A Conversation at the NEC

Interesting comments KJ. We've all been subsidised through the last few months by gov.uk (well it's our money but it has helped to have some returned to us.) Businesses like CAMC have had to take the strain on their own. How things work out for any of us when the subsidies stop, prices go up further and energy costs remain volatile is anyone's guess but the coming year is not going to be easy for commercial enterprises either. I do hope the club succeeds in pulling through, I think it was a shock to them when they saw energy costs rising at an alarming rate but if prices go up I would expect to see efforts on savings happening too. Energy consumption on a grand scale is very wasteful.

Ttda, I agree. The Club knows its clientele very well. It sees the sort of caravans and motorhomes the members buy  - vehicles fitted with every sort of computerised convenience and comfort, ever bigger and grander. . Simple camping has gone - and the Club is providing sites to meet the requirements of the majority of its members. Not me and not you. but we are the minority and we plough our own furrow. And I am happy that way.

I was very surprised that the Club did not have good fixed price contracts lasting longer, or had not taken out new ones as soon as they  could.  Presumably they did not expect the high prices of fuels to last so long.

Very few domestic customers will now still be on fixed rates, so the price guarantees for we ordinary folk have been good, but, while we are fortunate to have savings we can use, many people have no option but to cut back, which we have also been doing.   The present prices are about 2.5 to 3 times what we used to pay, so savings have to be made.  

We have saved on gas and electricity by heating less of the house, and turning a few things off, and I would agree that the  Club needs to make more effort to get members to use less, rather than just increasing prices all the time.  

Metering will certainly concentrate the mind for most of us.      Hopefully it will also keep pitch fees more reasonable, the level they are at now for these extended peak periods is eye watering. Just glad we can also spend time away at other times, though even then we find most Club sites are not VFM for us.

Currently searching for suitable CLs and commercials for our June/July trip.  There is better VFM out there.

That’s an interesting point, what were the consequences of not running that aeration pump as often? I can see it not being as necessary during the cold months but as it warms up it may be required more. The lake owner has hopefully done his homework and found sensible ways to cut costs with hopefully no detriment to the inhabitants, fish or fishermen alike. Though that begs the question was it really necessary in the past to run those pumps so often?
We all have to do the same at home and on holidays now. We are all in this boat together aren't we? Some I feel, when it comes to site usage, only care for their own ‘comfort’ and are not mindful to the plight of others mind. This observation I’ve concluded from similar threads about electric consumption in the past. Either we all change our habits or changes like metering will happen and I’m sure non of us will find that a painless cost cutting exercise.

This fan heater at home uses approx 4-5 pence of electricity per hour, we normally only heat the awning for a couple of hours in the evening whilst we eat, i should say we do not have a TV so never sit in the caravan watching television, have no idea how much electricity a TV uses per hour but some folk seem to have them on from dawn to dusk.

Surely Rufs, you must be a bit out with your estimation of costs of your fan heater or you have a very, very low output fan heater, about 160 Watts in my calculation with the equivalent heat output of three 60W incandescent light bulbs. I've never seen one below 500 watts and most are 1000 and/or 2000 Watts. Even at 500 watts the cost to run it would be over £0.17 per hour and that is at domestic tariffs not the generally higher commercial rates.

As for television, a typical and commonly used Avtex tv is 26 Watts so, at the government's capped price of £0.34 per kilowatt, this equates to less than one penny per hour to watch tv. Not really any comparison with a fan heater.

Please scream at me if you think I have got these calculations wildly wrong.

That’s an interesting point, what were the consequences of not running that aeration pump as often? I can see it not being as necessary during the cold months but as it warms up it may be required more. The lake owner has hopefully done his homework and found sensible ways to cut costs with hopefully no detriment to the inhabitants, fish or fishermen alike. Though that begs the question was it really necessary in the past to run those pumps so often?

Mine was not to reason why Mickysf. I'm sure though that the owner knew how to look after his stock, a lot better than I would. His livelihood after all.

I take your point Wn, but that’s part of the problem. Like I said, it was either necessary to run the pump as frequently or it was frivolous. We rely totally on others to make the right decisions but unfortunately, as we see so often these days, there is more to a right decision than meets the eye, or so we are told. I’m currently in Spain and guess what, I see no evidence of fruit and veg shortages in the supermarkets or greengrocers here. I only mention this as many will reason why! Maybe we should more often.

not screaming as cant really dispute your figures as i have no idea what the going rate for lecce is on a campsite, at home we are on a 3 year fixed tariff at 12.5 pence per kw so i guess if the blower on thermostat is only running for a total of 30 mins then you get something like 6 pence, surprised a TV is so low on power, but as said dont have one in the caravan, however, if things like a TV etc are so low on power i am puzzled as to how the lecce consumption on sights has risen so much, well that is what the club say.

I have spent a couple of hours this morning looking at sites, I've booked one non facility CAMC site for a night, around £21 and I'm now looking at CLs etc which are also much the same. I found one for £16 where EHU is metered and there is an option to go without which is helpful. These searches are getting harder but there are still some reasonable choices out there but I can't justify paying some of the CAMC prices.

You're obviously on a very good deal, Rufs. Most people that I have spoken to locally say that their electric price now is close to, if not actually at, the governments capped figure of £0.34 per unit. A CL that we know have metered pitches. Their commercial rate for electric is £1.05 per kW which is the price that they charge users via the meter. At that rate it is probably cheaper to heat water and run the fridge etc using LPG.