Friday, 6 September 2013

Caravan Park Lighting

There are many factors to consider when choosing lighting options for a Caravan Park; correct light output for both consideration of guests and health and safety compliance, environmental factors, ambience and overall look of the Park along with of course, maintenance and costs.

Standard lighting comes in the form of low level and high level options ranging from path/deck lighting all the way up to 5metre high street columns with a wealth of combinations in between. 

 

The traditional lamp holder fittings tend to be cheaper to purchase than their LED counterparts albeit the maintenance costs on these are often higher due to their expected life span. For example, a standard Flourescent lamp may last approximately 10,000 hours whilst the LED alternative closer to 50,000 hours. The LED version also uses less energy, therefore keeping the cost of the electricity consumption down in conjunction with having a higher longevity than a standard lamp. 

When choosing street lighting, these factors are especially important as the maintenance costs to replace the lamps may also involve the hiring of equipment to safely reach the height of the fitting. Should you wish to avoid these additional maintenance charges, hinged street light columns are also available.

Friday, 19 April 2013

Caravan Park Electricity Metering


With the cost of electricity increasing on what seems like a daily basis, a big concern for many park owners is ensuring that power usage is controlled and when the bill comes in is divided up correctly. Subsequently this means the need for metering is becoming a must for both park and caravan owner.  
There are various types of metering equipment that can be installed. I have listed some different devices below for reference.
·         Din rail mounted kWh meter: these are relatively cheap to buy but would require an electrician to install if they are not already part of the hook up. also they require someone to physically take a reading.
·         Leadmaster: essentially an extension lead with a counter built in, this is easily installed and is portable, this system requires someone to physically take a reading from it.
·         Magnetic card prepayment meters: Pre purchased electricity which adds credit to the meter using paper cards with a magnetic strip. Often these meters have an emergency credit facility, and cards are available in £ or kWh values, these type of meters work fine the only real problem is they are old technology and therefore meters are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain and subsequently more expensive.
·         Smartcard Meter: A new generation of metering that is controlled by a software program that loads credit onto reusable plastic cards, function to transfer credit from smartcard to meter and unused credit from meter to card which is security enabled,  the new meters can also be fitted into existing hook ups.
It is virtually impossible to determine accurately how much power is used by an individual from one day to the next without recording usage. To quote the famous Del boy, “What can’t speak can’t lie!”