Is EHU metering a good investment?

Agree with your post. The club likes to promote 'fairness' and this could be interpreted in a few ways...

how about.... 'we are going to refurb loads of sites, it will cost a packet (we tell you repeatedly in the mag) but all members will pay the same as we are putting up fees and membership subs to cover the costs'

Or this...'we are going to install electricity meters on every pitch so that all customers get an accurate measure of the amount of electricity they use and will pay accordingly.'

what we (customers) need is a bit of carrot and stick (the above options) to keep us on side...the stick is that installing meters will cost money and we all need to pay for them, the carrot is that, for frugal users, your site fees might go down...

folk don't mind investment (and some cost) if they can see some tangible benefit (in their pocket) at the end of the process.

as mentioned earlier, a notice in the gents won't make a happeth of difference to members' attitudes to saving electricity....they'll do what they've always done.

If the club offers (in effect) a decent discount it might make a difference....?

the key is that measure of 'discount'...the price for a non EHU pitch.

It certainly has to be pitched right, folk used to camping off grid in the summer at CLs and THS sites (OK, no shower block) will have been paying between (say) £10-12 (THS) and £15-17 (non EHU CL) if the club can't get anywhere near this (they won't be able to) then I can't see 'the sort of folk who camp this way' being persuaded to stump up a summer time price of (say) £25-£30 without any electric.

For info, the New Forest Centenary site, mentioned a few times earlier, has a non peak summertime price of £36 for a non electric price (in fact it's THE non EHU pitch, there's only one on the plan), £6.90 less than a similar grass with EHU pitch....peak is £39.40...that's a shed load of cash for a parking spot and a shower...

at the back end of September it's possible to get a 'bargain' non EHU pitch at £31.50.

I think the biggest issue will be where the club sets its base price...but that's possibly restricted by the reselling regs...is £6.90 the differential on every site? If different, is this possible because the club is selling 'access to a bollard' rather than the estimated electricity usage per night?

at least with an EHU, customers 'feel' they're getting something for their money, take that away but don't pitch the base price low enough and naked pitches suddenly seem pretty expensive.

Well said YT!

how about.... 'we are going to refurb loads of sites, it will cost a packet (we tell you repeatedly in the mag) but all members will pay the same as we are putting up fees and membership subs to cover the costs'

Or this...

Or this perhaps,

this is what we're going to do with our sites and our prices are clearly displayed for membership and staying on them. Also we're basing this on the demand that we see on our club sites and that SP and refurbishments do really bring in a lot of money. So really the ball is in your court. You can either pay to be a member and pay to stay on our sites and be a part of it or you can opt to go elsewhere. We are not forcing anyone to join, stay with us or be in any way on side, in fact what what we see in that many people vote with their money and wheels to stay with us and we feel that many are on side already and we don't need to make anyone more on side. I mean look at the amount of money we made at Seacroft over Christmas with all SP taken and 80% of them motorhomes, we think it what people want. 

 what we (customers) need is a bit of carrot and stick (the above options) to keep us on side 

what we need? how you can speak for all the customers surely you're only speaking for yourself here, and again do we need to be kept on side? Most people using club sites already. You aren't going to club sites so why not leave it to those that do? and they can decide by using club sites.

Well other sites have high costs too and they are paid by those visiting?, I assume what they mean is they won't get anyone to come to their site to pay for those higher prices. I have no idea why, maybe it's just not an attractive site or the location? 

Of course they could open as a basic non EHU site, we're often told on CT that there is a huge demand for this?

They could perhaps continue on a "non EHU' basis with a competitive price rather than shut down the business.

We're not going to see an approach like that with CAMC which as has been suggested in this thread the stance was summarised as "Pay up or push off. We've got enough punters who will pay whatever we ask".

I have tried checking up on this but I cannot even find where I read about it but I vaguely remembered the name of the site.  I think I found their web site and there is now no mention of a campsite and it looks like this was not a major part of the business. My guess is they considered the side line no longer worth running at the high prices they would have to charge. It is possible they have just closed for the winter but this seems unlikely. Maybe they will reopen with meters fitted?

peedee

Yes hope so, but it's unlikely as they would have to spend money to install them? 

Some may consider it worth it.

peedee

The problem with running it as a side line is there is a fair chance they didn’t give it the attention it required and they failed to future proof prices. That’s fine when prices are rising slowly, but when you get the current situation of rapidly rising prices, particularly for energy, it would mean a very large jump. Folk who stayed last year are perhaps going to bulk at a £10 to £15 increase, where as they wouldn’t if it had increased more slowly. Even if they went non EHU they might not be in a position to lower prices and make a profit, which is hardly going to sit well with past customers.

I wouldn't mind meters going in on sites but not if it increased the nightly rate of the pitch. Where would the benefit be with that.

I would like the option of no ehu but not on the pitch at the bottom of the site in the corner under the trees on grass, thank you very much. The option should be on every pitch on the site even SPs

We use metered pitches while visiting other countries, one we used last year had started to charge for electricity since our visit in 2021. Each pitch had a meter on it which was read on arrival and again on departure, the cost was then charged to your account if you were over the allocated daily rate. They didn't close the site to install the meters it didn't take all year to do the 100+ pitches they have.

Why do sites have to have different suppliers of electricity?  the firm I worked for before retiring had offices all over Scotland. I remember when all offices came under the same electricity contract with one company. Standing charges will be paid differently due to each area being charged a different rate. Surely an electricity supplier would jump at the chance of taking on a single contract for the clubs sites. I'm aware that the club could not charge more than they are paying for electricity  but couldn't it be averaged out across all sites rather than working out a price for each individual site. 

I think I'm right in saying that the C&CC have a standard rate difference for non ehu pitches across their network, happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.