Earth Day 2025
Today is Earth Day! 🌍️
This year's theme is - Our power, our planet, inviting everyone around the globe to unite behind renewable energy, and to triple the global generation of clean electricity by 2030. We are looking at many ways to reduce our electricity usage across our site network and have installed Solar PV across 19 of our sites so far to support our usage.
As some of you may know, we have been trialling metering on two sites (Steamer Quay and Wyatts Covert) and alongside this we are now offering you the option to go non electric on any pitch at all other club campsites using our NON ELECTRIC SAVER OFFER. This gives you more flexibility and choice at a lower price, whilst allowing you to embrace being self sufficient.
Find out more about this offer: Non Electric Saver Offer
Let us know if you are going to try going non electric this summer and share your ideas for being self sufficient when out and about on our club campsites. 🌳
Comments
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Not using electricity is quite feasible but increases the use of gas. Can one of the number crunchers out there work out for us what the difference is in terms of damage to the planet between gas usage and electricity usage in a caravn.
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Just had a look at this offer, its obvious it is not going to work because having just a couple of pitches available on each site restricts pitch choice. That might be acceptable for a one night stop over but not for longer stays. Why do I get the feeling the Club is going cold on metering? The trials seem to be going on for ever and the refurbishment of sites does not appear to including metering e.g. Sandringham or has it including preparatory work just incase?
peedee
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Yes you have may have misunderstood. This was on offer over Easter in late April at the site I was at which must have been a trial site for it and it was for any pitch on the site rather than just on two dedicated pitches, although I didn't see any pitch using it at all, and I looked very hard I assure you, as it says on the offer page which I thought was clear enough:
We're now offering a non-electric pitch option on any pitch at our UK Club campsites
But here it is again here:
I think your confusion may be due to this in the FAQs:
This will be available at all UK Club campsites by May 2025, with the exception of any campsite that is metered. To start, we will only provide 2 lock-out devices (meaning we can offer this for 2 pitches) per campsite, but if there is demand we will look to quickly increase this
So if, and I really think that's a big if, there is demand more devices will be made available. I don't think it's the club going cold but rather the demand may be 'cold'.
I think this offer should be decided by those using club sites in this way rather than by people who dearly love metering but don't use club sites that much if at all. Far fairer I think? Let the market decide its own level and probably a better way of gauging demand over all sites rather than some trial sites
Surely if there is a demand then it will grow? If not, well there are other campsites that offer metering for those that prefer metering and leave club sites to those that do not? I think that is fair.
As the clubs states:
This is a low-cost service to assess demand from members to go non-electric. We started the trial on a small scale to assess the success, and are now rolling it out to all UK Club campsites
Post edit: the site I was on must have been a trial as the discount was £1.90, whereas May was £3.50.
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Thanks, yes indeed the confusion arose from the FAQ, it reads like something they keep in the office and can fit to any pitch? For the C&mC to roll this out across the network the trial must have been a success. Next time I use a Club site, I will try it but, I hope it does not mean the roll out of metered electricity will now not happen.
peedee
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@peedee I would think that if the trial was a success then more than two lockout units per site would be provided?
Or did the trial show that the take up was quite low and only two per site would be needed? Of the club seeing the low demand thought this would be a good way to end the matter once and for all? Which it will of course one way or another. Or a great demand? All speculation of course but at least it's now to up to actual club users who perhaps use them a lot and not just those that use club very sparingly but prefer metering - but then don't use many sites than have them I have to say.
Perosnally I prefer this way rather than metering if it comes to that.
Although I wonder why these lockout devices are necessary? I thought trust and perhaps severe consequences if someone abuses that trust? Wardens will have to go an put the devices on in any case, easier to check?
Also @peedee what roll out of metered electricity? Have I missed something? There's two sites on a trial but no results have been made nor has any decision been made has it?
Apologies if I have missed this but I thought in an interview with the DG (posted some time ago on here) that any roll out of metered electricity would only happen when the payment was a 'simple as swiping a card'? It will be sometime yet I would think.
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I don’t think there will be a large take up of non EHU pitches, however they are administered, purely and simply because on Club Sites the discount isn’t good enough to attract tourers like us. The incentive to be more eco friendly simply isn’t there, certainly via the pricing mechanism, and there are not a lot of eco conscience’s around on Club Sites in the main anyway. Not easy for the Club, the overheads for providing a pitch are not cheap, so the starting price is not a good base anyway, and most folks will simply think that if all you get off is £2-3-4, off a nearly £50 a night pitch, then why bother🤷♀️We use pitches that give you a 25% discount on pitch price if you don’t hook up, and they still offer very good loos, showers, washing up areas, but without the staffing and admin overheads. Those looking to tour economically and ecologically personally, simply don’t use Club Sites, but it is good that some ecological aspects of Club Sites are there.
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I tend to agree with you @Takethedogalong, the discount isn't that attractive. What is getting more attractive is the alternatives to Club sites. Energy prices are not going to get any cheaper especially now Israel has attacked Iran and it will continue to be a driving force for increased pitch prices. Those sites with electricity meters will be much less exposed to the volatility of the market and will be in a much better position to offer customers a fairer deal and keep the bottom line under control. I know one site, an early adopter of metering , who has kept its pitch prices constant for the last three years, its still £23p.n. for two adults on a hard standing pitch! You can wait forever for tech improvements. What is chosen for today will be out of date tomorrow, To me, it has always made sense to roll out metering as quickly as possible.
peedee
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I don’t think we are sure at the moment that we will re join CAMC once we can get back out touring to be honest. We originally joined with a tiny camper because we needed loos and showers (1980’s), had a break when we went to a tent, as CAMC at the time (late 1980’s) wasn’t tent welcoming, so we used nice private camp sites. We rejoined with our first van, and discovered CLs, which were cheap, and as we had a proper bathroom gave us all we needed. But the simple, cheap CL’s fast disappeared as caravans got more sophisticated, energy hungry and lots of owners didn’t want much in the way of effort to enjoy their holiday. So now it’s all hard standings, serviced pitches, and huge facility blocks. Which suits the majority of today’s touring owners, but comes at prices we don’t want to pay for a simple camping holiday. We joined C&CC three years ago, and quickly discovered that lots of CS sites give us more options, with or without EHU but with a much larger discount percentage, and because they are tent camper friendly, more offer loos and showers in that non EHU price. We don’t take a TV, love being outdoors and can recharge what we need to other ways, as well as barely using heating or hot water in the Summer, so this £15 without EHU, £20 with and enjoying facilities regardless of choice is a Summer winner for us. We haven’t used any C&CC Club Sites, but do like Listed Sites, which are just listed in the handbook and on the website, but in essence are small private sites.
As we can holiday with 24 hours notice now we are retired, we had started picking up some absolute last minute cottage and hotel bargains, so we can match some Club Site overnight prices without the tow/ MH drive for stays in one place.
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@Takethedogalong there are real bargains to be had in C&CC sites for those using grass Non-EHU pitches, especially if one is eligible to the 25% discount for older members, as there are often additional discounts on certain site too. The pitch price can work out less than one would pay on a non-facility CL.
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This is an excellent question to ask and is a little hard to quantify, but should be broken into 4 areas.
- Cooking - We can only compare the gas hob to electric hob. We can make an assumption about the efficiency of the heat transfer from burner to pan and hot plate to pan. Gas is about 40% efficient, a hot plate is about 74% efficient. (Edit - I forgot about the microwave which is FAR more efficient than the gas oven).
- Heating - a non condensing gas boiler is around 60% to 70% efficient, where electric in the same environment is almost 100% efficient
- Fridge - anecdotally (I cant find data) running a fridge on gas is more efficient than on electricity.
- 12V systems - If you can isolate your 12v system and run from a solar panel then you can be low carbon.
So part 1) of the question is - How much of each do you use in a day. Part 2 of the question is - How green is the grid. Right now at 3:30pm on Tuesday the 17th, the grid near me (East Midlands) is 70% zero carbon (9% gas and 16%biomass). The UK average is 73% zero carbon (6%biomass and 5% gas).
My conclusion - unless you can run all your appliances on 12V, plugging in to hookup is greener than running on gas.
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Next time I use a Club site, I will try it but, I hope it does not mean the roll out of metered electricity will now not happen.
I have only had one chance to try a C&mC non electric pitch and unfortunately I forgot about the offer! Anyhow where has the Club got to in evaluating electricity meter roll out. It is now over 2 years since the Club started a trial and has discovered the benefits. Were we not promised an update about now or earlier following a roll out of an improved customer experience?
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