Metered electric?

[5picker]

Originally Posted by RobbieH

Most RV parks have meters in place for their "permanent" residents. When we were fulltiming in our coach, our monthly RV spot was $375 plus electricity. They rent for $55 a day for pass-through travelers but they ignore the meter for those.

Many of the R/V parks we frequent have meters at every site regardless of seasonal. Of the R/V parks we've wintered in during our FL stays, all of them had meters at every site. Overnighters paid a higher daily rate with no meter reading electric charge. Weekly, monthly and 6 month stays were charged a lesser rate but metered electric at 11¢ per KwH.

[lbrjet]

Seems you saved $55 and were charged $46.

[D W]

Rest assured, somebody in these CG's that meter electricity, has sat down and analyzed electricity costs for periods of stays. More than likely the Law of Diminishing Returns kicks in around 7 days. It may seem confusing to a customer, but we don't see the data. Myself, I'm a free market guy. The free market always sorts these things out.

[Volvodriver]

Just finished our camp hosting gig and the great park and wonderful owners charge for monthly and seasonal people on their sites. All 90 sites have meters so folks can go either way on their sites - daily ,weekly, monthly or seasonal. Park built and still owned by same family for 35 years.

Dave

[Juanster]

While I haven’t had a metered stay anywhere, I commonly see it described in the rates/terms for longer stays.

Since the terms were listed in advance, is the problem the kwh rate? Or that the metering was incorrect? “Cool days” and “not using much” are more subjective than the ticks on a meter device. Maybe you have something to appeal there if you didn’t use as much as you were billed for. Not sure how’s you’d convince the corporate powers of that…?

[Rolling Chaos]

Originally Posted by stephndudb

Just got back from a 2 week stay at one of our usual campgrounds. Paid $55/night for full hookup sites, as usual (described on their site as "includes Electric, Water, Sewer, and Basic Wi-Fi). The campground just called and billed us for metered electric. Their new policy is any stay over 7 days gets charged an extra fee for metered electric. (I found it mentioned as a footnote in their site.) Now, I wouldn't mind paying a reduced rate for the full hookup site and *then* paying for metered electricity but I don't think we should pay full price for the site PLUS metered electricity. Has anyone else come across a policy like this? First time I've seen it in 22 years of camping.

While I have heard of this before it has always been monthly or longer stays. What state is this campground you speak of in?

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by stephndudb

The campground is Ames Brook Campground in Ashland, NH. I talked to someone in management. (Or maybe a property management company? She was in Florida.) Any reservation over 7 days automatically goes to metered electricity - from Day 1 - on top of the regular site fee for full hookups. I pointed out that this penalizes customers who choose to spend the most money at their facility: The person next to me for 2 nights was essentially paying $2.80 less per night than I was. (And that was in cool weather. If it had been hot we would have paid a lot more.) She mentioned that we did get a discount - 50% off every 7th night - but that ended up being less than 1/2 of our electric bill. She also explained that my example wasn't necessarily true about our neighbors because the campground is using dynamic billing. In other words, the site rates on the website are only base rates. Think hotel: the rates change based on occupancy. The fuller the campground, the more you pay. Not the way I'm used to dealing with campgrounds, but I guess this may be the new normal. They have enough demand to get away with it.

Anyway, that's the way it is. The campground, owners, and staff are nice enough but I don't think their website is clear about the changes they've made to their pricing structure, and I think it should have been explained at check-in, especially since we're repeat customers and this has not been the norm for this campground, or campgrounds in general.

Sounds shady to me. I speak with my wallet (and almost always leave honest Google reviews - whether good- most of my reviews, bad, or mediocre). I wouldn't be back.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by Juanster

While I haven’t had a metered stay anywhere, I commonly see it described in the rates/terms for longer stays.

Since the terms were listed in advance, is the problem the kwh rate? Or that the metering was incorrect? “Cool days” and “not using much” are more subjective than the ticks on a meter device. Maybe you have something to appeal there if you didn’t use as much as you were billed for. Not sure how’s you’d convince the corporate powers of that…?

In a nutshell, I think the issue here is he paid the 'inclusive rate' (all hookups/utilities included in the rate) and THEN was billed metered usage ON TOP of the inclusive rate. As I mentioned before, what's the difference if he was there for a week, or two weeks? He's still paying the higher 'inclusive' rate each week. Any discount he got for weekly rate is irrelevant. If he left after a week, and another camper took the spot for the 2nd week, that camper would be paying the inclusive rate as well. Either way they are getting their money.


I'm going down to Hatteras for 15 nights, average is 100 bucks per night across the booked stay, after taxes/military discount (double wide site, I don't like being crowded). If they charged me for metered use on top of that after first week, I would not go back.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by GravelRider

Sounds shady to me. I speak with my wallet (and almost always leave honest Google reviews - whether good- most of my reviews, bad, or mediocre). I wouldn't be back.

But where do you go when eventually this becomes the norm?

Whether we like it or not, times are changjng.

Like the OP pointed out, it was in the fine print. How many take the time to read that part before signing. It kind of boils diwn to "if you dont read it don't be surprised".

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

But where do you go when eventually this becomes the norm?

Whether we like it or not, times are changjng.

Like the OP pointed out, it was in the fine print. How many take the time to read that part before signing. It kind of boils diwn to "if you dont read it don't be surprised".

It may be becoming the norm right now, but once the camping craze dies down and campgrounds are trying to attract business, we get to be choosier. I suspect that the free market will sort this out. Time will tell if I'm correct. But my point is that if I don't like a place/policy, I just simply don't come back. There will always be places that aren't going to meter electricity, even if they're few and far between.

Regardless, we don't stay at RV parks often. We mostly boondock or stay at state/national parks without electricity hookups. My solar is metered at $0.00/kWh (not including setup costs, obviously).

[NJKris]

Any South Park fans, or if you don't mind a bit of cringe humor, go on youtube and search for 'South Park - The burrito feeding scene'. I cannot link to it, some people here might be offended. But it's what happens when you don't read the fine print!

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by GravelRider

It may be becoming the norm right now, but once the camping craze dies down and campgrounds are trying to attract business, we get to be choosier. I suspect that the free market will sort this out. Time will tell if I'm correct. But my point is that if I don't like a place/policy, I just simply don't come back. There will always be places that aren't going to meter electricity, even if they're few and far between.



Regardless, we don't stay at RV parks often. We mostly boondock or stay at state/national parks without electricity hookups. My solar is metered at $0.00/kWh (not including setup costs, obviously).

Camping craze die down? Not in our lifetime.

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Camping craze die down? Not in our lifetime.

You don't think the pandemic-related increase in camping will decrease over the next couple of years?

[lesptr]

Originally Posted by NJKris

Any South Park fans, or if you don't mind a bit of cringe humor, go on youtube and search for 'South Park - The burrito feeding scene'. I cannot link to it, some people here might be offended. But it's what happens when you don't read the fine print!

That was hilarious.
And I should read the fine print more often.

[nomad297]

Hopefully, all transient sites will have metered electric soon. People come to campgrounds and go nuts with their use of electricity because it is “free” to them. I would much rather the people who have no consideration for the amount of electricity they use pay for it instead of those who conserve and those who can get by with one air conditioner rather than those who must have three cranking all day long. Then there are those who like to fuel-up their electric vehicles “for free”.

Things ARE changing, and I hope this is one thing to add to the list.

Bruce

[NJKris]

I have been thinking how neat it would be to have an electric golf cart I can charge up lately. By time I get one, they will probably be metering all usage. I can't imagine charging one uses that much extra leccy though.


edit, found this:

costs depend on how many kilowatts are consumed to charge the battery. For this case, let’s take into account a 120 volt charger that draws 10 amps. Volts multiplied by amps yields watts as the product, so the result is 1,200 watts. Divide 1.2 kilowatts by an hour and an electric golf cart consumes about 1.2 kWH. Another study done by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority evaluated the energy use of electric golf carts per hour. The report indicated a 3.3 kWH for its daily energy consumption, while gas carts consumed much more at 1.13 L or 10 kWh of energy.

Don't know how much that would cost on a metered site.
re-edit: At 18 cents per kwh, about 22 cents per day on low end, or as much as 66 cents per day on high end. Cheap!

[OldGal3]

Originally Posted by nomad297

Hopefully, all transient sites will have metered electric soon. People come to campgrounds and go nuts with their use of electricity because it is “free” to them. I would much rather the people who have no consideration for the amount of electricity they use pay for it instead of those who conserve and those who can get by with one air conditioner rather than those who must have three cranking all day long. Then there are those who like to fuel-up their electric vehicles “for free”.

Things ARE changing, and I hope this is one thing to add to the list.

Bruce

Free to them? Even though they are paying the full nightly price of $50+ per night? Isn't that enough?

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by OldGal3

Free to them? Even though they are paying the full nightly price of $50+ per night? Isn't that enough?

When folks get the 'all inclusive' rate, they do tend to be wasteful. I used to get mad at one couple we vacationed with at the shore, because they would leave sliding glass doors to their bedroom open 'so they can hear the ocean', meanwhile letting AC all go out. They had that mentality, 'it's paid for, who cares'. Ever see pigs at an all you can eat buffet? They put more on their plate than any human can eat, then leave half on it and go back for more.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by OldGal3

Free to them? Even though they are paying the full nightly price of $50+ per night? Isn't that enough?

Free in the sense that the nightly fee includes an amount for electric which the the R/V would use, not an additional amount of electric used by charging a smart car.

That certainly wouldn't be fair to the campground who based their nightly fees on how much a typical R/V uses.

That's one of the reasons many campgrounds have already switched to metered electric. Some of the campground owners I've spoken with tell me many R/Vers (especially longer term R/Vers but NOT seasonals) tend to start plugging in additional refrigerators and freezers and ice making machines and etc.

Drive through any R/V park with a lot of long term R/Vers and you'll see large tents set up next to their R/Vs with additional lights, tvs, fans and everything I mentioned above. Those R/Vers believe all that extra electricity should be included in whatever rate they pay, hence campgrounds having to go to metered electric. Pay for what you use.

[NJKris]

Those R/Vers believe all that extra electricity should be included in whatever rate they pay, hence campgrounds having to go to metered electric. Pay for what you use.

THAT I am onboard with, it's no longer an 'RV' site but more like a 2nd home. It's the short term (week, 2 weeks) folks like you and I who already paid the inclusive rate paying twice I have issue with. If they're gonna play that game, then I'll unplug, use my solar capability, and want a discount on my bill for NOT using any electricity!