Electricity usage

[newcampers]

Hi all.

I'm looking to finally get away for a week in the summer with our 1 year old.

I'm looking to go down to Devon.

All the sites I've found use metered electric.
I know its not something anyone can be specific on but generally what sort of usage/cost would I been looking

I have the basics In the van
Fridge, TV, lighting.
i do also have a air conditioner as the wofe gets too hot its apparently a low energy one designed for caravans its a Eurom AC2401 if anyone has one.

Any ideas on how expensive camping is going to be ?

 

[DeauxChevaux]

I guess you need to look at the power consumption of each item, we have LED lights throughout so use very little but if you have anything else it will be less efficient, aircon will use 500 watts so will add up, fridge, toaster, kettle, microwave, oven battery charger etc, find out their power consumption and add it all up taking into account how much you will use it and then you can work out what it might cost you

 

[Beardy]

It's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. What I can tell you is that in summer me and Mrs Beardy use around 7-8 kW per day. That's 2 showers, another tank of water for washing up etc. Heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and a split of electric and gas for cooking. Conversly, we were away for a short break a couple of weeks ago with the temperature dropping to near freezing over night (and not much higher during the day). The heating was on constantly while we were in the caravan. We used around 30 kW per day. The caravan sharing our EHU post used pretty much the same. Cost wise it will depend on the rate the site you stay on charges, it can vary quite a lot.

 

[ProfJohnL]

As you your self have said its difficult to be specific as it all depends on what item you use and for how long, that will give you an idea of the kWh energy you might consume, but that will vary with the temperature and the hours of daylight, and even if it rains.

However it is often simplest to set up and discover how much you have used (assuming you have a metered supply), then if its looking too expensive consider how you might reduce that usage without loosing comfort. Remembering to turn things off when you have stopped using them is a great start.

Often the most surprising appliances that seem to use more power than you might imagine, are lights, which tend to be used for long times, TV's also run them for 3 to 4 hours, and the power used begins to add up. Thankfully modern LED lighting and smaller TV's can be much better than halogen bulbs and older tV sets.

For some electrical items you might be able to choose or use the 12V ddc system which can reduce your peak loads on the 230Vac EHU.