, with heating going all day, water heated for showers etc., cooking on electric hob and M/W, I still only used around £5 worth of electricity when the unit price was circa £0.26! On much warmer days with probably no heating on, I'd use only a third of that! I reckon most sites made money from unused power on EHU usage with bundled or block charging, and the restriction of only legally being able to charge at cost for metered connections probably actually reduced their per pitch income! - which may account for the seeming slow down in introducing metered EHU!
I have only stayed at one metered EHU site in July 2022 and could not remember how much I paid.
I would pay what I need to pay EHU while camping in my current van as I opted for electric over LPG for cooking. Heating and hot water is diesel, however, heating can also be electric.
For my next van, it is likely to be all electric, and am unlikely to have an onboard water tank for showers as I don't go off-grid for personal safety reasons.
DK
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Only consider ehu if our lifepo4 system is running low due to limited drive charging. The aircon we're getting fitted is our biggest vulnerability if static for more than a day.
When we first started caravanning back in the 1970s, very few sites had electricity at all, and those few who did were always metered. I never used it as my caravan simply wasn't fitted for it, but I heard that the rates were ridiculous. Then the law changed so that sites could only charge what they paid for electricity, and I believe that is what led to sites charging for an "electric pitch" an extra £3 a night or sometimes much more. We don't use that much at home on average, and that includes our washing machine and tumble drier!
I've been on a few sites with metered electricity since our return to caravanning in 2013, and have always paid way below £3 a night for it. On some sites it has only been pennies. I will only go on a site with unmetered electricity if the site fees are very, very low. I then go by the overall price. As there seem to be many more sites with unmetered than metered electricity, I now only use gas for cooking. Everything else is electric. Despite that, I still don't use anything like £3 a night on a metered site.
Quote: Originally posted by RogerL on 08/10/2026
We've used 3 sites with metered electric, all CLs with 10 kwh / night included in pitch fee and each one was just under that threshold.
I think we'll see a gradual move with all sites introducing meters - this will allow EV owners to recharge on site, but at slow charge rates.
Do you really think they will? With only being allowed to charge what they pay, I would think they would lose money compared to charging a fixed fee. I would have thought they would have great difficulty covering the cost of installing meters.
Site owners are able to adjust the basic pitch fee - this would cover any perceived loss on the meter installation costs - they could still have a differential between electric pitches and non-electric pitches even if the electric pitches have metered charges on top.
As long as all the charges are visible up front, I have no issue with sites breaking out various elements - it's the total cost that matters, not the individual element.
Quote: Originally posted by RogerL on 09/10/2026
Site owners are able to adjust the basic pitch fee - this would cover any perceived loss on the meter installation costs - they could still have a differential between electric pitches and non-electric pitches even if the electric pitches have metered charges on top.
As long as all the charges are visible up front, I have no issue with sites breaking out various elements - it's the total cost that matters, not the individual element.
I agree, I tend to go by the total cost too, but a site charging extra for an electric pitch and then having metered electricity on top would put me off unless the total cost was really cheap. They would need to be substantially cheaper overall than any similar nearby sites before I would consider them.
I quite like the way some Aires are supplying electric, its included in pitch price if one is charged at all and limited to 3 amp, talking to one warden on a municipal site he pointed out that 3 amp was enough for campers 12v chargers to keep the vehicles 12v systems running while stopping the miss use of heaters or air conditioners depending on time of year
i stayed on a cl site a few years ago in Norfolk, that had metered hook-up, it was £25 per night with 10kwh included in the 25 quid. The meter was in the electric hook-up point,and usage was displayed as pounds and pence, not in kwh.If you exceeded the 10kwh, you put the extra in an envelope, along with your pitch fee , and posted it in a box on site, we never saw the owner all week, and we did not exceed the 10kwh, a rather informal way of charging, but it all seemed to work ok, but a few years ago, cash was far more common , than it is now
Presently on a site and read meter. Using£2.30 a day with water, heating and fridge all on electric, Plus TV and lights during the evening. Plus charging 2. Mobility scooters every evening. Less than some sites we have used,so no complaints.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Metered EHU charging
via mobile 04/10/2026 at 10:28am
