We are looking at uprating the electricity supply to our Caravan park and it looks as though we need 200 kva 3 phase but the shock of the installation cost the real surprise was the suggestion that we would have to go on half hourly metering with a monthly standing charge of £1 per kva (£200) per month!! Is there any way around this? Because we are rlacing and consolidating three existing supplies (mixture of single and three phase) we could put in two smaller supplies if it helped. The installation costs would not be much more. £200/month is a bit excessive !!
200 kva 3 phase supply
- Thread starter PREES
- Start date
- Location
- Northumberland
You must have a lot of caravans to need that much power ?
Caravans these days are all geared up for electric and we only have tourers! We have future proofed by including capacity for some car charging points but we were surprised with the 200 kva requirements. What is really frustrating is that they only need the full supply on a couple of weekends each year when Easter is early and the weather is cold e.g. 2018!
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
How many caravans do you have? That sounds an enormous supply.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
- Location
- Northumberland
I assume your cost is at leat £50k for a supply that size
What do the sums look like for a mains supply for 50 weeks supply capacity then hire a big genny to get you through the holiday weekends ?
What do the sums look like for a mains supply for 50 weeks supply capacity then hire a big genny to get you through the holiday weekends ?
Yes wondered about that but we need to increase and consolidate the supply for the rest of the year, so probably need something like 125 kva routinely (or to be honest when we are busy over bank holidays) and a generator for the killer holidays. If it wasn't for the standing charge I would be happy to bight the bullet on the installation costs just to know we have capacity if needed.
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Used to be anything over 100Kva had to pay for Maximum Demand, we had a Maximum Demand Meter, it depended on the time of year how much it came to, but back in the 70s this was around £1000 a year, that was when it was 6p a unit for electricity.
Someone has to pay for that new transformer to supply your power.
Someone has to pay for that new transformer to supply your power.
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The installation cost would be for a new transformer adjoining our site!
It's the standing charge that is the killer!
- Location
- Northumberland
Hell that`s cheap. Our 90kva was £27k 3 years ago New transformer & 20 metres cable to our meter hut
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Caravans use a 16 amp plug, at max use how many does it take to use 200 KVA?, I run 90HP of motors on a 100 kva without a problem
Even then there is diversification, like a house would blow its supply if half the stuff was on.
Even then there is diversification, like a house would blow its supply if half the stuff was on.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
200kva = 200,000 Watts?
So at 230v, that’s 869 amps.
Correct?
If so that’s 54 caravans at max peak usage simultaneously....assuming they all switch the kettle on at the same time.
- Location
- Northumberland
Our 90kva gives us 3 x 160 amps = 480 amp total
- Location
- Lleyn peninsula
sounds like it would be cheaper to run your site at half capacity on those weekends.
Yes, just frustrating but as they say turnover is vanity, profit is sanity!
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
Above 100A per phase (72 kVA) supply is mandatory HH metering.
I’m no expert in caravan supplies, but if there is no reason to have all the individual caravans on one meter why not agree with your spark and DNO designer to have the site split into three metering zones. I’m sure you could easily argue a good reason for it.
I’m no expert in caravan supplies, but if there is no reason to have all the individual caravans on one meter why not agree with your spark and DNO designer to have the site split into three metering zones. I’m sure you could easily argue a good reason for it.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Interesting. Is that on new connections?
Pheasant Surprise
Member
- Location
- Woodbridge, Suffolk
Yeh that was the case on new 3-phase connections about four years ago. It may have changed recently due to the new found fervour for smart metering (which are nothing than more sophisticated HH meters) as I’m sure you’re aware.
I was chatting with a local WPD engineer about some work being done here a few weeks ago, and he said that more and more customers are using peak demand generation sets to reduce costs, in some cases, dramatically.
Speak to a good Sparky and explore other options.
Speak to a good Sparky and explore other options.