Metered CL
Just had notification from the first CL on our upcoming trip that they are now metering electricity use.
They are however also reducing the pitch fee from £20 to £15, which seems realistic, and the unit price will be just over 30p per kWh. This is a serviced hardstanding, no other facilities provided.
We will hook up for battery charging and mains lights, TV etc, as we do not have a solar panel, but considering using gas for fridge and water heating as we have refillables, which I think would probably cost us less.
Only there 2 nights as it is just a stopover, so cost will not be huge either way, well under the £5 pitch reduction.
Meter is coin operated, so better find a few £1 coins just to get us started!
Will report back on how we get on.
Comments
-
Think you are over egging it KjeIIn, even in the land known as eutophia by some, I reckon to use less than 10Kw per day and that is with fridge running overtime, electric water heater on permanent, you should not need much lighting this time of year especially if you are north of the border, we do not watch tv but we normally have toast etc for breakfast, normally eat small lunch out then fish on gas bbq with sald for dinner, sometimes romoska
at 10kw = £3 per day x 2 = £6 max and you are saving £10 on pitch fees seems like a bargain to me
0 -
Not complaining at all Rufs. The saving on the pitch fee is very good.
The gas (Alde system) heats water much more quickly and at half or less the cost of using electricity, so no need to leave it on all the time. Fridge/freezer we know uses 4 kWh per 24 hours on electricity, so rather than leaving it on gas while out, we will probably use electricity for that.
Then kettle, microwave, coffee machine, toaster, and maybe the little electric oven on one evening, the gas one makes the van too hot in summer, as does leaving the HW on all the time
Should be only about 6kWh then.
Will decide once we see how it all works. Presumably with a coin meter anything not used would be left for the next visitor.
0 -
K, I am surprised you bother to do such detailed arithmetic .If you would use electricity at home then use it in the caravan instead. A straight swap and at the same cost.
The gas you plan to use is a fossil fuel, imported from goodness knows where, and causing pollution as you burn it. But the electricity will be clean, green and from renewable sources. So put the money in the meter. Help save the planet
0 -
-
How do you know the electricity is from renewable sources? A lot is still produced by gas fired power stations.
At home we would usually be heating with gas, and cooling and cooking with electricity.
However, in summer most of our daytime electricity is coming from our solar panels and is definitely green and renewable, and of course free, so we are also using it for heating water.
I thought it could be interesting for others to relate our experiences, if more sites are metered, and if you go away in winter, then the costs will be much greater, and alternatives more relevant.
2 -
It will be interesting to read your feedback K, especially for a CL. That seems a reasonable price drop to me👍 £15 for a serviced set up on HS sounds ok, it’s then up to you how much you spend on electric. Thanks for this.
0 -
It may be of interest to you to look at this recent article about why CL sites are metering, and advice on how to save some pennies whilst on a metered site.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Vfn7K9_d8RrCexPPzmxlcKlufeNy4kr/view?usp=share_link
4 -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Vfn7K9_d8RrCexPPzmxlcKlufeNy4kr/view?usp=share_link
I think that the link is now live, Ted!!
Reading the article I would appear that it is because of the way the author, and possibly many like him, had previously used their heating system and other devices, that has accounted for the high electric bills that site owners have had to pay and hence The introduction of metering. The ideas that he suggest are surely the proper ways that many responsible caravanners have always used, especially when staying on CLs and the like.
2 -
Left the metered CL today after a total of about 42 hours on site.
The "coins in the slot" system was easy to use. There was 26p on the meter when we arrived, and 15p remaining when we left, we put in £5.
Our total use was in the order of 15kWh.
We used electricity for the fridge, charger, TV, kettle and toaster for breakfasts, microwave (30 minutes), grill plate (30 minutes) and air con as it was very hot. We ran that for about 6 hours in total.
We used gas to heat dishwashing and shower water, cooked on the hob with gas, and also about 3 hours of fridge running as we were worried that we might run out of electricity overnight.
So, having saved £10 on the site fees, we spent £5 less than we would otherwise have done, but did use a little gas.
While the system was easy to use, it was a bit tricky deciding how much to put into the meter, plus some of our £1 coins were spat out again by it, £2 coins worked more reliably.
2 -
Thanks for the update K. A good result all round for you.
We are currently on a CS that offers no hook up pitches, saving £5 per night. The only thing we are doing different is using a bit of gas for our very small fridge. No heating needed, superb showers and even did dish wash last night up at service building. We cook with gas, so would use that anyway. No TV, we never use one, tech gear charged on the move. We are happy👍
2 -
Thanks Kj for feedback.
Interesting reading the report about HarryB's consumption. We would probably use less per day as we always turn the heating off overnight, even in winter, as we can't stand being woken up by the clicking of the boiler kicking in. In winter we would almost always close the windows off vent before sleeping. In addition our normal setting during the day, summer and winter doesn't vary much between 12-14º. OH would melt if heating set at 20.
We tend to use low wattage items and try to run on 1kw so Harrys experience gives us confidence we would be happy using a metered site for a fair reduction in site fee.
0 -
Yes, no problem with the metering, but coin in slot is not ideal, especially in cold weather if you are heating with electricity.
With all the bank closures, getting a stack of coins may not be easy , then unless you are aware of what your outfit uses, knowing what to put in is a problem.
There was no info supplied on whether unused whole £s could be refunded and the owners were away, leaving their son in charge. I suppose we could have asked him, assuming he knew. Getting overpayments back would of course depend on someone being there to do it.
Some sort of card system might be better, but no doubt more expensive to install. I think the coin system is fine when not using a lot of kWhs.
I would say that what our experience has shown is that the reduction in pitch prices proposed by the Club is unlikely to be sufficient at their unit prices. We would definitely use gas a lot more at those electricity prices! And might even consider using site facilities where provided.
0 -
"I would say that what our experience has shown is that the reduction in pitch prices proposed by the Club is unlikely to be sufficient at their unit prices. We would definitely use gas a lot more at those electricity prices! And might even consider using site facilities where provided."
I think this illustrates very well why CAMC are trialling metering. Knowing the cost of the metered electricity is focusing the mind. In the past it might have been used regardless with CAMC footing the bill. Now we know it’s going to cost 40p+ per kWh, circumspection comes into play.
0 -
My OH would have my suitcase on the doorstep if our heating was at less than 20 in winter!! She cannot stand being cold.
We do not however heat at all overnight.
Strangely, she likes it cool in summer, ideal is 21 degrees, and starts wilting at 24.
0 -
Very interesting. But I do hope not many sites go down the coin meter process. I honestly do not know where we would get coins from. I do know bank will not give them out, in some cases even if you are a customer. I don’t think I would be very popular buying something small with a £20 note and asking fo all coins in change!
0 -
Yes, they said they could supply change, but had gone on holiday leaving the son in charge.
We had 5 x£1 coins, which we reckoned should do, but the meter rejected one of them. Took my £10 note to the house but the son only had £5 of change, which he gave me, then he came next day with another £5.
I expect they do just "recycle" the coins from the meters, would be sensible.
0 -
If it’s a coin meter, it’s quite simple. The owners will probably empty the meters at least every couple of days, just ask them to give you coins back for paper money. We used to use farm sites that had things like hot water, wash machines, etc… on meters in the 1980’s, and they always had lots of change. They would probably prefer to have the paper money to bank at some point as well. So long as you take a fivers worth of £1 initially, then you should be fine.👍
1 -
Just been on a CL with metered electric. Because of the very high unit cost I decided that we would use gas for water heating twice a day and electric for everything else. The daily electric consumption was 5kWh. At this particular CL the cost was £5.25 per day. Gas usage isn’t known yet but I started the week with 4kg of gas and it’s still going strong 8 days later so it appears to be a very cost effective regime when electric is metered.
On top of the electric was a pitch price of £18.00 so £23.25 per day. For this there was a serviced pitch, free wifi and a satellite tv hookup.
0 -
Do you mean it was metered at £1.05 per KWh?
0 -
If you are heating water for showers and washing up then, in this spell of weather, try the ECO setting of 40 deg C rather than the HOT (60 deg C). This should save a fair bit of gas and still be plenty hot enough for a couple for showers...
agree with ET...£1.05 per kWh seems high? most of our metering has been around a third of that cost.
0 -
When we have used metered electric our allowance has been 4 KwH per day.
We use the fridge, charger, TV, microwave, Remoska and kettle on mains. No water or heating used as this was in Spain and not needed.
All showers and washing up done at facilities.
Out of 3 sites used on meters we have only gone over by 1kwh on one site at a cost of 50p.
We now have a bigger battery and in conjuction with the solar panel we anticipate we will be able to be off grid more often, we have a 26ltr underslung LPG tank so plenty of gas to play with, an outdoor gas bbq point will help keep the heat from cooking out of the van.
Looking forward to our next venture away.
0 -
The allowance each day was 15kwh. This was paid for “up front” but with a promise of a refund for any unused allowance. This made the total pitch price £33.25 per night. I was told this was average for Cornwall at this time of the year. Whether that was true I don’t know. I had always expected a refund as I knew what power we had used at other metered sites and being in June I didn’t expect a high usage. At the end of the week I got a refund of over £70.00 so a total pitch price of £23.25 which was far mor acceptable even with the addition of the cost of the gas.
1 -
Now that we are back I have calculated the gas cost. For the whole of the two weeks that we were away we used 3kg gas = £12.00 (November 2022 price). This was for cooking an evening meal every night and water heating twice per day for the first 7 days. This obviously worked out a lot cheaper than paying the £1.05 per kWh for electric the first week.
The second week was all inclusive at £25.00 per night so gas usage was for cooking only. Serviced hardstanding pitch, unrestricted electric included, free very strong wifi, very good and clean shower / toilet, (wet-room) neatly cut grass and generally a very well maintained site. Probably the best CL that we have been to out of the 51 different CLs that we have stayed at.
0 -
We stayed at Skybarn Farm, near Lincoln in March of this year and they had just introduced metered electricity. Since it was our first experience of metering, I was interested to see how we would get on. Pitch fees had been reduced from £25 down to £20 to compensate for the electricity charges.
Firstly - it was cold! Down to -5 degrees on the first night. We used the van as we normally would and I have to admit it's quite a power hungry van. Heating, water heating, heated towel rail (600w), small plug in fan heater (500w) in bathroom for 10-15 minutes in the morning, large fridge and freezer - all running from electricity. We used just over £10 worth in the first 24 hours! (Charged at 37p per unit)
It certainly brought it home to me why it had been necessary to introduce metered electricity if the CL was to survive.
Thereafter I ran the heating and hot water on gas and the average daily electricity cost dropped to just over £5 and I'm guessing we used about £5 to £7 worth of gas (Safefill) during the following six days.
So - all in all - only a slight increase in overall costs.
0
