A different kind of Electrical Shock!!!
We have just left a site in Southern Germany. Nothing wrong with the quality of the site, in fact the facilities were supurb. Anyway I digress. Although an ACSI site they only give you a 2 kilowatt allowance each day and there after charge .60 cents per kilowatt. I know this is not unusual in Germany. What surprised me was that when I went to pay for our three night stay this morning I had used 15 kilowatts of electricity. We had deliberately not used the electrics for heating ( yes we did need heating on a couple of nights) or for hot water. Breaking with tradition we used their showers! I could not understand what would use that volume of electricity. We have a Dometic fridge.freezer in the van so I decided to check out the consumption and was rather shocked to find that it can use about 3 kilowatts a day which coupled with other lesser useage would account for the 15 kilowatts. Now feeling bad about mistrusting the poor lady of reception!!!
David
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I presume you mean kW Hours but yes, they charge a lot for electricity. We stayed one night in Germany and were told that we were just over the limit after putting gentle heat on for one hour and heating the water. If we ever go again we will stick to gas.
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Is that strictly within the ACSI rules, David? Although I suppose 9 euros, in the scale of things, is not out of this world.
Yes, freezers in particular use a lot of electricity. I put a meter on ours at home and realised why we used so much while we are away from home, despite virtually everything being turned off.
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It is supposed to be 4kwph as Tammyg says. We used a non ACSI site that charged 0.50 cents pkwh and managed to get away with 1.50 € per day but were very strict. Malcolm would never be able to afford to stay on one.
Maybe you were right to mistrust the ladywarden, David.
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I did, of course refer to the ACSI Book. However if you read it carefully it only mentions 4 kilowatts in relation to a 6 amp supply but this site had 16 amps. I appreciate this probably has no effect on the actual amount used but they clearly use it as an excuse to charge more.
On a slighty different issue I think some sites feel that have to be in the ACSI scheme whether they actually want to be or not. Our bill for three days came to €81.36 when the actual ACSI price was only €57 The extra was Kurtaxe, Environment Tax and the extra electricity. THis seems to be an increasing trend we have noticed in both Germany and Austria and I think its something ACSI will eventually have to address. Perhaps they need to have higher bands but all inclusive? Those of us used to France know that we will pay a modest tourist tax but the Germans and Austrians know how to do it in style!!!
I will take the issue up with ACSI when we get home.
David
At least in the UK you know exactly what you are going to pay.
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We have used many German sites where the supply is 16amps, but have always been allowed the full 4kwh.
60 cents per kwh is not unusual, we found one place that charged 75 cents!
On 4kwh we can just about run the fridge/freezer and the charger, we have a Gaslow system so always use gas for HW, heating and cooking as far as possible when they meter the electricity.
Regarding all the "extra charges", I too think ACSI should give more information about these tourist/eco charges and state whether electricity is metered, the extras do soon mount up.
On a different matter, I note ACSI have a symbol for "toilet paper provided", but not one for "toilet seats provided". I doubt any of us travel without toilet paper, a spare toilet seat is a different matter!!
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The ACSI arrangement is 4kWh's per day on a 6 amp connection; which is more than enough to keep your batteries up. Anything above that can be charged differently. Personally I would not want to see it change; it keeps the price down and prevents gratuitous
wastage.4kwh is 4kwh no matter how many amps you have. So having 16amps is no excuse to cut it to 2kwh as in David's case.
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I do think there has to be some transparency about extra charges and I note in some cases ACSI do mention these as being required to be paid for in addition to the basic price band. It is more than possible that ACSI are unaware of the situation with the
campsite in question.David
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I always send OH to check out the toilets and report on the seating and paper situation!
Of course if you don't like it you can always use your own facilities
.Indeed, we do mainly do so.
Once saw a Dutch caravanner carrying a toilet seat with her on a site in the south of France.
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I can see that having no seats makes the facilities quick and easy to clean and hygienic. Not that it has anything to do with DK’s gripe about electricity charges on ACSI sites.
I can see that having no seats makes the facilities quick and easy to clean and hygienic. Not that it has anything to do with DK’s gripe about electricity charges on ACSI sites. Can’t say the power charges and the way it is done bother me but I
did see one Brit that had misunderstood the system on a site in France. He nearly had a heart attack when he checked out. It was a 10 amp unrestricted but metered supply, and for a week plus it he had been using his AC unit. I think he thought he’d bought
EDF
.Maybe hitting the pocket will make people consider their consumption?! After all electructy has to be paid for some how. Personally I'd rather the heavy users were charged for their use than it being divided up amongst the rest of us .
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On the subject of extra taxes also mentioned in DK's report: it's not just Germany and Austria: on one ACSI site in Holland we were charged an extra 1.40 Euros per person per night for tourist tax, plus an extra 2 Euros per night for environment tax,
making the total an extra 4.80 Euros per night. Quite a lot on top of the ACSI rate IMHO0 -
In the Black Forest area you get charged a tourist tax but are given a guest card that allows free travel on the areas transport network, trains and buses, plus a discount at many shops, cafe's, resturants, etc. It's well worth the little extra.
Travel on public transport may be more useful to a moterhomer than to a caravanner
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As to extra charges using Acsi sites, at Burgos we were charged 2.40 euro per day for our scooter, not something we have been charged before. When I asked why we had been charged but another brit who had a scooter in his garage had not, I was told "I didn't
see that scooter, I can see yours" (its on a trailer) Like David I will take this up with Acsi once I'm home.0 -
The Konus Card in Black Forest covers more than transport it gives discounts at various Tourist attractions too.
We stay at a non ACSI CC site near Salzburg in Austria for €21 per night all taxes included' and unlimited Electricity Free WiFI all over site. Better deal Ryan Camping Card.
DianneT.
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