Electricity usage on site…what’s..

[jimmyg352]

A ballpark average usage for a day?
2 adults only, water heating on timed for about 4 hours (obviously not being used for that long) fridge, TV for about 4 hours (plugged into the 12v feed) no central heating on at all, solar panel seems to be working.
Reason for asking is that we’ve just come back from holiday on a lovely CL site where an allowance of 10KW per day was included in the price. I was quite surprised when we ran out of leccy the morning before we left. I topped up another 10KW for £3.30 yesterday morning but it had gone again this morning. We had had 3 BBQ’s during the week & ate out last night so it’s not like we were using much for cooking.
Yes, I realise it’s dependent on lots of factors but I’m just wondering what other people get through.
The other worry is, could something be draining it?
Thanks.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

You don't say what size fridge you have. The larger fridges fitted in the newer vans probably use more juice than the smaller fridges fitted in older vans.
Running the telly on 12 volt probably not going to make much difference to consumption as your battery charger will probably be working a bit harder to keep your battery topped up.
You say you have solar and run your TV off 12 volt so I wonder what gas you are using?
Have you considered running the fridge, water heating etc on gas? Possibly consider getting a refillable bottle? Pricey to purchase but cheaper to run.
You could then seriously consider using off-grid CL 's to really reduce your consumption.

 

[trevormonty]

3way fridge use about 200w so could account for 4-5kw. Water heater if using caravan showers. Still seems lot given you didn't use heater.

 

[jimmyg352]

You don't say what size fridge you have. The larger fridges fitted in the newer vans probably use more juice than the smaller fridges fitted in older vans.
Running the telly on 12 volt probably not going to make much difference to consumption as your battery charger will probably be working a bit harder to keep your battery topped up.
You say you have solar and run your TV off 12 volt so I wonder what gas you are using?
Have you considered running the fridge, water heating etc on gas? Possibly consider getting a refillable bottle? Pricey to purchase but cheaper to run.
You could then seriously consider using off-grid CL 's to really reduce your consumption.

How to reduce consumption wasn’t really the question (however it’s good to know the shortcuts) I’m trying to find out what other people get through in case I’ve got a fault in the electrics.

 

[Mel]

We were on a metered CL in Harrogate in March. We ran the heating and hot water sparingly on electric, fridge on electric, cooked on gas. We were out quite a bit during the day. I seem to remember about £3 a day. We do have a solar panel, although no idea if that helped. 2 adults. 2 berth van blown air heating.
mel

 

[Mr Plodd]

Below is what I posted a couple of weeks ago on another forum.

I installed a power meter that shows volts, amps, Watts and, most importantly, cumulative usage.
I have just spent 5 nights on site with EHU. The items in use were the Truma Combi just on electric, a single induction hob, about 10 minutes in total of a 7450w microwave, and about 5 hours in total of TV plus internal lights (all LED) and charging 2 phones and 2 tablets.
We didn't use very much hot water as we used the sites facilities for both showering and washing up. Meals were not exactly lavish and neither did they take much time, and by and large all done on the induction hob, so I would say our usage was pretty limited.

Over the 5 nights we used 38 kwh which surprised me as I didn't think it would be anything near that much.
So at say 26p per Kwh that works out at roughly £10.0 or £2.0 per night.
If you mulitply that daily figure by 30 then my monthly electricity use would be just a fraction under £60.0

JUST for the few items listed above. So it's easy to see why many sites are installing meters isnt it? Just think what the cost would be if you used electric heating in the depths of winter.

I just thought I would post my actual real life consumption to give a sort of benchmark for others, so please don't start posting about "Well if you use a Safefill you would save a fortune" etc as that debate has been well and truly done to death previously.

 

[jimmyg352]

We were on a metered CL in Harrogate in March. We ran the heating and hot water sparingly on electric, fridge on electric, cooked on gas. We were out quite a bit during the day. I seem to remember about £3 a day. We do have a solar panel, although no idea if that helped. 2 adults. 2 berth van blown air heating.
mel

That’s around the same as us. I reckon it cost us about £3.40/£3.50 a day, even though we had no ‘central’ heating on.

 

[jimmyg352]

Below is what I posted a couple of weeks ago on another forum.

I installed a power meter that shows volts, amps, Watts and, most importantly, cumulative usage.
I have just spent 5 nights on site with EHU. The items in use were the Truma Combi just on electric, a single induction hob, about 10 minutes in total of a 7450w microwave, and about 5 hours in total of TV plus internal lights (all LED) and charging 2 phones and 2 tablets.
We didn't use very much hot water as we used the sites facilities for both showering and washing up. Meals were not exactly lavish and neither did they take much time, and by and large all done on the induction hob, so I would say our usage was pretty limited.

Over the 5 nights we used 38 kwh which surprised me as I didn't think it would be anything near that much.
So at say 26p per Kwh that works out at roughly £10.0 or £2.0 per night.
If you mulitply that daily figure by 30 then my monthly electricity use would be just a fraction under £60.0

JUST for the few items listed above. So it's easy to see why many sites are installing meters isnt it? Just think what the cost would be if you used electric heating in the depths of winter.

I just thought I would post my actual real life consumption to give a sort of benchmark for others, so please don't start posting about "Well if you use a Safefill you would save a fortune" etc as that debate has been well and truly done to death previously.

Thanks Plod, it’s not so much the cost I was wondering about, more the KW’s we were using per day on average.

 

[Mr Plodd]

Thanks Plod, it’s not so much the cost I was wondering about, more the KW’s we were using per day on average.

I did put my usage in the post. Along with what appliiances were used.

I used 38kwh over 5 days That's 7.6Kwh per day.

 

[jimmyg352]

I did put my usage in the post. Along with what appliiances were used.

I used 38kwh over 5 days That's 7.6Kwh per day.

Yes I saw that, dunno why we were using so much!
Oh hang on….wife’s hair dryer & straighteners! Forgot about those! 🤔🤔

 

[ProfJohnL]

3way fridge use about 200w so could account for 4-5kw. Water heater if using caravan showers. Still seems lot given you didn't use heater.

That's a lot of power the element is typically rated at about 120 to 150W, but its thermostatically controlled and most fridge manufactures do suggest a typical daily usage figure of a bout 2.5kWh

 

[trevormonty]

That's a lot of power the element is typically rated at about 120 to 150W, but its thermostatically controlled and most fridge manufactures do suggest a typical daily usage figure of a bout 2.5kWh

That 200w was quick google of modern 3way fridge. They are lot more power hungry than compressor fridges. My 20yr old 3way specs says it uses 250gm of gas per 24hrs so month running from 9kg bottle in theory, not put it to test yet.

With EVs becoming more common I can see why sites would start to charge per kwh.

 

[Buckman]

Wouldn't the battery charging while connected to 240v also consume power?

 

[Paullus1959]

Unlike the solar panels on the roofs of houses, the one on your caravan won't reduce your mains electricity consumption, it only charges the 12v battery.
Do you have an electric kettle because they eat electricity even though they're only on for a relatively short time?

 

[Paullus1959]

With EVs becoming more common I can see why sites would start to charge per kwh.

There is an additional problem with EV's in that the wiring of the EHU posts on pitches was never intended for the high drain EV's require. The owner of the site in Cornwall I stayed at recently had a guy surreptitiously charging his EV, despite the signs stating quite clearly not to, and the socket in the EHU post melted destroying both the socket and the EV charging cable plug.

 

[ProfJohnL]

...
Do you have an electric kettle because they eat electricity even though they're only on for a relatively short time?

At home our 3kW kettle is used about 6 times a day to boil two mug fulls of water. It takes about 2.5 minutes which equates 15 mins per day or 0.75 kWh of energy.

Not immediately relevant to the mains power, nut it's a similar situation, when using caravan movers, people feel that because the have a large current usage, they're going to quickly use up the battery charge, when because they are only used for probably less than 5 mins, they typically use less than 1 to2 Ah's of battery capacity.

The other surprise is that the old halogen and fluorescent bulbs that were typically used in caravans, each consumed about 1Ah for every hour they were turned on.

It's the incipid long term draws that can build up the kWhs, and as Buckman pointed out if your mains charging the 12V battery that will also draw power and build up a kWh deficit over time.

Edit, I have just checked how long it took to for my kettle to boil 750ml of water 1:38 seconds so I have to revise my estimate of daily usage down to 0.5kWh per day

 

[Sam Vimes]

There's a pedant on every forum and today its me So, apologies to everyone on this thread who already knows what I'm writing but there could be people viewing this who don't.

Electrical items have a Power rating ( or loading) that's given in Watts (w) or Kilowatts (Kw). When we use them we have to pay for the energy provided to run them. This is measured in Kilowatt - Hours (Kwh). Meaning that if you have a 1Kw kettle on for 1 hour you use 1Kwh and this is what you'll pay for.

Ok, with that out of the way consider....

1. Caravan water heater - mine has selectable loadings of 500, 1000, 2000 watts. So at the highest setting and running for 1hour it will use 2Kwh of energy.

The thermostat is there to minimise the energy but if there's a problem like a small water leak on the hot water side then it could be on for longer.

(As an aside somebody in our house left a shower tap slightly open the other day and drained a complete tank of free hot water from the solar panels, overnight)

2. Space heater is similarly rated as the water heater but I'm sure you'd notice if it was running more than necessary.

However, running at full power its still 2Kwh for an hours use.

3. Fridge - my fridge is rated at 135w. If its on for 50% of the time then thats 1.62Kwh. If the fridge has a problem such as poor seals, door left open, inadequate ventilation. If may be on longer than needed.


And finally one for Mr. Plodd - if you have a microwave with a power rating of 7450w - 7.45Kw then I wouldn't advise standing anywhere near it when its fired up unless you're wearing an aluminium foil hat Normal ratings are between 700 - 1200 w and that's output power. They can typically run at 50% efficienct.

 

[otherclive]

Being another pedant don’t forget the fan on the blown air that adds to the selected heater current. Sorry in advance. 🤣

 

[Dustydog]

I too posted on another thread. Last November on a CL near Harrogate we had payg meter. Using heating pretty well 24/7 our cost over 5 days was £5.00 per day. Same site in the spring was about £2.50 per day

 

[jimmyg352]

Well judging by the replies it looks like we were using slightly over average. I blame the wife. She has a nasty habit of leaving the fridge door open while she’s faffing about, I keep telling her off but it’s like talking to a wall. What with that & the hair dryer & straighteners it’s no wonder we had to top up!

 

[Mel]

I have no idea if what I am about to say is right….but that has never stopped me before and I am sure that someone will correct me.

By law sites cannot charge for the metered electricity at any more than cost; but presumably some could charge less than cost. It may be that the (same) site that DD and I were on had their meters set at a lower tariff?
Mel

 

[Dustydog]

I have no idea if what I am about to say is right….but that has never stopped me before and I am sure that someone will correct me.

By law sites cannot charge for the metered electricity at any more than cost; but presumably some could charge less than cost. It may be that the (same) site that DD and I were on had their meters set at a lower tariff?
Mel

As far as I know Mel his meters are calibrated same as our domestic rate.

 

[Buckman]

I have no idea if what I am about to say is right….but that has never stopped me before and I am sure that someone will correct me.

By law sites cannot charge for the metered electricity at any more than cost; but presumably some could charge less than cost. It may be that the (same) site that DD and I were on had their meters set at a lower tariff?
Mel

However there is nothing stopping them charging £10 or more per day for using bollard and then in addition charging per kw for power used at the rate they pay. Totally legal and within the law.

 

[jimmyg352]

The site fees were £20 per night which included 10KW per day, (in other words for 9 nights we paid £180 including 90KW) the charge for an extra 10KW was £3.30. The price of the electricity was irrelevant.

 

[audiorob]

I know my daily usage at home so I could use this as a ballpark for an expected absolute max while using site EHU.