Metered Electricity - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Grant · RV-Dreams Family Member

Metered Electricity

emeacham · RV-Dreams Family Member

Grant, first, Congratulations on going fulltime! It's a great lifestyle!

We almost always use our propane water heater as opposed to the electric version. Generally we turn it on first thing in the morning, with the coffee. After showers and clean up, it goes off until later in the day for the evening clean ups.

As far as the fridge, we leave it on auto so it runs on electric most of the time.

We were in Arizona this past winter on a meter, and paid less than $50 per month for electric. Of course, it snowed for the first time in 28 years in Phoenix, so we were running the furnace and electric heater both quite a bit!

Wishing you a very happy, healthy time on the road!

Happy Travels smile

Ellie

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Depends on how much you have to pay for propane versus electricty. It varies by area and some places really have high prices for one or the other. The normal ratio for propane vs electricity is 22 kilowatt hour versus 1 gallon of propane for about the same energy. If it costs more for 22 kilowatt hours than one gallon of propane, use propane, otherwise electricity is cheaper.

Example 1:
Electric rate is 8c/kilowatt hour and propane is $2.00 gallon means that 22 kilowatt hours costs $1.76 so use electricity since it is cheaper

Example 2:
Electric rate is 16c/kilowatt hour and propane is $2.50 gallon means that 22 kilowatt hours costs $3.52 so use propane.

If the prices are almost the same do what is convenient.

Now if you have to drive 20 miles to fill a 40lb propane tank you have to account for the fuel cost unless you can combine it with a shopping trip. Also watch those sneaky taxes that sometimes get added to propane to increase the cost.

mcw50 · RV-Dreams Family Member

As was stated above, it all depends on the current rate in your area for electricity and for propane. We're in a motor home and our deciding factor is "how easy will it be to get propane refilled?" When we park for a long period of time, as we do in the winter, we make sure our propane tank is full before we park, and then use electricty for most everything except the furnace (and we use our electric heat pumps more than the furnace) A propane tanker/delivery service comes through our park three times a week, but he charges quite a bit more than Flying J which is twelve miles away. You have to decide if it's worth it to you to unhook all your utilities and pack up for a move, and have to re-park, just to get propane....or if you want to pay more $$$ for either the propane or electric. We can usually make it through the winter in AZ without having to refill.

Mary

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use the electricity. We also have a MH, and as Mary stated, it's a pain to go get propane, or very expensive to get it from the truck that comes around in the park.

We have found out that we average about $2.10 a day for electricity.

jdensie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi,
As a former campground owner in PA. I do have some insight on this. We charged between .11 to .13 cents/ kilowatt hr. over the 13 years I was there. From experience and testing by some of our seasonal campers we discovered that it cost +/- $20.00 to run the refer per month. To operate a 3-way refer it uses a heating element which is basically a controled direct short, same as running the water heater on electric. A standard B&S home refer, which has a compressor unit can operate using about $3.50 electric per month. We had some of our seasonal campers buy compressor units when their 3-ways failed. This is not advisable for fulltiming.

On propane in Pa. there is no tax on the sale of propane but the operator must buy a yearly propane license/tax certificate, and this cost is figured into the final cost of propane.

I went to some classes on electric meters and found out that a meter can never over rate usage. Most of the meters in our park ran at 94 - 98%, none where at 100%. But, they can be read wrong and depending on the reader and the type of meter there could be mistakes. We are all human and that happens.

We hope that this helps you and don't be surprised with your electric bill.

Have safe and uneventiful journeys.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Remember that Grant said he has a fifth wheel, so he should be using propane bottles. If something happens to my fixed propane tank in my motorhome I will be replacing it with a rack and three or four bottles. I will have less total propane capacity, but refilling will be much more convenient.

jdensie: Interesting numbers on propane/electric fridges. Those fridges also use more 12 volt than many expect, some use over 2 amps of DC, so some boondockers switch to compressor fridges, mostly the type used in solar homes which are even more efficient than home style ones like a Sunfrost Refrigerator.

Shop around for propane prices. Flying J usually has a good price. Sometimes the local gas company can put a propane tank next to your rig and fill it up cheaper than you can get it elsewhere, but the campground has to allow that and you have to sit still long enough to make it worthwhile.

D and J · RV-Dreams Family Member

One thing no one has mentioned yet is that your fridge cools better using gas than it does with the electric element. If you are in a warm area, you could have issues with the freezer when running on electric.

When dealing with a cold or cool water tank, we heat up the water with gas first, then switch over to electric, again gas works quicker than the electric element.

I have told you nothing about which is less money, but knowing which is more efficient might help you with your decision.

Personally, when it comes down to saving a few pennies, I just don't care. I'm already missing enough hair, and what is left is turning grey too quickly to sweat the small stuff!!!

At least, you have a 5th wheel, and you can remove the tank to have it filled. Also, one more thing to consider. . . if you are going to stay parked past the end of the year, a local gas company can also deliver a larger tank and connect it to your rig. If you find you are filling a tank every week or two, this can be a great option for your back!

-- Edited by D and J at 09:27, 2007-09-15

bago40 · RV-Dreams Family Member

As D and J mentioned you can have a company come to the RV and fill up the tank. We have a company that comes once a week to fill RV propane tanks I let the office know and they pass it on to the guy when he comes to fill. I too use propane for the water heater because I run it once a day. Electric for the refer unless its really hot then propane keeps it colder. smile

Grant · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks all for the responses.

This RV Park has propane fill up on site and with the two tanks I won’t have to move anywhere. For now I think I will try the first month on electricity for the refrigerator and switch the hot water heater to propane.

cslambert · RV-Dreams Community Member

Hello,

My hubby & I are finally going full time and we also were worried about the metered electricity bills so I did a lot of reserach to find a reasonable solution and I found that Ceramic Heaters can save us a few dollars on our heating bills. If you go to the honeywell web site you will find a calculator that tells you exactly how much electricity you can save by running a ceramic heater instead of your furnace. In our case in Canada, it costs us only 12 cents per hour to heat the large space of kitchen/livingroon area. We will be in Texas for the coming winter where it will be about double that amount. If you decide to buy a heater, be sure that you buy one with a digital read out so that you can monitor the temperature and not waste the heat for nothing. After buying, trying and returning several units, we settled on the Honeywell Digital Motion Sensor Safety Heater mainly because the fans on the other ones did not throw the heat very far. This unit oscillates and has an auto shut off incase snything gets too close to it, like our dog.

Hope this is helpful, Carol & Richard, Canada