Electrical Usage when Camping

I think its perfectly acceptable to use as much power as you need in your rig while camping. I am certain that the cost of a powered site vs non-serviced more than covers the cost of the power that you use. As far as being eco friendly while camping that is not a bad thing, and I know for sure we use far less water camping vs home so thats something.

The water heater won't use much more if left on, the only added electricity usage would be to make up for the heat that escapes thru the insulation.

The AC, of course uses quit a bit.

We often read here about the folks that want long, hot showers. Waste of electricity, water and sewer capacity is of no concern to many. I know folks that leave the door wide open with the AC on. Camping fees have to go up to compensate for waste.

Lynnmor wrote:
........ Camping fees have to go up to compensate for waste.

And that's the bottom line, as I see it.

When using full hookups, we don't leave the AC or water heater on constantly, but for us it's more a "wear and tear" type of thing on the RV components. As for other appliances, we run our fridge and water heater on electric and if we need heat, we use our fireplace and a small space heater rather than running our propane furnace(and the propane) constantly, using it only as supplemental and to heat the basements to prevent freezing of the pipes, when necessary.

We run everything on electric when we are "plugged in." We keep the water heater turned on, and we run the gas furnace and electric heaters in the winter, and the air conditioner when weather is hot.

The inside of a camper will turn into a broiler oven very quick if you don't keep the air conditioner turned on. Start it in the cool of the morning and it will keep up as heat increases through out the day, if you are at the camper or engaged in activities away from the camper. If the camper gets hot inside, it could result in a VERY miserable sleeping experience, because once they get hot, air conditioners in RV have a very HARD time cooling things back down.

Now, we always camp where we have paid electric with the campsite. No problem there.

The difference is at home. We park our camper at home and we use the camper (driveway camp) pretty much all year round. At home, we do have the convenience of the house. So bathing and cooking is usually inside the house, but the air-conditioner stays ON 24x7 if we know we are going to be sleeping in it. When we know we won't be in it, we'll turn the air conditioner off. And of course, the water heater is off. I can dump my tanks at home, so we keep water in the tanks and use the camper bathroom all the time.

However, the refrigerator is NEVER turned off (electric, back-up gas if we have a power failure). We stock the refrigerator with frozen meats and drinks all the time.

Does keeping the camper plugged in and operating 24x7 at home cost us any noticeable difference in our electric bill? Considering our entire house is 100% electric, and we are on a well, and have a septic tank, and live in the country, .... the answer is "no". The difference is keeping the camper air conditioner running vs. keeping it off doesn't affect us very much at all on our electric bill.

stevemorris wrote:
just curious since electrical costs especially here in Ontario are astronomical

who leaves their ac and water heater on constantly?

we shut off the ac except when we're actually in the trailer for the night, its off all day.

we also ONLY run the water heater at "shower hour" and do the dishes in the same time period. rest of the time, WH is off

sure the electricity in campgrounds is "free" but we do pay for it in a way

You are in Ontario. If you leave the AC off in a RV all day in most parts of the US, it will be a hot OVEN when you come back, and take forever to cool down to a comfortable temp for sleeping.

And not everyone is gone from their RV all day, either.

coolmom42 wrote:


You are in Ontario.

Have you been to Ontario in the summer?

Yes we actually have HOT / HUMID weather up here in the summer.

Not Florida / Texas hot....but hot enough.

I like to save where I can, mostly by changing incandescent to led lighting. I have a gas only WH and the pilot keeps it hot enough for most usages. You could go for a on demand WH and not have to worry when you use Hot Water.

Hi,

The water heater cycles every 4 hours and runs for 15 minutes. That works out to wasting about 1.8 kwh per day.

Lynnmor wrote:
The water heater won't use much more if left on, the only added electricity usage would be to make up for the heat that escapes thru the insulation.

Running the air when you are not in the rv may actually conserve more power because the unit will cycle on and off.

If the RV is allowed to build up heat, the conditioner takes many hours of run time to cool the RV to acceptable levels.

I run the roof air on the fan only setting via my inverter while traveling in my class C to help distribute the "cool" from the dash air to the rest of the RV.

stevemorris wrote:
we shut off the ac except when we're actually in the trailer for the night, its off all day.