AIBU to be annoyed my caravan site has banned electric car charging with no warning?

Unlikely it was in the T&C that you could charge cars

Speak to a solicitor. That’s a clear change to the terms and conditions under which you purchased. That’s a significant misrepresentation of available facilities perhaps enough to force a buy-back or financial compensation.

Ask them about getting chargers installed in the carparks like lots of caravan parks have.

We have a touring caravan and go on to lots of sites with statics caravans too.

One of the owners at a recent site we visited told us it was due to insurance and the potential fire risk. The owner of your site should have explained this more clearly in their correspondence.

If a 13A plug gets hot or even warm pulling 10A for a granny charger it or the socket are a deadly menace and should be rewired yesterday.

You need to see if you have anything in writing as you own the caravan rather than just on holiday. How are you charging the car as if just plugging into to caravan then the plug can get hot which could cause a fire.

rapid chargers are that. Get on the highest one you can at the services and by the time you’ve gone into the services for the toilet and pack snacks etc it will be done. It cost me about £20 which is way less than a tank of fuel and I only have a little 40kw battery and charged 3 times at services.

you need to ask holiday camp why as it could be their insurance or fire regs etc.

ask if you can install a charging point. If not then you may need to sell the caravan if it doesn’t work for your family. Or plan outings where you can charge the car.

Lets say there is a 100kW transformer supplying a campsite with 50 pitches - electric vehicles can demand 10-16A or fast charging even 11-22A but 50 electric vehicles with a demand of 16A say would need a supply of 50 x 16A x 230V = 184kW - which would exceed what the transformer supplying the site could supply. The number of electric cars is increasing and many campsites just don't have the electrical infrastructure to meet the demand of everyone with an electric vehicle. Maybe it's that simple.

Start of the summer?

This

No, a lot of people with EVs (ourselves included) charge regularly from a granny charger. Some people spend a grand or two and install a special round (or roundish) 7V EV charger, but not everyone deems it necessary (ourselves included). Depends on mileage you need to cover every day. Hence the whole discussion as to how to make it fairer for EV owners without drives.

I suspect within a month or so you will find the site owner had installed some public charging points that they get paid for. Which will be more expensive than 3 pin charging you had before but make the site owner money! He can’t make money if everyone is charging themselves 😉

Theres always one that spoils it for everyone else isn’t there. It doesn’t cost a massive amount to charge a full charge on a car (usually less than £10 even at a public charger).

Given that the number of charging cars is increasing rapidly and eventually I imagine this will be the ONLY type of car available, I find it very unlikely that the caravan site owner has done this because he just doesn't want people charging their cars as this would be a recipe for the popularity of his site to go into continued accelerating decline, and eventually be a site most people can't really use.

I imagine he has done it because of some difficulty or risk being associated with charging cars. If as others, have suggested, he feels that cars charging may cause a fire risk or he's had problems with people effectively stealing other's electricity, then it's logical that banning charging in the short term is very sensible, but honestly I reckon he will create the opportunity for it again perhaps by installing pay as you go meters that are safe for car charging and require pre-payment at the point, or something like that.

@LowFlyingBacon

Is there a local pub close to walking distance of the caravan site?

Perhaps the pub may consider installing EV charging points? I live in a tourist area and quite a few pubs are installing them.

He's likely had a fire inspection and is trying to stop you cooking alive in your van.2

Any suggestion that charging an EV from a 13A domestic socket with the proper cable is "unsafe" or "dangerous" and that EVs shouldn't be charged in this way is utter bullshit.

But how do you pay for electric? Flat fee? Meter?

Is there a supermarket nearby?

This is correct. Also - if a plug is warm after use then either the plug or socket has loose or corroded wiring and should be checked and rewired or replaced. If the outside is warm the the inside will be extremely hot, and heat generates more corrosion making the problem worse. Consider a warm socket as a warning of a future fire ignition point and get it fixed.

Yep this

charging a car from a 3 pin socket is absolutely fine in most places, like at home. It’s slow, but no more risky than any other appliance. Actually a slow charge is better for the battery than constant fast charges.

however, it’s likely that the electrics on site are not set up for many cars being charged for a long period of time

There is a lot of mis-information on here. Plug in (or granny) chargers draw a maximum of 10amps. All ring main circuits (any normal plug in your house) sit on a 32a breaker. This means by law they have to be installed with cabling, etc. to handle a 32amp load.

Same applies to static caravans, outbuildings, etc.

The maximum current an appliance can pull through a domestic plug in the UK is 13amps.

An EV charger pulling 10amps even in perpetuity will not cause a fire on a correctly installed ring main. It is less than one third of the rated load.

You can pretty much guarantee the site owner needs to upgrade his main supply, as a high number of 10a chargers running at once could overload it. Note, this won't cause a fire, but will trip the main site breaker.

Or... Like a lot of PPs on here, he's read too many Daily Fail 'EVs are a fire trap!!!' headlines and is just being a twat.

In what way was the email rude as opposed to factual?

It’ll be a combination if safety , insurance and network capacity

As pp have said there are good reasons why they wouldn’t want people charging from their vans. But given that it’s becoming an issue for them due to an increase in EVs on site, I’d go back and ask if they are planning to install chargers on site. They need a solution to a problem which won’t go away and is likely to adversely affect their business going forward if not addressed.

Probably had an updated Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) which has said "granny charging" from a standard socket is a fire risk, and that means the owner's hands are tied. They would not be covered by insurance, and would be legally liable, if they continue to allow it after it has been flagged as a fire risk. I'd ask the owner if they would consider installing dedicated EV chargers. There are companies which specialise in doing this for holiday lets etc, take care of all the paperwork, users pay via an app and the owner can earn a bit on top to make it worthwhile. I've seen Voltshare and Square Up Charging mentioned but no personal experience.

I think it depends on the site. My mum has a static caravan and we can't have the kettle and toaster on at the same time otherwise the electric trips. We do have a fridge freezer and all the other items on 24/7 fine. I'm not sure how much the car charging would use but electric in caravan sites quite frequently trip. We go camping loads and some site have as low as 6amp for electric hook up. I think it's best to just ask the owner to explain why.