Electric news

[ericonabike]

Aware this may be old news to some, but just in case...
Currently at Burnham Deepdale site in Norfolk. From next month, they will start charging for electric. Been chatting to the owner, and this is how it will work...
As from next month, all pitches will be charged at non-electric rate. If you want electric, you can buy credit, chargeable at current (sorry) rate of 59p a kwh. Any unused credit, subject to de minimis rule, will be refunded at end of stay.
They can do this, as they had data cabling installed from the outset, so they can already tell how much lecky each pitch is using. Other sites may not be so fortunate, and will have to work out other ways to charge, as I suspect they will all have to do so in the end.
Personally, I think in years to come we'll look back in amazement at the time when electric was provided on an "all you can eat" basis!

 

[LesW]

That's over twice the Kwh rate that I pay at home.

 

[hja]

That's over twice the Kwh rate that I pay at home.

It will be the commercial rate the site is having to pay.

 

[enark]

Stayed at a small site near Portsmouth some years ago, and they did just that, it makes you be sensible with your usage

 

[peterc10]

That's over twice the Kwh rate that I pay at home.

But your home price is heavily discounted by government's rules. Rates for commercial premises, as this is, are much higher. From figures I have heard this is a surprisingly low rate. The law says that you cannot resell gas or electricity at rates higher than it costs.

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[Drexxer]

Perfect soloution for our off grid motorhomes

Long may it continue elsewhere

 

[TheAleMan]

Aware this may be old news to some, but just in case...
Currently at Burnham Deepdale site in Norfolk. From next month, they will start charging for electric. Been chatting to the owner, and this is how it will work...
As from next month, all pitches will be charged at non-electric rate. If you want electric, you can buy credit, chargeable at current (sorry) rate of 59p a kwh. Any unused credit, subject to de minimis rule, will be refunded at end of stay.
They can do this, as they had data cabling installed from the outset, so they can already tell how much lecky each pitch is using. Other sites may not be so fortunate, and will have to work out other ways to charge, as I suspect they will all have to do so in the end.
Personally, I think in years to come we'll look back in amazement at the time when electric was provided on an "all you can eat" basis!

More and more sites will undoubtedly jump on this bandwagon but, 59p per kwh can’t see people getting used to that, their bills will be enormous, even if you are frugal with it.

 

[Lenny HB]

Sounds good to me, we rarely use sites and certainly don't need or want EHU so much better for people like me.
The rate is high but not excessive as its commercial rate our domestic rate is 42p/kWh.

 

[Wh05apk]

Hopefully this will be the start of Sites returning to more basic sites. I have full cooking facilities, i don't want overpriced onsite pizza wagons, I have nice bathroom facilities, i don't want heated marble clad toilet and shower facilities, all I want is somewhere safe to park and sit out, ability to fill/empty water and somewhere to empty the toilet, I don't want to pay £30+ per night, all I want is the equivalent of an aire/CL.

 

[SpeedyDux]

Hopefully this will be the start of Sites returning to more basic sites. I have full cooking facilities, i don't want overpriced onsite pizza wagons, I have nice bathroom facilities, i don't want heated marble clad toilet and shower facilities, all I want is somewhere safe to park and sit out, ability to fill/empty water and somewhere to empty the toilet, I don't want to pay £30+ per night, all I want is the equivalent of an aire/CL.

Duxette definitely would. If you know of such sites, please don't mention them on here.

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[TheAleMan]

Sounds good to me, we rarely use sites and certainly don't need or want EHU so much better for people like me.
The rate is high but not excessive as its commercial rate our domestic rate is 42p/kWh.

I agree with it too Lenny What really gets my goat is when a site lumps on the leccy whether you need it or not, given no choice. That’s not a choice we like and we try to avoid those sites.

 

[TrudeandDall]

Totaly agree with Lenny... We stayed on a small CL site last year where the owner was giving 6Kw daily as part of the pitch fee and you payed for whatever you used above that at the going rate. This was brought about due to a number of Caravan people using up to 36Kw per day as they were heating their awnings with fan heaters 24 hrs a day!!!!! The site had new EHU points which came by default with meters, and it was interesting to see that our van which was running the 3 way fridge, charger and charging 2 x E-bikes each day clocked up around 3Kw per day. This CL owner said that he did not want to apply a higher daily EHU charge to everyone and he was right to do so. We as small campervan owners certainly do not use very much electric, and certainly do not want to subsidise the likes of the Caravan awning heater gangs....

 

[enark]

More and more sites will undoubtedly jump on this bandwagon but, 59p per kwh can’t see people getting used to that, their bills will be enormous, even if you are frugal with it.

It’s not that high, tbf

 

[enark]

Totaly agree with Lenny... We stayed on a small CL site last year where the owner was giving 6Kw daily as part of the pitch fee and you payed for whatever you used above that at the going rate. This was brought about due to a number of Caravan people using up to 36Kw per day as they were heating their awnings with fan heaters 24 hrs a day!!!!! The site had new EHU points which came by default with meters, and it was interesting to see that our van which was running the 3 way fridge, charger and charging 2 x E-bikes each day clocked up around 3Kw per day. This CL owner said that he did not want to apply a higher daily EHU charge to everyone and he was right to do so. We as small campervan owners certainly do not use very much electric, and certainly do not want to subsidise the likes of the Caravan awning heater gangs....

You do raise a perfectly reasonable point. Should a large caravan with full awning, two adults, 3 kids and a couple of dogs pay the same electric service charge as a reasonably small MH with just two adults. Given the MH may nip out for the day too, thus not using any, whilst the van/awning still has variable consumption?

 

[Wissel]

Just as an insight to what business electricity costs currently are.

When at our old workshop, we needed more space, so took on the unit next door on a temporary basis.
This unit was connected to Opus Energy, who charged us £4 per day standing charge plus £1 per Kwh.

We never actually used any power in this unit (instead using an extension lead from our main unit), but still had to pay the bills. Over £400 for no use whatsoever.

Also, power wise.

We use between 1.5Kw - 2Kw per 24 hours to power our van. The van has constant 240v, 240v fridge, Mac with Dell 27" monitor, 2 tablets and 2 phones to charge etc. If we need to use EHU on a site, I'd be very happy paying for 2Kwh per day at a cost of £1.18.

We don't actually use much electricity to power our workshop - around 4Kwh per 24 hours, on average. This includes a fridge and washing machine, all tools, LED lighting and TV and laptops.

Our new premises are much larger, but our power usage is the same. These premises are off-grid and powered by solar, lithium and a backup genny if needed. We have no choice as where we are has no power connected and it would cost £58k to get connected.

But if we were connected, it would cost us (on a new contract) £4 per day standing charge and £2.80 per day to power the unit. Over a year, this works out to around £2500. Then the kicker. They would also like a £2500 deposit. Crazy.

Currently, we are powered off our landlords unit next door (solar/lithium/genny), but have decided to create our own system so we are independent. To do this, we are beefing up the van system with more lithium, larger inverter and a Honda 3Kw genny converted to LPG, along with adding solar panels to the workshop roof. The extra cost over what we were fitting into the van already, works out at around £2500, plus the genny. So a bit of a no brainer.

Of course these costs don't include heating, which we use diesel heaters (run on kerosene) in the office and paint booth, and gas in the van (soon to be swapped for the same as the unit). Cooking and hot water in van and unit are LPG.

Using the same figures for a campsite (so if they go onto a new contract).

Say, the campsite has a 8a feed, providing around 2Kw. A lot of vans have 2Kw electric heaters, which could be left on most of the time, but working a cost out on say, 6 hours use at full chat, that's 12Kw of power. Add in a 3 way fridge on EHU and a a telly etc, maybe 15Kw per 24 hours on a cold winters day.

If, like I was quoted, they have to pay £0.70 per Kw, that's just over £10 per night.

I guess a lot of campsites are in fixed contracts for a while, so not an issue. But if prices don't fall in the next few years then I think a lot of people will be changing how they power and heat their vans.

I can also see campsites that don't want to spend money upgrading to metered systems, but also don't want to charge a lot for electricity, changing feeds to say 3a. Basically enough to only power charging of the van battery.

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[TheAleMan]

It’s not that high, tbf

No, it’s probably around the going rate and will be doable for most people during the summer months, but come winter time you’ll need to be doing a fair bit of overtime to cope with the bill. The last time we were forced into using all electric on a site (long story) it was costing out at around a fiver a night at 15p kwh, that was back in the winter of 2020 - 2021. We were very frugal with our usage too.

 

[kingmid]

Just spent 60 nights at Bonterra Park where electricity is metered. At €0.40cents per Kw increasing to €. 50 cents soon the price is comparable. As a small camper van we used about 2kw per day. We boiled the kettle 4-5 ish times a day used the battery charger and a few hours heating (compressor fridge).

Moving to metered electricity in all campsites would I feel be of great benefit to us. But as I’m guessing electricity is a ‘profit maker’ for many sites including the clubs, and taking into account the cost of installing the equipment I think it unlikely.