Is it true?
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That's another job for the wardens, isn't it?
Going round as members prepare to depart, reading the meter and calculating usage.
If a coin meter is used someone mightbe upset that they may have not used it all up.
Perhaps a useful invention would be a really smart meter whereby you tap with your debit/credit card on arrival to liven it up and on departure tap again to shut it down and have the bill paid. Or is that too simple?
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"Smart" meters installed at homes use a separate transmission to the mobile network. I realise these are not the same as the type of meters possibly being considered at sites but I presume they will need a similar secure separate wireless system. If there's no mobile signal local to a site smart meters can't be used.
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Brue
It would depend on what system is employed. As has been mentioned using pre-paid smart cards the meter would be stand alone with no need for communication to a hub. As also suggested the usage could be transferred via the power cable but this would require more work and more expense. I wonder if the Club would want to exclude the idea of members going to reception to pay their electricity as that would have ramifications on staffing.
As an aside, I think it was TDA, who suggested that perhaps Club sites could have a menu option for what was used on site. So you would book the standard or serviced pitch including any water supply and waste disposal included in the basic price. There after whatever you used would incur a charge. So electricity you would be pay for by meter. You could extend this to use of the facility block, perhaps a daily pass or pay by each entry or perhaps just the showers. We were once on a site in Belgium where you purchased a payment card which you used in the shower or washing up. So many permutations? It might sound a bit far fetched but if there is a demand for keeping the individual price down. menu pricing might be the answer.
David
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David
At least we have the protection here that campsites could only charge what they are charged per unit of electricity. My personal experience of metering in Germany is that we were charged 50/80 euro cents per kwh which given that this is now a few years ago probably accounted for about 3 or 4 times what the cost of electricity is in the UK. I fully appreciate that electricity in Germany may be more costly than in the UK but even so there did seem an element of profit making? We once stayed at Camping Belchenblick for 5 nights and the bill for electricity was an additional €35 but we did use our own facilities.
Menu pricing to use a campsite is just a suggestion that would allow those that want to do things on more of a budget to achieve that but those who are prepared to pay can still enjoy a full facility site if they are happy to pay the price, which seemingly many are.
David
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Not often but a good post and +1.
Everyone has forgotten the significant expense of installing (10,000 meters - cost plus labour) them, my estimate which no one challenged or came up with a better figure when I did the sums last time was about £800,000 plus though other forums have claimed £5 million, which as been stated can only be recouped through higher site fees? Or taken from reserves?
I don't think there will be suddenly be a drop in prices, they will probably stay the same to get some costs back then as you say you'll get a bill for the electricity used. But maybe then the non EHU fee will stay lower for longer? I doubt that too.
But as the club is actively looking it shouldn't be too long till we find out.
As we used to say at work looking: I've seen some research about that, actively looking: I'm trying to find it again.
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I am at a complete loss as to how it is rude, I agreed with you and liked your post.
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Once again I think you are right.
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It was me DK. I would suggest something like a standard booking and a basic booking be available at all Club Sites with facilities, if the move to metered electric had been sorted. Standard would get you everything (pitch, metered hook up, access for gates and loo block. Swipe card operated.) Basic would get you pitch, metered hook up, gate card. Club could charge a bit more for serviced pitches, as it does now. This would give lots of choices for everyone. Still a choice of pitch, the option to use as little or as much electric as desired, choice of using own facilities or having access for facility block. Laundry is pay for use anyway. If the Club was really mean, it could meter hot water at wash up points.
The only issue for me is simple. I don’t think the Club would discount the basic suggestion enough to tempt us onto Club Sites. It wouldn’t be about electricity usage, that’s covered by the metering. It’s the difference the Club puts onto everything else.( I don’t include swimming pools and on site eateries, they are extras.) Staffing provision would be an element to consider as well. Staff costs and energy are usually the biggest budget expenditure headings for any service provider.
It’s only a suggestion, I have no knowledge of how Club sets the prices for individual Sites, nor if it uses income from some Sites to subsidise others🤷♀️1 -
Out of interest CAMC are charging £27 for two, peak season at Steamer Quay, Devon. No ehu there and just four outdated showers available plus the hairdryers (which suddenly become useful! ) Although I'm interested in this thread I can't see CMC doing anything about rising energy costs except raise prices. My view is that the amperage to bollards could be reduced but I doubt whether that would ever be implemented.
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I said I would do a bit of a comparison on two similar Sites for a couple. Godrevy has facilities, grass pitches, and for a couple in August, with a hook up it’s £37.80 per night. Marazion has grass pitches, but no facilities. With hook up that is £24.10 per night. So the difference there is £13.70 per night.
If the Club offered the basic option, and the standard option I suggested in an earlier post, I wonder if the difference would be in the region of £13-14, or significantly less🤔It is very hard to make any kind of stab at how individual site prices are derived, as there are just so many variables. It’s clearly not just energy costs, as looking at brue’s Steamer Quay, and my Marazion, the no hook up Site is dearer.🤷♀️
Interesting pondering though. And I agree about the amperage Brue.
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Did you read my post? This bit? which no one challenged or came up with a better figure when I did the sums last time.
I did do the workings out and as said no one came up with a better figure at that time or even posted anything to the contrary to question it? It was based on number of pitches (10,000 - a bit low really), cost of equipment and a guess at labour costs. But why not give us your prediction? I'm interested to hear what you get? At least I tried.
Either way it doesn't matter as you say, why consider them, these costs as said by others can't be recouped except by higher pitch fees or using reserves. So I'm not expecting a reduction of prices when they are introduced.
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Great site, very popular even though facilities aren’t exactly glamping and no electricity option. There’s a lesson there….CMC could simply get rid of a some EHU sites and/or pitches and, for those, charge a maximum of £27 high season. It would get my vote and maintain my membership which as things stand is in its final year at current site rates. Glampers and serviced pitch users can continue being as now, but others get an affordable option.
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I asked a question to Club some time ago SB about the basic no facility Sites, and how many the Club had lost/let go. To précis, the answer I got was…..use CLs.
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Not sure what that is referring to at all ED?
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Yes, but it’s CL+ and there is a place and demand for such sites.
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I agree.
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I am not sure it helps to compare one site with another as there could be all sorts of reasons why one site is more expensive than another site. With some sections of the membership who wouldn't countenance using a site without toilet blocks its academic. Some say that installing metered connections is too expensive, but is it? The cost has to be viewed with other costs like replacing a toilet block, probably £200/300,000? A complete site refurbishment, probably in excess of £1 million? Coupled with that is the fact that every year there will be a rolling replacement of electrical bollards as some of them come towards the end of their useful life. So even if it were in excess of £1 million it could still be cost effective if the club feel that energy prices will continue to rise excessively in the coming years. Once its done, its done and the Club can move on and any future price increases can be related to non fuel costs.
The real question for members is how much they would expect prices of individual campsites to come down as a result of paying for electricity separately? Many of us know on a daily basis how much our energy costs are. I have mentioned before that my personal energy costs at home average between £2 and £5 a day on the latest tariff but likely to go up again come September. So is a reduction of between £2 and £5 a day, depending on season a reasonable expectation? I don't see any advantage in reducing the ampage if we move to meters as all that would do is force people to use more gas which itself is becoming more expensive a difficult to acquire.
David
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Ah
the modern version would be I used an app. In my time it was I used my calculator, to which all maths teachers would reply you won't always have one with you at all times.
That worked out well didn't it!
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How about, since the Club by Law cannot charge more for electricity than they pay for it, that they sell us the electricity at that rate, and charge a fee for the "Use of a bollard".
Like the pub with Guinness at 50p a pint, but if you want the use of a glass that's another £3.50. ( Based on a joke about a cut price Irish airline.)
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I sat the JMB exam but it was before calculators were even invented!😄
As it so happens we were clearing out part of our loft space and came across a British Thornton AD 070 slide rule, in it's box and case with the instruction booklet, which if I remember correctly was my father's!
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