Electricity Bills

[Guest]

Here's a thought;

I am a self-confessed wimp, but I like to hook up to shore power whenever possible at an alongside berth (means I never have to sail with batteries less than fully charged, for one thing). I have just had my monthly electricity bill from Port Solent (home berth) for about £3.

This is about average for me.

So, my question is, when visiting marinas with a power supply (Cowes, Hamble, Poole etc etc), how do they justify charging up to £4 per night?!

Am I unusual in using so little electricity, or are the marinas really marking up their shore power prices by 3000%+?

"If a job's worth doing...it's worth paying someone to do it for you!"

 

[JeremyF]

In guess if you are only using the shore power for battery charging, then £3 per month is possible. But, wait for winter and see how the bills shoot up. They charge 15p per unit, compared to 6p at home, so a 250w background heater or dehumidifier soon mounts up.

The day rate for electricity is simply a rip-off

Jeremy Flynn

 

[JamesS]

Be firm - don't pay it!!

I refuse to pay a day rate for power and we should all do the same. This is an underhand way of adding 15 - 20% to an already inflated overnight charge.

Some marinas don't charge visitors for power on an overnight stay - I won't name them in case this is an oversight and management will be issuing memo's advising everyone to be on their guard!!

Cheers

 

[Viking]

No youve got it wrong. What happens is, the £4 the marina charges, when someone uses your berth, is taken off your metered bill. How do you think your bills are so low!

"duck! - flying pigs"

 

[zefender]

I too am at Port Solent and get my regular £3 monthly bill. I've suggested that they could save a few quid and not send the invoice at all, given the cost of preparing, printing and posting it. I've also suggested maybe they send them out every quarter and we could split-the-diff on the saving made in money, trees and hassle - just bemused grins so far. It does seem a bit daft spending 6K odd on mooring and then having 12 other separate transactions totalling about 40 quid.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I was moored at Chichester Marina for 3 months on their so called metered electricity - some clever device that means they dont need individual meters on the dock. I ran a dehumidifier
Month 1 £70 @13p

Month 2 and 3 with time switch £30

Moved yards and had a convention meter for 2 months - bill £8.00 @10p

I believe I was ripped off by faulty charging at Chichester - but I cannot proove it.

 

[Guest]

Viking - Of Course! It all makes sense now - and of course the visitors fees they collect are deducted also, which is why the annual mooring fee is so low! (Whoops, there's another of those pigs going over)


JamesS - I agree - I am seriously looking into solar panels to run the charger and keep the batteries topped up - and then saving £4 a night or more all season!

"If a job's worth doing...it's worth paying someone to do it for you!"

 

[Guest]

It's another nail in the coffin for rip off Britain. Our marina base in France is just like all those that have been mentioned periodically on the Forums etc, "free electricity and water and all the other nicities, including esprit de corps" that somehow is just not available in the UK anymore.

When and if the UK joins the Euro, it will be like the day the UK went to decimilisation = the prices shot up, along with a lot of rounding the price upwards.