# ACSI + Electric Charges



## QFour (Oct 10, 2017)

Just been on a site in Playa de Mazzaron .. Used ACSI card and stayed for 7 days. You get 7kw electric free but they still managed to charge us an extra €15 for extra electric. Have now moved site and using gas for fridge and couple of hours electric to charge batteries.

We have 150w solar and all lights are LED.

It did seem excessive but how do you argue it. They just say you have used it and it's very difficult to prove otherwise.

..


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## jagmanx (Oct 10, 2017)

*Maybe*

The fridge
Run it off gas if paying for Leccy

Lights etc OK even laptop TV

Proper Leccy types will confirm or not ?


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## witzend (Oct 10, 2017)

Meters are available on ebay meters  Just fit it in your EHU lead


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## wildebus (Oct 10, 2017)

QFour said:


> Just been on a site in Playa de Mazzaron .. Used ACSI card and stayed for 7 days. You get 7kw electric free but they still managed to charge us an extra €15 for extra electric. Have now moved site and using gas for fridge and couple of hours electric to charge batteries.
> 
> We have 150w solar and all lights are LED.
> 
> ...



What is their rate per kW?!
Sounds like the "free 7kW" is a little taster to con you in to excessive charges


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## Deleted user 48797 (Oct 10, 2017)

That seems excessive, if we stay anywhere with charges I read the meter regularly and use my phone to take photos before and after.


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## jagmanx (Oct 10, 2017)

*£2 or Euros a day is OK*



QFour said:


> Just been on a site in Playa de Mazzaron .. Used ACSI card and stayed for 7 days. You get 7kw electric free but they still managed to charge us an extra €15 for extra electric. Have now moved site and using gas for fridge and couple of hours electric to charge batteries.
> 
> We have 150w solar and all lights are LED.
> 
> ...



As long as you know
In UK they want £4 or £5 a day ...NO WAY !!!


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## r4dent (Oct 10, 2017)

QFour said:


> .... stayed for 7 days. You get 7kw electric free but they still managed to charge us an extra €15 for extra electric. ..



Are you sure they offered 7 kw free?  I suspect they offered 7 kwh for free?  

7kw is a rate of power supply not an amount. 
7kw draws about 30 amps and to use 30 amps is very excessive!
The most I've ever seen offered on a site is 16 amps.  The ring main in your house is limited to 13 amps. 

7kwh is 7kw for 1 hour or 1kw for 7 hrs or 1/2 kw for 14 hrs or any other combination where usage rate x hours = 7.

As a guide these are the kw of things you may have in your caravan:-   
  Battery Charger  =   0.25  kw    /    1000w   heater     =  1      kw /   2000w heater =   2  kw   /   
 Caravan low wattage Kettle =   0.75  kw /    Household  Kettle    =         3    kw / Fridge	=                              0.15    kw / Air Con Unit	                      1  kw   /  Microwave =                       1.2    kw  /   T V = 0.06  kw 
To work out our many kwh you used multiply the kw by how many hours you used it.
e.g. having the TV on has background noise from 0800 to midnight everyday = 0.06kw * 20 hours * 7 days = 8.4 kw
Boiling a household kettle 3 times a day at 5 minutes each time = 3kw * 1/4 hr * 7 = 5.25 kw

A  moho fridge typically uses 3 kwh  (0.15kw * 24 hrs =3kwh) every day. So your fridge alone used over 20 kwh during the week !

Unless you are under a heavy canvas (common on Spanish sites to provide shade) don't bother paying for mains just to charge the batteries.  
We've just got back from 7 weeks over there with typically 5 -10 days at each site.  We never used EHU, our 100w solar kept the batteries charged.
We ran the fridge / hot water / cooking on gas and the TV (but not 20 hours a day) on 12v.


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## jagmanx (Oct 10, 2017)

*A moho fridge typically uses 3 kwh (0.15kw * 24 hrs =3kwh) every day. So your fridge*

Useful info
Thanks

Ps We rarely use EHU
120watt solar 1 x 85 Amp-hr LB

Just laptop (12V) and USB devices.
Fridge on Gas (LPG - Gasit)

LB never below 12.6V


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## iampatman (Oct 10, 2017)

We have spent the last few winters at the campsite mentioned. The free allowance is 7kwh averaged over the period you stay. So if you stayed two days and used 1kwh on the first day and 13 on the second you would not pay any extra for your electricity use. At any time the site will give you a print out of your electricity consumption as per the attached. We have always exceeded our allowance mainly because of the motorhome fridge being power hungry, we could switch to Gas for the fridge but we have a refillable Gas system and the 22kg of Gas we arrive with would not last us the full period of time we stay here and it’s a ball ache to take down the awning, disconnect the plumbing etc and drive off to fill up with Gas. 
Unfortunately we do not have access to the meters here so it is a matter of trust when folk are told what their electricity consumption has been. It is also a point of endless discussion (if you can be arsed getting involved) between folk who spend the winter here and rock up with washing machines, fridge freezers and other appliances and claim they never spend a euro extra on their electricity and folk with self contained motorhomes who sometimes pay extra. The extra charge btw is 35cents per kWh over your allowance.






Pat


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## wildebus (Oct 10, 2017)

iampatman said:


> We have spent the last few winters at the campsite mentioned. The free allowance is 7kwh averaged over the period you stay. So if you stayed two days and used 1kwh on the first day and 13 on the second you would not pay any extra for your electricity use. At any time the site will give you a print out of your electricity consumption as per the attached. We have always exceeded our allowance mainly because of the motorhome fridge being power hungry, we could switch to Gas for the fridge but we have a refillable Gas system and the 22kg of Gas we arrive with would not last us the full period of time we stay here and it’s a ball ache to take down the awning, disconnect the plumbing etc and drive off to fill up with Gas.
> Unfortunately we do not have access to the meters here so it is a matter of trust when folk are told what their electricity consumption has been. It is also a point of endless discussion (if you can be arsed getting involved) between folk who spend the winter here and rock up with washing machines, fridge freezers and other appliances and claim they never spend a euro extra on their electricity and folk with self contained motorhomes who sometimes pay extra. The extra charge btw is 35cents per kWh over your allowance.
> 
> View attachment 58433
> ...


so you get 7kWh per day? 
35c/kWh is not that excessive a rate really, but @35c/kWh when over your allowance, you would have to use over 90kWh of electricity in 7 days to get a bill of €15.  That seems an awful lot of power to be using in a week in a van?


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## ScamperVan (Oct 10, 2017)

35c/KW is very good - 50-85c in some Austrian ones over the winter.


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## Fletch6 (Oct 10, 2017)

.


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## BKen2 (Oct 10, 2017)

QFour said:


> Just been on a site in Playa de Mazzaron .. Used ACSI card and stayed for 7 days. You get 7kw electric free but they still managed to charge us an extra €15 for extra electric. Have now moved site and using gas for fridge and couple of hours electric to charge batteries.
> 
> We have 150w solar and all lights are LED.
> 
> ...


Stayed there many times (once this Year)usually 4/5 days with the ACSI card.We use the EHU for charging van batteries and  fridge.
 Cooking and boiling kettle all gas never been charged for extra Electricity ....... do you have a micro wave ,elect cooker/oven ,hair dryer/curlers, air con unit, fans,radio,charger for electric bikes etc running off the mains if so they will put you over the allowance. Will keep an eye on our next invoice probably end of this year.


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## QFour (Oct 10, 2017)

Sounds like we just got stitched up. We have stayed on the site before and got charged for a couple of kw that's all. This time don't know what happened. You live and learn. We are on a site now and running on gas. Been plugged in a couple of times just to charge the batteries. Pitch has lot of shade in the wrong place. No ACSI pitches available so have to pay for all electric.

Only have tv on for an hour in the evening. No microwave but do have bike battery charger but it's surely not going to use that much power.

Fridge seems to work better on gas just got to get refilled at LPG garage down the road.

..

Thanks for all the replies ..

..


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