Electricity meters
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Probably because there are alternative sources of energy and in the past you did NOT have to pay for it if you didn't want it. However some are missing the point of look how low the pitch charge is and in peak season on full facility site as well. A few days ago I had the choice of electric or non electric pitch and the price differential was £5p.n. ON the meter it is working out at 75p a day. In the winter it would be no different because I would use gas for heating.
peedee
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I am neither subsidising others or being subsidised by others.
do you have this view when paying for a hotel? or when in an all you can eat restaurant? Or on a ferry that you use more or less electricity in your cabin than others?
or what about if you ever bought a day rider bus ticket? did you worry that you were subsidising those that went around all day on it or worry when it was maybe you that did more bus journeys than others?
But in effect you are neither subsidising others or being subsidised, you are paying the fee set by the club for its product. This is the fee for your stay. It is up to the club (just like the examples above) to set a fee to make a profit.
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but you don't have to pay for it on club sites as well, simply don't go to them?
Or are you being forced to go to club sites?
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As in real life, things aren't quite as simple as they seem. So everyone runs up an electricty bill via their EHU, then they trot over to the heated shower blocks and have a nice long hot shower, their paths are illuminated all night by lighting. The reception area is nicely lit and heated etc etc. Oops that's 375000 or so members, give or take couples using the same as singles, families using the same as everyone?
Who pays? We all do, next years price rise has to cover the years overheads.
It's taken me so long to get on here tonight I'm considering buying a racing pigeon for messages to CT, will save some money now by switching off.....
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Do any of you actually know how much electricity you use when in your caravan? It will of course depend on the size of the van, the level of insulation, how warm you like it, whether you wash up and/or shower in the van, etc etc.
I have related this before, but never mind......
We frequently go to Germany where the EHU is often metered, and as they charge a LOT for their electricity, and often the cupboard is locked so you cannot monitor your use, we have a small metering device in the van.
Out of interest, I look at it occasionally even in UK. In summer, with fridge, dishwashing, showering in the van, cooking and lights, we would normally use around 10kwh, 8 if we are being careful. The fridge/freezer alone uses 4kwh per 24 hours.
We were at Knaresborough in mid November a while back, we showered in the block, but otherwise used the van as usual, including keeping it at 18 degrees while out during the day, and 13 degrees overnight. We have the 2kw Alde, and not the latest insulation standards as it is a 2008 van. Our daily use was around 40kwh, so at 15p that would be £6. I was quite surprised at how much we used!
At home, it is a large house, we mainly heat with gas but cook with electricity, we often use the tumble drier, plus all the other mod cons, and we sometimes supplement the heating with a fan heater. Our daily use on the meter averages 14 kwh, which probably means up to 30kwh in winter. We have solar PV, so our real use will be quite a bit higher. And we are away for 3-4 months every year.
We are high users at home, even though we try to switch off unnecessary things, but that is our choice and we have to pay the bills. Also the kwh cost is a bit less than 15p, meantime.
The point of this saga is to point out that you are probably using a lot more electricity than you realise, especially if you go away in the colder months.
The Club is probably glad that we do not normally caravan between late October and late March!
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could you perhaps give us some more details of these progressive sites?
I've looked at few non club sites and they all include electricity as standard. Perhaps if you could give us the name of the site that your picture refers to in your OP?
Also could you give details about how installing meters on every pitch, the infrastructure to collect money and give back unused money, can be classed as little everyday effort?
Also where would the money come from to buy and install these meters? From higher club membership and site fees?
Of course perhaps the club can take it from money it already has? Rather than spend it on site refurbishments, it could spend it on these meters and then get the money back from the income they produce? Hang on, there wouldn't be any income would there?
Also maybe just maybe, the club makes more money by the current system than it would by having meters? I don't mind this personally, the club is there to make a profit, more profit means less increase on fees?
Again, If people really are bothered about paying for the stay this way, they can go to these progressive sites, if you give us some examples?
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Corners...We don't normally use hotels, or eat out much, or use an overnight ferry.
Buses we rarely use, only P+R if visiting a large city, even though we have our bus passes to use up here. We do not have a decent local service that goes where we want/need to go. It must be almost a year since I last used a bus here.
We do what we want, pay for what we use, always try to get the best price for things, and look after the pennies as well as the pounds.
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don't normally use mean you have at some point, so did you worry about using more electricity than your neighbour's room, or did you just pay the set price?
So on day ferries you don't use any electricity, water?
If you are looking after the pennies and if you don't want the large expense of the inclusive price of club sites why use them? You do use them don't you? Otherwise why are you writing about changing the current system?
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The point of this saga is to point out that you are probably using a lot more electricity than you realise, especially if you go away in the colder months.
My point is however that all people using electricity in the caravan in November etc will indeed be using a fair bit of electric and so what? Of course there will be a fair old usage in keeping warm but I suspect that nobody on site chooses to freeze and generally all will have a fair usage. So if I use £6 a day during December and you use £5 because you heat to a lower temperature I am not concerned.
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Do any of you actually know how much electricity you use when in your caravan?
No and I don't care. the club charges this price, I accept it. I go away on holiday to enjoy myself and not worry about such trifling matters.
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+1 there ET
I am amazed that people think they can lecture how to use their outfits and how we should all be savings pounds. I like being warm to hot in my van. I am not going to start turning down the temperature to save a few pounds. If that is the price and I want to pay it I will.
I also do the same in my house btw
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We are currently looking at all sorts of sites, Club, CL, CS, private in SWales area. Surprising how much extra some charge if you want a hook up, up to £5/6 per night in some instances, and that's for September. We can manage very well without hook up, got a small solar panel, used to using gas, so a definite option some nights for us. I doubt we would use anything like £5 in electricity per day, we will be unhooked and off site for around10/11 hours per day, and don't use heating at all in Summer bar an hour in morning for water. Charge up devices on the move, no TV. We only use small gas cylinders, no top up system. Don't seem to use that much gas....
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Yes we use club sites, so far this year about 12 nights, probably another 30 to come in September, plus C&CC 4 nights, CLs 7 nights, all low season, and about 62 nights abroad.
We use them because of the ease of booking and altering bookings, a very important consideration when you are in your 75th year! We think them to be quite expensive for what they offer , but not as expensive as losing lots of deposits.We have already had to totally replan our September trip, so just as well alterations are easy.
i am not agitating for the Club to start metering electricity, just agreeing with the view of some others that it would be a fairer way to do things, and probably cut the overall bill for the Club as well. With my large van, others are probably subsidising me.
I am happy to pay for what we use, and as in peedee's example I would expect the site fees to be considerably less than the "all inclusive" present fees. It would then be my choice whether I heated with gas or electricity, showered in the van or not, washed up in the van or not, etc.
We do already quite often use gas for heating and HW as the system gives much better results on gas.
Hotels.....in the last 10 years we have spent one night in a very nice B&B while attending a wedding reception. We watched the provided TV, used the provided wifi a bit, charged our devices and had a few lights on.
Ferries....how much water and electricity can one use in 2 hours? One toilet flush each,no electricity. This year we did take a 6 hour ferry, I probably made 2 visits to the gents, OH twice to the ladies, we did not use any electricity to charge any devices. We did buy fish and chips on the return journey, on the outward journey we did as many do and took sandwiches.
BTW....I have never been to a restaurant where you can eat as much as you like. I obviously need to get out more!
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I wonder how they stand from a legal point of view when they quote a charge for electricity. As you say it would be difficult to use £5 / £6 of electricity a day in September, when the heating is on so little. So are they not charging more for it than they pay.
I know the club do the same and clearly subsidise winter use with summer prices. However, their method is a little more grey as there is no openly quoted price for the supply.
By the way I don't mind the subsidisation factor, I think I do enough higher priced visits to club sites, to cover my winter excesses.😉
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just agreeing with the view of some others that it would be a fairer way to do things, and probably cut the overall bill for the Club as well.
It might reduce the CC's leccy bill but I cannot see that it would actually reduce their outgoings KjellNN and so overall no financial impact on the club.
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I doubt many of us use much electricity in Summer TDA. I may turn the heating on at bedtime this time of year but unlikely to actually come on other than to heat the water. During the day it is off as I don't need it or additional hot water beyond 7am.
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I don't know K. Are the C&CC pitches the same pitches and you just pay to use hook up or not? We have not used one of their sites so have no experience.
I can see that would get round it. However, if the meter is there and you just opt to use it or not, I can't see how that gets around the regulation. Perhaps just because nobody has challenged it yet.😬
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We only started with C&CC this year, so not a lot of experience as yet, but they seem to have pitches with and without EHU, the ones with do cost more. No metering.
Where a site has a metered supply, they would presumably have to charge only what it costs them, though they can factor in standing charges as far as I understand. Other EHU costs would be part of the pitch fee.
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All a mystery to me, just seems a randomly applied charge in some instances, bit like some of the other add ons that some sites want to charge for. I am happy to have the option of none ehu or with ehu, but do wonder at the difference in price. We have on occasion used economy pitches at places like Wincanton in the past in the Summer.
We shall be looking for a mix of all sorts of sites for our Wales tour, but all below £18 per night. Some nice CLs with plenty of extras for around the £14/15 price. Just need to check out reviews using various websites!
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