mark hinde Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Just a small warning about turning up to sites that have metered electric hook ups. We turned up to a C&CC CL Friday night at Hanningfiel in Essx, and was told the electric was metered. No problem, paid my ten pounds a night for two nights and they asked for a fiver deposit for the electric. Didn't have a fiver so left a tenner with them. Here's the warning. Stupid as it is going to sound, we never asked to check the meter when we arrived. So some 40 hours later we are confronted with a bill for £20.00. Apparently we had used 154 units of electricity in 40 hours ( thats very nearly 4 kW permanently while we were there). Needless to say, this was disputed and we ended up leaving them with our tenner. Even at this point we were not invited to see the meter ( I suppose I should have asked). So when going onto a metered supply, ALWAYS ask to see the meter, no matter how friendly the people seem. PS I know we are only talking about losing a fiver here but its the principle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Report the site to the C&CC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesy Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 While phoning around for CL last weekend I spoke to an owner who told me that they weren't taking bookings as the previous weekend a caravan had used £25 worth of electricity and at a fee of £10 per night it wasn't finacially viable. They were having the supply checked by qualified leccys in case tehre was a problem with the supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 We use a Private site near Fareham who have metered electric via a swipe card, in November last year several of us where there for five nights and used about £10 each over that period. This is what we have always said to be about the amount we would use over that sort of period, when we have been charged rediculous prices for electric. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyreman Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 No wonder solar panel sales are on the up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevina Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Don't go to Austria then, the site we were on charged 70p per KWhr! (however it was very modern and could be read from a panel in reception). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 The sites I go to in Austria do not meter the electric and very reasonable hook up charge per night. http://www.camping-vierthaler.at/en/prices/ only 1.30 euro. Always thought the showers were expensive though. Worth it as this is a great camp site and I also always get 15% discount as we have been going every year for 9 years for 5 to 9 nights depending on weather. Its our favourite campsite and made many friends there who are also regular visitors. Great cycling area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark hinde Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Peter, I wouldn't report the site because as we didn't check the meter, they would always argue they were correct and I obviously used that much. Being an electrician, I know we didn't use anything like that much but never mind, lesson learn't. We always try and use an electric hook-up and usually there is a fixed charge which is fine but I do take the point that some people would take advantage of this and as fuel prices keep rising, I guess that metered supplies will be more common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Its all these people who take advantage of a straight hook up fees and leave heater running in awnings when totally unnessary which has resulted in many metering..selfish lot, you know who you are and the rest of us have to pay now with increased fees to cover costs of meters or increased hook up charges. p.s. Maybe I should qualify a bit and say it does seem mainly to be the tuggers who are guilty as they are the main ones with awnings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dikyenfo Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Electric metres on private lines do not have to be set to any standard and they are used as an earner. Bit like loan sharks but legal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Brambles - 2012-02-28 3:48 PM Its all these people who take advantage of a straight hook up fees and leave heater running in awnings when totally unnessary which has resulted in many metering..selfish lot, you know who you are and the rest of us have to pay now with increased fees to cover costs of meters or increased hook up charges. p.s. Maybe I should qualify a bit and say it does seem mainly to be the tuggers who are guilty as they are the main ones with awnings. I could give you a name to fit that description, but obviously I wont. The problem is these individuals are so arogrant and belive ' if they have paid for it they are going to use it' then moan when the prices go up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homenaway Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Hi,We stayed at a CS in January for 10 nights which had £1 coin meters for each hookup and we put in about £11 in total which seemed reasonable - in fact cheaper than a fixed daily amount. We were out on the local buses most days and used the gas heating for about four hours most evenings when it was frosty. The meter let you see how many units each pound purchased. I agree that some sites overcharge but I thought that was illegal - remember the clubsites and OFGEM a few years ago. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 dikyenfo - 2012-02-28 4:13 PM Electric metres on private lines do not have to be set to any standard and they are used as an earner. Bit like loan sharks but legal. It is illegal to sell on electricity for a profit, but that doesn't mean site owners can't charge extra to cover costs for providing hook-up points etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Although the OP raises an issue that he may well have been overcharged, I'm quite frankly amazed that we have a CL / CS system at all. Having had years of first hand knowledge of the many liberties people take, especially in regard to EHU's, land owners give up their time and provide these stops for little more than pocket money a lot of the time, let's all remember that the next time we go to one, and not take the proverbial when it comes to electricity usage, or anything else for that matter. Having been involved in the tourist industry it's always the one percenters that spoilt it for the majority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul- Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 The I've paid for the electric so I'm going to use it brigade will be the ones who complain the loudest, they've used & now everyone's going to pay for it well I've paid for solar panels & I'm going to carry on using them too (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 colin - 2012-02-28 7:39 PM dikyenfo - 2012-02-28 4:13 PM Electric metres on private lines do not have to be set to any standard and they are used as an earner. Bit like loan sharks but legal. It is illegal to sell on electricity for a profit, but that doesn't mean site owners can't charge extra to cover costs for providing hook-up points etc. But they cannot add that to the cost of the electricity, that would be unlawful. They may charge you in the site fee if they wish but it is completely unlawful to charge more per metered Kw than they pay. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 To be honest I would welcome metered EHU, that way I could use my solar panels and avoid the cost, plus I would be being greener, is that not what the Caravan Club are trying to promote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John J Thompson Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We also like metered EHU. We use on average at this time of year about £1.30 per day. Less in summer. The electricity is charged on this site at 15p per KWh. The site owner has been able to keep the night charge to £10 as a result of putting the meters in. We had a van next to us last year when we visited in the summer and he bought a £5 card. From arriving at about 4pm he ran out during the night. He was using everything on electric and wasn't even carrying a gas bottle. I can believe that some people could be using up to £10 a day on electric. We heat and cook using bulk gas from our 85 litre tank, which we can get filled at a local Calor Depot at 5%vat . This results in us paying 0.677 per litre as opposed to 0.76 per litre. A worthwhile savings if you are near enought to a main depot. All calor outlets are not owned by Calor Gas Ltd. West Counry Farmers also supply at this vat rate. We however cannot escape the 16.5p per litre the government inpose as road duty on Autogas even though it is used for cooking not propulsion. We use other sites that do not meter and are always are carefull about how much electricity we use. We cannot expect site owners to subsidise our electric consumption. They have other expenses to pay such as business rates, water and sewerage charges and maintenance out of our site fees, What you pay is not just profit to the site owner. In Spain last winter the site was charging 0.50€ per KWh. We were charged an initial 100€ deposit and calculated that we would owe about another 200€.by the end of our stay (November to April). However when they read our meter they returned our 100€ deposit and said there was no charge for our electricity. We were paying a site fee equivelent to £12.80 per day so we thought that was very reasonable. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasher Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 If the site owners installed a 5amp trip or breaker this would limit the power used. Simples!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 nasher - 2012-02-29 9:54 PM If the site owners installed a 5amp trip or breaker this would limit the power used. Simples!!!!!!!!!!! The problem with that, the small minded individual who abuse the system will find a way of extracting the last amp of the 5 amp system over a 24 hour period. Last year I decided to buy an energy meter of ebay, you will be suprised how wastefull we are, since fitting the meter our electric consumption has dropped dramatically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Agree we should take care when using electricity provided by a CL or CS owner, but to be honest not so bothered about commercial sites as they often charge high enough fees in the first place to cover electric usage. But where we should use with care is on the French aires which provide electricity, other services and overnight stay at no cost! Yes there still are some; infact stayed on one last night, not far from Honfleur, which is purpose built, recently opened and with all facilities, including hook-ups to each pitch, provided at no cost. (will give full details of this aire plus some other up-dates in a new thread in a few days time, as now in Honfleur and off for another potter round). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.