electric hook up

[RogerL]

Most people prefer a single inclusive fee per night rather than a tariff of many items - personally I don't care either way as long as I can see the tariff at time of booking, doing the arithmetic is easy.
Good luck with the venture.

 

[DavidO]

Lady caravan
Welcome to CL land.
I can only relate to how some 12 years ago we set up our CL, and how we have improoved it since.
Elecricity, we do have a 3 phase supply to the farm but the cost of putting on site was very high so we when for single phase, and in order to keep the costs as low as possible we aloud 10amp per pitch, this has been found adiquate but today 16amp would be better. We also put in 6 hookups and should have had 8 , this would have aloud the pitches to have been spread out more and the wear on the grass reduced, it does not mean we use all at once. As for metres our CL is open all year and we have some longer stayers in the winter they oftern work in the area leaving wifes in the van all day, as I have said the electric used soon mounts up.
so we plan to use the meters in winter with a reduced pitch cost,and have a all inclusive fee for the summer.
We put our supply in with a mole plough. the boxes came from a supplierwho I cannot recall but my contact was with Sara Holden whos email is sara.holden@cpes.co.uk Earlier this year we had a 3 way box with meters was quoted £209 plus vat.
Water we also moled that in and put a supply to each pitch, this was not expensive and was a do it yourself job
this facility is well recieved and used by our vistors. we also encourage them to dispose of grey water to the trees on site ,
We have found the Brown water disposal to be very important do not under estimate the volume that is you will need a larger septic tank than a normal house one.
Also general rubish we have 3 bins wich are emptied daily in high season, you can always see how well your vistors are enjoing their stay by the empty bottles we have a box for those.
WE find many are now using email for booking pitches this has caused problems in the past, this could be just me but I always confirm with a phone call.by doing this we have reduced no shows, and over bookings. 5van.com has been a very good internet site for us.
We put on site a small summer house with information on local atractions in it , also a bring and borrow libary this is well used by our visitors.
I hope this is of help
Good luck with your venture we have a lot of fun meeting and makeing new freinds
David O

 

[Surfer]

I'll bet Surfer won't be welcome on David's CL!
Come to think of it, with his attitude, he wouldn't be welcome on mine either!!

If it is metered I would not bother, but with an attitude like yours I wouldn't bother anyway even if it wasn't metered!

 

[Surfer]

I am a new member and I have been reading this thread with interest. We are going through the process of setting up a CL site and it looks as if it would be a good idea to have metered hook ups just so that we can watch the costs. We don't plan to charge seperately at the moment. Do caravaners prefer to have a set cost per night to include electricity? We are now looking into the costs of installing hook ups. Does anyone recommend any installation companies and what is the cost of installing 6 hook ups? We have someone who will be moling in the electric cable ( probably 3 phase) and water pipe. Any advice would be appreciated.

I know an organisation that specialises in caravan sites and can even give references, however I doubt whether I can give contact details due to forum T & Cs. I have nothing to do with the company except I know the person very well as he did all the new connection work for us when I worked in the electric supply industry.
If you wish Parksy can give you my details and once you have made contact I will pass them onto my friend. Prior to any contracts, I think you are also supplied with a forecast of possible future costs which help determine whether to meter seperately or to include it in the price of a pitch.
The big hassle with charging seperately on a metered basis is that you can only charge per unit what you are charged. If you use a card system and the customer has £1 left on the card system they are entitled to ask for the £1 refund although many do not bother. Most ways for charging for electric can involve refunds and this can be time consuming unless you took a reading when they connected up and when they left but that means you have to constantly monitor people leaving so is too much hassle.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Welcome to CL land.
David O

From a bit of detective work I think I've sorted out where your CL is David and have added to my Favourites for when we are over your neck of the woods. Just one question though. Is there anywhere to walk a dog onsite or close by?

 

[Martin24]

I am a new member and I have been reading this thread with interest. We are going through the process of setting up a CL site and it looks as if it would be a good idea to have metered hook ups just so that we can watch the costs. We don't plan to charge seperately at the moment. Do caravaners prefer to have a set cost per night to include electricity? We are now looking into the costs of installing hook ups. Does anyone recommend any installation companies and what is the cost of installing 6 hook ups? We have someone who will be moling in the electric cable ( probably 3 phase) and water pipe. Any advice would be appreciated.

Personally we would prefer more sites with no electrics! If as a family with 3 children 12 and under we can manage quite well without then most others could too if they could just bare to part with lapdrops, ipods, televisions, electric kettles, hair straighteners, fan heaters, we still use less than a bottle of gas in a week at February half term!!

 

[DavidO]

Lord B
You and lady B plus servants We do not have seperate pitches for servants but could find a space near the midden,would of cause be welcome. Alongside our site is a track we call a Droveway aprrox half a mile long with small woods each side and some open fields this makes an ideal dog walk, I would add you need to watch out for ticks in summer as there are lots of deer in the area. Good warning of your visit would help, we have been full up to this week and have 3 on site today.
We would also welcome Surfer as at this time we are only using the meters to asses usage and will proberly offer it as an option next winter. with a reduced pitch fee
David O

 

[Surfer]

Personally we would prefer more sites with no electrics! If as a family with 3 children 12 and under we can manage quite well without then most others could too if they could just bare to part with lapdrops, ipods, televisions, electric kettles, hair straighteners, fan heaters, we still use less than a bottle of gas in a week at February half term!!

So you are quite happy to discriminate against those with disabilities who require electric? If you like sites with no electrics there is nothing stopping you not using the electric supply and there are plenty of sites with no electric especially CS sites. Anyway what is wrong with having a TV, satellite or even a laptop as that may be that person's way of relaxing. We cannot go out at night so we find having a TV very useful. After all we PAID for a caravan with electrics!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

If as a family with 3 children 12 and under we can manage quite well without then most others could too if they could just bare to part with lapdrops, ipods, televisions, electric kettles, hair straighteners, fan heaters, we still use less than a bottle of gas in a week at February half term!!

I could forego the iPod.

 

[Ladycaravan]

Thank you David O for all your helpful advice. It really was appreciated. I think we will definately have 8 hook ups and it was also useful to know the size of septic tank to put in. I also had wondered how much waste to expect so that answered that question. We are going to have an information room and I have loads of books to start a library. I want to landscape the site with more trees and shrubs to make it even more attractive. I really want people to enjoy coming and to want to come back again.

To Surfer - I would be interested in your contact. How do I contact you or Parksy?

To Martin 24 - We were going to start with a non hook up site but after seeing the difference in bookings between non hook up and hook up sites it made more business sense to go with hook up. I would not object to people booking for non electric and would provide a discount. In fact for those who are not tied to having to be cabled up to electric, the choice of pitch would be far greater as we have a few spare acres depending on how far you want to walk to the waste.

I think we would provide one tariff and monitor the electricity useage to see how it goes.

 

[Parksy]

I could forego the iPod.

Actually my i Pod saves on electricity and is ideal for use when off ehu and dependent on 12v battery power.
I connect it to the cd player in the caravan and because the iPod is digital and uses no motor drive which a cd player does I can still play most of my cd library and use less power at the same time.
An iPod means that I don't have to lug boxes of compact disks around between home, the car and the caravan either

I'll pass on the hair straighteners though

 

[Parksy]

Nearly forgot............
Lady Caravan, I'll send an email to you shortly with Surfers email address, good luck with the site

 

[Ladycaravan]

Brill. Many thanks.

 

[Martin24]

Personally we would prefer more sites with no electrics! If as a family with 3 children 12 and under we can manage quite well without then most others could too if they could just bare to part with lapdrops, ipods, televisions, electric kettles, hair straighteners, fan heaters, we still use less than a bottle of gas in a week at February half term!!

So you are quite happy to discriminate against those with disabilities who require electric? If you like sites with no electrics there is nothing stopping you not using the electric supply and there are plenty of sites with no electric especially CS sites. Anyway what is wrong with having a TV, satellite or even a laptop as that may be that person's way of relaxing. We cannot go out at night so we find having a TV very useful. After all we PAID for a caravan with electrics!

Generally I have to say I'm happy to discriminate against anyone. There are less and less sites without electric! We can't all afford sites with all the bells and whistles!! Many sites will not reduce price to account for not using electrics!

 

[Martin24]

Thank you David O for all your helpful advice. It really was appreciated. I think we will definately have 8 hook ups and it was also useful to know the size of septic tank to put in. I also had wondered how much waste to expect so that answered that question. We are going to have an information room and I have loads of books to start a library. I want to landscape the site with more trees and shrubs to make it even more attractive. I really want people to enjoy coming and to want to come back again.

To Surfer - I would be interested in your contact. How do I contact you or Parksy?

To Martin 24 - We were going to start with a non hook up site but after seeing the difference in bookings between non hook up and hook up sites it made more business sense to go with hook up. I would not object to people booking for non electric and would provide a discount. In fact for those who are not tied to having to be cabled up to electric, the choice of pitch would be far greater as we have a few spare acres depending on how far you want to walk to the waste.

I think we would provide one tariff and monitor the electricity useage to see how it goes.

That's much more obliging than most who will not discount the price if we don't want electrics, Thank you for taking that approach!

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Brill. Many thanks.

What part of the world are you Lady C?

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I could forego the iPod.

Actually my i Pod saves on electricity and is ideal for use when off ehu and dependent on 12v battery power.
I connect it to the cd player in the caravan and because the iPod is digital and uses no motor drive which a cd player does I can still play most of my cd library and use less power at the same time.
An iPod means that I don't have to lug boxes of compact disks around between home, the car and the caravan either

I'll pass on the hair straighteners though

I'm foregoing it because I haven't got one

I have a similar Samsung music player which I charge up at home ready and that will last me a week. I usually listen to it when I go to bed and have been known to wake up hours later with it still playing. I've got over 11 hours of tracks on there so enough to last me a while before it repeats itself.

 

[Parksy]

That's exactly the same reason as for why I'm foregoing the hair straighteners, plus the fact that I've got less hair left to straighten now

Lady C, if your new site has got some spare acres have you considered opening up a rally field or a separate area for tents?
Both need less resources, well organised caravan rallies can provide a steady all year round income. Rallies don't require electric bollards, just a fresh water tap and an elsan point, preferably nowhere near to the drinking water tap and hopefully with a separate tap to wash out the toilet cassettes and to keep the elsan point clean.

 

[Surfer]

Moderator Note:
Deliberately provocative post removed, as will any more be.

Damian-Moderator