How would you feel about campgrounds installing electric meters at all sites?

Wayne

Wayne

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Staff member
We have been in some campgrounds that have no meters, some with some meters, and a couple where every site had it's own electric meter.

I think meters at each site is bound to happen at most campgrounds. Electricity is getting more expensive and many RVs have two A/Cs and use quite a bit of electricity, much more than RVs in the past. This would be a pay for consumption model.

How do you feel about paying for the electricity you use on top of the site daily rate? What rules should be in place to make sure you only pay for what you use?

Let's look at it from the other direction as well. Campground owners have to recover their electricity costs. Is if fair for a low electricity consumption RV to have to subsidize high consumption RVs at unmetered campgrounds?
 
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Must be a Midwest/west coast thing. I've not seen a meter yet on a campsite, even with the newly built site in TN we were at a few months back.

I could see billing people that are fulltimers and spend 3-4 weeks at a site, but for a couple-day-week stay, I'd probably look elsewhere if they metered my power. I would prefer it was budgeted into their nightly rate.

Same reason I like the Disney Dining Plan. I know full well the economics of the plan is skewed towards Disney, but when I go on vacation, I don't want to think about how much more I'm spending.

--Edit--

I have seen upcharges for 50a sites, however. Not sure how they police that. On your honor, I reckon, or they just glance at your trailer when you check in and if you have a 50a sized one they up-bill you.
 
only place I have seen metered sites is in private RV parks that cater to full timers..

realistically since the going rate seems to be about 50 dollars a day at most Parks, they are't losing money on electricity.
 
I don't know if I have been to a site that had individual meters. I will have to pay closer attention.
 
I know this is an extreme case, but the weather here has been extreme.

In the last four days with -15F at night and 0F for daytime highs, we have used about 40 lbs of propane. How is that possible? Because we have used, by my calculations, about 100kw of power per day. That's about $15/day in electricity. Heating mostly with electricity is a great way to keep the propane bill down, but it shifts the heating costs to the campground. We pay a flat rate of $100/month for an unmetered site and frankly, we are using more than $100/month. If I were the campground owner, I would install a meter at every site and about 50% of their sites already have meters. The campground has about 60 sites occupied with monthly renters. If each site used 100kw of power/day, that would be $900/day in electric costs for the campground or $27,000/month. Just electricity would chew up 50% of the revenue/month.
 
If I stayed at a campground where meters were mandatory, I would want some protections for my wallet.

  • The meter would have to clearly show beginning and ending readings.
  • The campground would have to record both readings before charging the customer for usage.
  • The electricity rate would have to be clearly displayed
  • There would need to be a safeguard from other campers using power from your pedestal.
I think if these safeguards were in place, then you could be assured you only pay for what you use. That's about as fair as it gets.
 
You big RV guys are probably going to cost us little RV guys money with this. We likely never use whatever amount of power is factored into the site rate. They aren't going to lower site rates because electricity is metered. Maybe it would be only on the 50A sites where you can really gobble up electrons with your 2 ACs and clothes dryer.
 
Azjeff said:
You big RV guys are probably going to cost us little RV guys money with this. We likely never use whatever amount of power is factored into the site rate. They aren't going to lower site rates because electricity is metered. Maybe it would be only on the 50A sites where you can really gobble up electrons with your 2 ACs and clothes dryer.
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Not if sites are metered, then everyone only pays for what they use. When there is no meter, the low consumers end up subsidizing the high consumers.

It's kind of like going out to dinner with friends and splitting the bill, when they drink up the town and you don't drink. You end up subsidizing their drinking.
 
Wayne, how much do you think it would cost to install individual electric meters at each site in compatrison to the few days of the year with maximum electrical usage.?.

lets face it, very few people stay in a RV in the winter..
 
I'm thinking if the site rate is $40/night now it will be $40/night plus electric if metered. Was also thinking what MSCH brought up, big capital expense and added labor to do final billing. Bigger deal where AC is used a lot maybe.
 
MSCH said:
Wayne, how much do you think it would cost to install individual electric meters at each site in comparison to the few days of the year with maximum electrical usage.?.
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How much to install? A lot, but I have no idea how much.

MSCH said:
lets face it, very few people stay in a RV in the winter..
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In the Northern tier where we are now, the campground is about 1/3 full. I drive past campground after campground in the north that are about 1/3 occupied in the winter with monthly renters. Campgrounds aren't just for camping anymore. In the warm southern tier snowbird areas, almost every site is full all winter. We stayed in a AZ snow-bird resort last winter and there were maybe 2% of the sites that were not full. Every site there had a meter. They are practically abandoned in the summer, but it was still cost advantageous to them to install meters at every site.

You do raise good questions. Without all the costs in front of us, it's pretty hard to say what makes meters worth the expense. Suffice to say that there are campground who can justify the cost of meters.
 
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tellya what, down where I live it can cost you 3000 dollars a month to stay in your RV in the winter months.
as a way of comparison what electricity costs, since it is a Floriduh house it is all electric, aka AC, stove, washer dryer, well all appliances are electric.. and the most I have ever laid out for electricity was in August and it was $310 bucks for a month.
I can't see a RV using much more than a house.
 
MSCH said:
tellya what, down where I live it can cost you 3000 dollars a month to stay in your RV in the winter months.
as a way of comparison what electricity costs, since it is a Floriduh house it is all electric, aka AC, stove, washer dryer, well all appliances are electric.. and the most I have ever laid out for electricity was in August and it was $310 bucks for a month.
I can't see a RV using much more than a house.
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310! What in the actual...I don't use that ever in Washington, to be fair our power is "Cheap", but dang!
 
ls1mike said:
310! What in the actual...I don't use that ever in Washington, to be fair our power is "Cheap", but dang!
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The average electric bill for a residence in Phoenix is around $300/month.

MSCH said:
true Campgrounds aren't for campers anymore.. sometimes they are for traveling mobile workers, full timers who follow the seasons and people bordering on homelessness. :)
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On our AZ-FLA-PA-AZ trip we stayed at 13 or 14 campgrounds and it was amazing how many permanent RVs there were. Some were likely weekenders but many were obviously being lived in. One was mostly traveling workers and one small new one seemed to be residents.
 
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