Electric Usage

[Swissmiss]

We have never camped and had to pay electric separately, but might next winter. Any ballpark ideas on what the bills run? We have a 35 foot 5er with 3 AC’s and a washer/dryer. We run both plenty. We’ve been quoted kilowatt fee of .14 to .18 Thanks for any personal experience with this you might be willing to share.

 

[templeton]

I'm surprised nobody has responded, because questions like these tend to prompt answers like "$55 a month" with zero context about type of equipment or price per kilowatt hour. The better question is, "How many kilowatt hours of electricity can I expect to use in X conditions?"

From your other posts, I'm guessing you'll be in Florida and will be using the air conditioner even though it's winter.

Do you have a residential refrigerator or an RV (gas absorption) refrigerator? Residential units use only about 1.5 or 2.0 kwh/day, but the four-door gas absorption ones (like Norcold 1200), when on electric, will use 7 or maybe 8 kwh/day in moderate conditions. At 15¢/kwh, the refrigerator alone will cost about $30/month in electricity.

I've been fulltiming for 20 years in a 40-foot motorhome and only a few times have had to pay electricity and I've kept a record of that. But also, if I'm ever in a site where there's a meter, I record my usage just out of curiosity.

With my gas absorption refrigerator, I very consistently use 15 kwh/day just general living (computers, TV, microwaving, hair drying, three loads of laundry a week) and the water heater on electric 24/7. The washing machine uses almost nothing (but will cause the water heater to work a little more if you don't wash in cold water), but the dryer is significant--count on at least 1 kwh for each hour the dryer runs. But my dryer usage is low because air-dry a lot of my laundry, which of course slightly affects my electricity usage.

Climate control is the big one. I have a basement air conditioner/heat pump with two compressors and when I'm in moderate Florida-type winter weather, climate control alone uses about 15 kwh/day (whether air conditioner or heat pump).

So my guideline for my coach setup an lifestyle is using about 15 kwh/day if I don't need climate control, and 30 kwh/day if I need to control the climate a little. A month ago I was in south Florida and my site had a meter and I'd check it regularly, and sure enough--about 30 kwh/day.

(There was a little Jayco trailer in the site next to mine, and their meter was visible from my site, so I checked theirs, too. They were using about 7 kwh/day compared to my 30. That sounds about right to me.)

However, I've seen days where I used 60 kwh in a day because I was running the air conditioner almost constantly, or a couple (or more) space heaters constantly.

And a couple of specific examples: in Seattle in January, I was using 40 kwh/day (a little bit extra space heater use) and in San Diego in August I was using 20 kwh/day (just very occasional air conditioning).

But my bills were almost the same: Seattle was $3.20/day and San Diego was $3.00/day. But that's because my Seattle electricity was 8¢/kwh and San Diego was 15¢/kwh. That's why it's important to know kilowatt hours and not dollars.

And don't forget the refrigerator, which most people don't realize can cause such a difference. My Norcold uses about 5 kwh/day more than a residential refrigerator. So my electric bill of $90/month in San Diego would have been $67 if I had a residential refrigerator instead of the Norcold.

That's why it's more important to know the kilowatt hours someone uses than how much the bill is, including how much they're using the air conditioner or electric heat. That's always been the case, but with so many residential refrigerators out there these days, considering the significant difference in electricity use between residential and RV refrigerators, I think it's important to know what type of refrigerator is using the electricity.

 

[AbdRahim]

37’ two AC’s, run 2 small dehumidifiers 24/7, Washer/dryer. Last month three days it went down to 23-30 *F. I mostly heat with two electric heaters one on full and one intermittant on half or less. The furnace is only used to supplement and heat the water bays two - four times during the night (maybe 15 min ea time, set at 62* F). Tank heaters, when temp 34 or below, electric air purifier running most of the time.

My bill last month was $69. The highest I ever paid was $115 or so - lots of cold days that month.

in warmer weather, both AC‘s are running, with one carrying most of the load and second supplemental.

 

[Swissmiss]

I'm surprised nobody has responded, because questions like these tend to prompt answers like "$55 a month" with zero context about type of equipment or price per kilowatt hour. The better question is, "How many kilowatt hours of electricity can I expect to use in X conditions?"

From your other posts, I'm guessing you'll be in Florida and will be using the air conditioner even though it's winter.

Do you have a residential refrigerator or an RV (gas absorption) refrigerator? Residential units use only about 1.5 or 2.0 kwh/day, but the four-door gas absorption ones (like Norcold 1200), when on electric, will use 7 or maybe 8 kwh/day in moderate conditions. At 15¢/kwh, the refrigerator alone will cost about $30/month in electricity.

I've been fulltiming for 20 years in a 40-foot motorhome and only a few times have had to pay electricity and I've kept a record of that. But also, if I'm ever in a site where there's a meter, I record my usage just out of curiosity.

With my gas absorption refrigerator, I very consistently use 15 kwh/day just general living (computers, TV, microwaving, hair drying, three loads of laundry a week) and the water heater on electric 24/7. The washing machine uses almost nothing (but will cause the water heater to work a little more if you don't wash in cold water), but the dryer is significant--count on at least 1 kwh for each hour the dryer runs. But my dryer usage is low because air-dry a lot of my laundry, which of course slightly affects my electricity usage.

Climate control is the big one. I have a basement air conditioner/heat pump with two compressors and when I'm in moderate Florida-type winter weather, climate control alone uses about 15 kwh/day (whether air conditioner or heat pump).

So my guideline for my coach setup an lifestyle is using about 15 kwh/day if I don't need climate control, and 30 kwh/day if I need to control the climate a little. A month ago I was in south Florida and my site had a meter and I'd check it regularly, and sure enough--about 30 kwh/day.

(There was a little Jayco trailer in the site next to mine, and their meter was visible from my site, so I checked theirs, too. They were using about 7 kwh/day compared to my 30. That sounds about right to me.)

However, I've seen days where I used 60 kwh in a day because I was running the air conditioner almost constantly, or a couple (or more) space heaters constantly.

And a couple of specific examples: in Seattle in January, I was using 40 kwh/day (a little bit extra space heater use) and in San Diego in August I was using 20 kwh/day (just very occasional air conditioning).

But my bills were almost the same: Seattle was $3.20/day and San Diego was $3.00/day. But that's because my Seattle electricity was 8¢/kwh and San Diego was 15¢/kwh. That's why it's important to know kilowatt hours and not dollars.

And don't forget the refrigerator, which most people don't realize can cause such a difference. My Norcold uses about 5 kwh/day more than a residential refrigerator. So my electric bill of $90/month in San Diego would have been $67 if I had a residential refrigerator instead of the Norcold.

That's why it's more important to know the kilowatt hours someone uses than how much the bill is, including how much they're using the air conditioner or electric heat. That's always been the case, but with so many residential refrigerators out there these days, considering the significant difference in electricity use between residential and RV refrigerators, I think it's important to know what type of refrigerator is using the electricity.

 

[Swissmiss]

That was a very detailed response and I thank you for the valuable information! We have a 35’ Coach with a dryer and a residential refrigerator. Also hubby tends to run at least 1 AC fairly constantly:/. The rate here is .18 I did take a picture of the meter around the time I made this post so I could maybe get an estimate of what we use. Thank you!