RV park electric meters

[Bjesquivel]

Good Afternoon all,

Has anybody had any problems with RV park electric meters? I recently moved into an RV park in san diego California as a monthly tenant. They charge for electricity as you use it. The electricity is .15 per kWh up to a certain amount, which they wouldn't tell me, but then they start charging .18 cents a kwh. I have only stayed at this park for 6 days now and i have used over 380 kWh! i have only been running my electric refer. The water heater is on propane as well as the stove. i haven't ran the AC's for more than 2 hours total.

i decided to do a test, i found an electrical item in the RV that has the wattage listed on it. it was a 1500 watt electric heater. i went outside to my electric pedestal and turned off all the breakers except for the 20a. i plugged the heater in and it used 1 kWh in 4 minutes and 20 seconds! that is crazy!!! correct me if i am wrong but a 1500 watt item should use 1.5 kWh in 1 hour. i took my test a little farther, i noticed the site next to me was open. not sure if this was wrong of me to do, but i plugged the exact same heater into it. i ran it for roughly 4 minutes and the meter only registered 0.1 kWh! i talked to the front desk and they said nobody would come out and check my meter until tomorrow AM. but an electrician that works directly for the park probably won't side with me? (the RV park would lose money!) any body have any tips or any advice? oh by the way, i recorded that adventure on my phone to ensure they don't try to mess me over, i will post the video here shortly!

thank you!

Billy Esquivel

[Tomkidder]

Originally Posted by Bjesquivel

Good Afternoon all,

Has anybody had any problems with RV park electric meters? I recently moved into an RV park in san diego California as a monthly tenant. They charge for electricity as you use it. The electricity is .15 per kWh up to a certain amount, which they wouldn't tell me, but then they start charging .18 cents a kwh. I have only stayed at this park for 6 days now and i have used over 380 kWh! i have only been running my electric refer. The water heater is on propane as well as the stove. i haven't ran the AC's for more than 2 hours total.

i decided to do a test, i found an electrical item in the RV that has the wattage listed on it. it was a 1500 watt electric heater. i went outside to my electric pedestal and turned off all the breakers except for the 20a. i plugged the heater in and it used 1 kWh in 4 minutes and 20 seconds! that is crazy!!! correct me if i am wrong but a 1500 watt item should use 1.5 kWh in 1 hour. i took my test a little farther, i noticed the site next to me was open. not sure if this was wrong of me to do, but i plugged the exact same heater into it. i ran it for roughly 4 minutes and the meter only registered 0.1 kWh! i talked to the front desk and they said nobody would come out and check my meter until tomorrow AM. but an electrician that works directly for the park probably won't side with me? (the RV park would lose money!) any body have any tips or any advice? oh by the way, i recorded that adventure on my phone to ensure they don't try to mess me over, i will post the video here shortly!

thank you!

Billy Esquivel

I believe that the electric is through Edison elect. It should be posted in their website

[Tomkidder]

Shane wood is a wizard at all this I am sure he will be along soon to help soon enough

[Tomkidder]

http://www.sdge.com/sites/default/fi...%20Table_0.pdf



I think this link applies to you. If you are in the city of San Diego. It should show the rate of sub metered RV electric.

Ted95 or Shane wood chime in any time here.

[Bjesquivel]

its not the price per kWh that upsets me, its how fast my meter goes up compared to the meter in the site next to mine, with the same load. a 1500 watt heater. it was roughly 10x's faster.

[Geo9350]

The meter at your site is bad and is recording the usage wrong. They need to have it replaced immediately by the Power Company. Then they should set down and figure out by how inaccurate the meter is adding what you should have really used and and only charge you for what you really used. If the park balks at doing it, call the power company yourself and ask them to come look at it and tell them what it is doing. I know its a bugger to move to a different space, but that might be your best bet at this time. Have the park give you the spot next to you since the meter on it is working right. Just a thought.

[mhs4771]

Is this an actual Power Company meter, or one of those little meters built into the pedestal? Not saying a Power Company meter can go bad. I know many Parks use those Pedestals with the built-in meters to charge you, while the actually pay the Power Company something less. Where we stay in Florida, we contract directly with the Power Company and get billed by them, the Park isn’t involved. I much prefer that method to the Park charging you.

[Shane Wood]

Originally Posted by Bjesquivel

Good Afternoon all,

Has anybody had any problems with RV park electric meters? I recently moved into an RV park in san diego California as a monthly tenant. They charge for electricity as you use it. The electricity is .15 per kWh up to a certain amount, which they wouldn't tell me, but then they start charging .18 cents a kwh. I have only stayed at this park for 6 days now and i have used over 380 kWh! i have only been running my electric refer. The water heater is on propane as well as the stove. i haven't ran the AC's for more than 2 hours total.

i decided to do a test, i found an electrical item in the RV that has the wattage listed on it. it was a 1500 watt electric heater. i went outside to my electric pedestal and turned off all the breakers except for the 20a. i plugged the heater in and it used 1 kWh in 4 minutes and 20 seconds! that is crazy!!! correct me if i am wrong but a 1500 watt item should use 1.5 kWh in 1 hour. i took my test a little farther, i noticed the site next to me was open. not sure if this was wrong of me to do, but i plugged the exact same heater into it. i ran it for roughly 4 minutes and the meter only registered 0.1 kWh! i talked to the front desk and they said nobody would come out and check my meter until tomorrow AM. but an electrician that works directly for the park probably won't side with me? (the RV park would lose money!) any body have any tips or any advice? oh by the way, i recorded that adventure on my phone to ensure they don't try to mess me over, i will post the video here shortly!

thank you!

Billy Esquivel

Billy
The meters in the park are normally owned by the park SDGE usually has one meter to serve the whole park
You are correct that a 1500w heater should use 1.5 kw in an hour. Is the meter digital or have 5 dials. Did you happen to notice if the meter stopped when all breakers were turned off.if no they have something else tied into it causing the extra draw. I have never had a 5 dial meter read high they will slow down and read low. I know there were issues a few years backwith the digital ones reading
Incorrectly.I would take a 1/2 HOUR VIDEO of it and then fight with the park

[Bjesquivel]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

Is this an actual Power Company meter, or one of those little meters built into the pedestal? Not saying a Power Company meter can go bad. I know many Parks use those Pedestals with the built-in meters to charge you, while the actually pay the Power Company something less. Where we stay in Florida, we contract directly with the Power Company and get billed by them, the Park isn’t involved. I much prefer that method to the Park charging you.

the meter is built directly into the pedestal. I know in some states its illegal for the rv park to charge you more than they actually pay for it.

[Bjesquivel]

Originally Posted by Shane Wood

Billy
The meters in the park are normally owned by the park SDGE usually has one meter to serve the whole park
You are correct that a 1500w heater should use 1.5 kw in an hour. Is the meter digital or have 5 dials. Did you happen to notice if the meter stopped when all breakers were turned off.if no they have something else tied into it causing the extra draw. I have never had a 5 dial meter read high they will slow down and read low. I know there were issues a few years backwith the digital ones reading
Incorrectly.I would take a 1/2 HOUR VIDEO of it and then fight with the park

the pedestals are super old, and the meters are built directly into them. the meter is not digital but it doesn't have the 5 rotating dials either. i have attached a picture of the meter so you can help explain to me what type it is!

[Bjesquivel]

also, i have turned off all the breakers in the pedestal and there is no movement in the dials!

[Shane Wood]

This old watt hour meter was setup like a speedometer. The white one on the right is in 10ths. We're you looking at the second one from the right which is a kwh hour.

[Bjesquivel]

yes, the first black digit from the right is a kWh.

[mhs4771]

I tried contacting a company that sells those type of pedestal about the meters and never got a response. A Park we used in Ft. Peirce, FL had those and we had two friends across from us, one use her washer/dryer all the time, ran her air and generally used a fair amount of power, the others was very frugle and tried to keep power use at a minimun. Well the big user always had very low bills, while the others were average or maybe a little high. I don't think Parks should be allowed to use those meters to bill people.