The refrigerator in my motorhome is 700 watts. Electricity here on Long Island approaches $.18/kwh. There is no 12 volt element as a 70 amp load is not practical. As for $5-10 night for electric, in the vanagon that would be crazy. If I was to run the 2 air conditioners full time and use electric for the hot water and refrigerator, and use the electric oven regularly in the motor home, I could see a $200 month electric bill at our rates easily.

Dennis

----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Date: Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:20 am
Subject: Re: Was 12V fridge necessary? now rant (LVC)

> Dennis Haynes wrote:
>
> >You are absolutely right. The cost is difficult to measure but it is
> >there. Especially when you consider the engine is only ~22% efficient
> >and then the alternator can be down to almost 50%. Unless you are
> in an
> >area that has cheap electricity, it is probably also cheaper to
> run the
> >fridge on propane then electric power. I get a kick out of the larger
> >RVs that have in addition to a furnace or two, electric heat, heat
> >pumps, or worse, the electric element in the propane water
> heater. No
> >wonder campground owners have to charge so much. A lot of
> electricity to
> >save a little propane.
> >
> >Dennis
> >
> >
> >
> I donno Dennis.  It seems to me that campgrounds that charge $5 or $10
> per nite for electricity are out of line.  I know they have to pay off
> the costs of installing the outlets, etc., but 100W for 10 hours
> is 1
> kwh which costs about 10 cents in most markets.  Scale this up as you
> like, but it's hard to justify the typical charge.
>
> Larry A.
>