Paying For Electricity Hook Ups

[Suv]

Hi All,

 

I'll start off on an honest foot and say the reason for my post, I'm doing some market research on the best way to pay for electricity hook ups at caravan sites.

 

With increased prices over the last year, alot of owners have had to increase the cost of a pitch fee to cover the rise, this however impacts on both those who use a lot, and a little, of leccy. There are various ways to charge for electricity, ie inlcude everything in a pitch fee, prepayment coin/card meters and the new smart meters and display devices.

 

I invite you all to submit your comments on how you would prefer to pay for your hook up and any other comments / experiences you have.

 

Thanks in advance

 

joe

[Elephant]

Personally I prefer to pay it in the pitch fee, as I would be wary of any "meters" and the tariff that I might be paying if electricity was paid for by that method. I think some camp site owners may ramp up the tariff, if a meter was installed.

[Bill Lord]

Personally I prefer to pay it in the pitch fee, as I would be wary of any "meters" and the tariff that I might be paying if electricity was paid for by that method. I think some camp site owners may ramp up the tariff, if a meter was installed.

 

They are not allowed to do that, they can only sell the electricity on at the price that they have paid for it. This was the reason that the CC started to include the cost of electric in it's pitch fees and why such as the CCC do not charge you for electricity but do charge you a fee for a pitch with services, on these pitches even if you do not use the electics you will be charged for occupying a serviced pitch. The CCC are able to do this because only a proportion of their pitches have electric supplies and they are able to differentiate between them, the CC has almost 100% of it's pitches with electricity available.

[ian dunning]

Hi Joe,

For the sake of simplicity I prefer the all in price. The only problem I can see with the system is that there are people who feel they need to use as much power as they can because they have paid for it. This sometimes results in the site's power supply tripping frequently, especialy in periods of high use in cold spells,

Regards,

Ian.

[Cheltenham Caravanner]

I'm with the consensus so far - prefer it included in the pitch fees when the pitch has electricity avaialable.

[Ginner]

I also am more than happy with the cost being absorbed in the pitch fee, I use other non cc sites and have never been charged more than £1. 50 a day which I feel is reasonable.

[fleetwoodman]

I am in favour of it being in the pitch price. You know exactly how much you are going to pay for it.

Edited May 20, 2009 by fleetwoodman

[lil_me]

I think as part of a set fee is a good idea, offering the fee for both with and without EHU for those who don't need electricity.

 

I disagree with people who 'make their own unit costs up' for electricity on metered systems, they shouldn't do it but metered systems leaves it open to abuse.

Edited May 20, 2009 by lil_me

[MauriceH]

how much per day for electric in actual ££ are we talking about here??

 

I would not like a meter - but prefer the CC method of an all inclusive price.

Keep it simple. .

[matelodave]

It's better in the pitch price. Let's not go back to the good old days of having a slot meter for a shower etc, just pay up front and use what you need - there will always be the greedy ones who will have it all on coz "they've paid for it" and others who will complain that they "only used a little bit when boiling a kettle"

 

I also use a lot of Marinas where some have a fixed fee for electricity, usually about £3 a night and others will charge you by the unit plus a "hire charge" for a plug in meter cable or a special interface cable to allow you to plug into their system. The pay by use systems are lot of mucking about especially if you want to get away early and you have to return the cable or pay the bill before you go. A very early start means you have to sort it all out the night before which if you've had to return a cable or pay the bill means no lecky for the last night. Also most marinas charge you by the boat length irrespective of the number of people on board, so a small boat with four on board can be a lot cheaper than a big'un with only two - who wants to start the "make bigger vans pay more" thread just for a bit of sport?

[lil_me]

Just a couple of additional thought on meters, why I wouldn't like them or they would be difficult to put into practise

 

Coins - means having the correct coins all the time, even change on some sites which don't have a shop etc would be an issue

Card - to prepay you need to know how much you'd use? Would you end up with an amount you could not use on the card

Metered then charged after usage- would need someone there at check out to pay for it, not everyone leaves when there is someone in the office. I wouldnt' fancy queue to pay for electric used on my last day on a busy site

 

Slot meters for showers I wouldn't mind but these are usually on really expensive sites (Like Parkfoot in the Lakes, we paid about £38 a night and had to pay for showers) and a lot have their own showers in the van now, so they'd just be using more electric to power their own.

Edited May 20, 2009 by lil_me

[Hobbynut]

I was under the impression that including electricity in the pitch fee was OK but I am sure that to run a meter and charge per unit is illegal. .I think I read somwhere that only authorised companies/suppliers were allowed to " sell " electricity by the unit. .I am sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong

Cheers

Hobbynut

[beejay]

I was under the impression that including electricity in the pitch fee was OK but I am sure that to run a meter and charge per unit is illegal. .I think I read somwhere that only authorised companies/suppliers were allowed to " sell " electricity by the unit. .I am sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong

Cheers

Hobbynut

 

There are very complicated regulations about re-selling electricity. Electric cannot be sold at more that the cost from the electric company but there is a formula for recovering/incorporating the cost of installation and maintaining the system. The CC and other sites decided on the alternative system of including it in the site fee. VAT also raises it's head as electricity is at 5%.

Where I have used sites abroad with metered EHUs the cost of what I used was always considerably less than the per night rate that usually applies and I don't skimp on the watts.

[Coldog]

I prefer the all in method that seems to be supported by many here.

 

Is there maybe another option that's not been discussed? On an all electric site, like a CC one, would it be possible to switch off individuals supplies and charge for the pitch alone or the pitch plus electricity for a supplement?

[TbirdX]

All in for me. It's just easier all round and helps with budgeting the overall cost of the stay.

[jan69c]

I like the price of my pitch to be fixed. And if you dont want to pay for hook up, just get a pitch without one.

[mary ross]

We stayed in a cottage in Stirling in February (half term week) with son and daughter in law and 2 boys. The electricity was metered, BUT had to be charged at commercial rates. It cost us £14 per night! and we tried to be as economical as we could, bearing in mind everything in the place ran off electricity.

 

Charge it in with the caravan pitch price please - and stay away from cottages!

[bilbo]

I would do my best to avoid a site charging meter, with an all in price you know exactly where you are.

[old van man]

I would do my best to avoid a site charging meter, with an all in price you know exactly where you are.

stayed on a site we have prev used when it was all inclusive,now the owner is charging per unit so we had an "LETS USE LESS DRIVE"with the leccy, the site owner lost out by £9. 00 compared with previous inclusive tarrif over the same period (another bottle of Tescoes best)

[Guest Tephi]

I like the price of my pitch to be fixed. And if you dont want to pay for hook up, just get a pitch without one.

 

 

I'll second that.

 

Steve

[chillypenguin]

I believe in paying for what you use, providing the charges per unit are fair. This way you are not paying for next doors awning heater that they left on all evening when they were in the pub!

 

And lets face it the site owners base their electric hookup charges on the heavy users, not the light ones. I reckon £3. 20 (c&cc service pitch fee) is ~25KWh, which in the summer you would be hard pushed to use, in 24 hours.

 

But then the cost of installing the meters, will just get passed on to us. And the hassle of coin meters/prepaid cards and running out and switching off spoiling the food in the fridge, or having to pay on departure. Are not attractive.

 

So unless someone can come up with a cleaver idea, I guess the status quo is best.

[Elm6]

I've been told at some sites that the "rules" state they have to charge the same fee for all pitches regardless of whether the pitch has EHU or not as they are not allowed to charge for electricity and I've been to sites that charge extra for EHU pitches so one of them is telling porkies

 

I prefer to pay a set fee by pitch per night for EHU and less for a none EHU pitch.

[brianinhull]

I'll second that.

 

Steve

 

 

Same here.

 

Brianinhull

[Brassneck]

I've been told at some sites that the "rules" state they have to charge the same fee for all pitches regardless of whether the pitch has EHU or not as they are not allowed to charge for electricity and I've been to sites that charge extra for EHU pitches so one of them is telling porkies

 

I prefer to pay a set fee by pitch per night for EHU and less for a none EHU pitch.

 

Ive done, recently, rallies on club sites and some had the eleccy on some didnt.

 

So the CC doesnt count eleccy in with the pitch price otherwise it would be available on all site rallies.

[Jon46]

I prefer it to be in with pitch fees.

Jonathan.