How to thrive on a non 240v site!

I of course don't have any expectation that anything will change.  We all might have opinions of what direction the club should take.  However the leadership have proclaimed their PISI values and that's what we should measure them against.   

Going back to topic, I have just bought a Safefill and can thoroughly recommend Andys Gas - Bristol (Just off M4 J17 Cribbs Causeway Bristol) if your heading to the west country.

Just off the motorway and a really nice guy, there is plenty of room to turn a caravan/motorhome and LPG is 42p per litre

Thanks harrib0- funny, I very nearly paid a visit when I was visiting my daughter in Bristol last month. 42p- I should have done! 

Pippah, I know you said that you had had some sort of trouble with a USB chargeable toothbrush but the one we purchased from Amazon has been superb. Yet another thing that the non EHUer doesn't have to do without thanks to modern tech - an electric toothbrush! We no longer have to use a small inverter (75w) that supples 240v that plugged directly into one of the 2 x 12v sockets on board. We can now use a 3 gang USB from one socket and charge all we need to whether internet module, phones, tablets or toothbrush. Life just keeps getting better.

Merve, you're right I've found that by using a little imagination allows for various innovations when going off grid. For example, I bought a power bank off eBay for £12. It will easily charge two powerless mobile phones   with extra power to spare. I charge it during the day and use it to charge  the phones at night. We have owned 2 12v cool box fridges which were used on our various French trips of yesteryear when we had 4 kids to feed and water. These were powered through a transformer that converted 230 to 12v. Just today I booked a ferry crossing over to France for a 16 day Dordogne holiday in August. We have just one 14 year old to take care of now so I'm thinking that just one of the cool boxes will suffice. My idea is to power it directly through the day, as I have recently successfully demonstrated that my 150 watt SP will easily power this and recharge my battery. At nightfall, I will switch it off and place my Freezer blocks which have frozen through the day using my cheap gas safely secured in my Safefill cylinder. It's all good fun.....I don't sound too smug do I?

It's all part of the adventure kelvin isn't it?  I felt much less adventurous recently in France with EHU freely available.  Only one site had a reduction for not hooking up. (but I felt unable to use those pitches due to increasingly incontinent dog needing to be near exit!).

Merve I have lost 2 toothbrush chargers off grid the first with the inverter but I am not sure the adaptor socket was correctly fused.  And the second went on the 12v plug thingy. I haven't tried a USB.  The second one was replaced by the supplier as faulty although they didn't know I had been using 12v .  I haven't been off grid since so don't know if the fused adaptor will work.  I may just go back to the battery toothbrush that's tucked away somewhere!  

Hi Pippa45

We, along with some friends, are planning to stay down in the Dordogne area during August. It is around 12 years since we were last there having previously booked a package through the club. I have booked our ferries, again through the club, and have been busily searching for sites and am now confident that we don't require EHU. Am I right in saying that, on most sites, EHU is optional?  The reason I ask is that when searching through the 'Tariff' on respective websites there is usually a separate charge for the emplacement, each adult, and electric. I note that the electric usually averages out at around 3 to 4 Euros per night.

I have identified various Camping Municipals simply by using Google Earth and typing CM into the search. It's amazing what comes up.

I would welcome any feedback from other members regarding their experiences of this wonderful area.

Hope you have a fabulous time in the Dordogne Kevlon, a truly beautiful part of France. It would be nice if EHU sites in this country  advertised a price w/o EHU? Can't think I've ever seen that? Now there's food for thought...................

Merve, C&CC structure their prices from the bottom up....

basic grass pitch

add hs

add ehu

add hs and ehu

add hs, ehu and water/drainage (super pitch)

from memory, adding ehu is £4.25 over the basic price, currently.

so, a £30 a week saving against CC where this flexibility is only available at a very few of their sites.

Kevlon my experience in France has been limited to ACSI sites (no Municipals open where and when I needed).  Of the 6 or so sites I used this year only one had pitches without EHU at - 5€ per night of the pitch price that I noticed.  But I didn't actively look on this trip as it was a family emergency and I left home without the Safefill adaptor.  Now I know it might be on offer I will  be more vigilant in future!