# aires giving just 10 minutes electricity!



## blondel (Jun 12, 2005)

Can someone please tell me why just 10 minutes electricity at some aires and what good is it? Would have thought it would take much longer than that to charge anything up or is it just to quickly run round with the vac or dry your hair!? :?


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## johnthompson (Jul 29, 2010)

blondel said:


> Can someone please tell me why just 10 minutes electricity at some aires and what good is it? Would have thought it would take much longer than that to charge anything up or is it just to quickly run round with the vac or dry your hair!? :?


It is not there to be a hookup for charging or use. It is to power the sewerage discharge pumps on RVs that need to have the tank contents pumped to a discharge point rather than a gravity drop.

John


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## Snunkie (Mar 21, 2011)

That's interesting!


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

well I never knew that.   

cabby


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## blondel (Jun 12, 2005)

you live and learn don't you! Thanks


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## carrgang (Apr 4, 2012)

well that sounds very reasonable to me, the fact that these airs are free anyway is such a bonus we wild camped for the first time last season, and as such have turned our backs on rip-off Britain ie no more exorbitantly priced campsites in Blighty, it's the continent from now on, so much we even got a LHD 8)


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

A lot of aires I've been on have electricity for an hour for a Euro or a token. Some have been free. I've not seen the 10 minutes thing. Are you sure you're not confusing it with the water, as that is often a token for up to 10 minutes or 100 litres?

We don't use hookup, as our solar panel provides us with enough power to charge the batteries.

Gerald


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## tulsehillboys (Jul 22, 2010)

Surely this is to give access to electricity but to prevent one person hogging it for hours.


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

On some aires the person who used the EHU previously might have put in more money than necessary to pay for the electricity they used. When they leave, the next person to use that socket gets the x units free on top of what they pay for. If they put no money in, they simply get x units free until the meter runs out on the previous users payment.

G


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

It's interesting that another thread, related to metering electricty in UK, has people saying "£3 per day is expensive" and here we have folk reckoning that €1 per hour is reasonable. :lol: 

It may be that the big difference is "choice", because I guess no-one will buy 24h worth of electricity, but that would make a "free" aire quite expensive.


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## Sandy_Saunders (Nov 17, 2008)

H1-GBV said:


> It's interesting that another thread, related to metering electricty in UK, has people saying "£3 per day is expensive" and here we have folk reckoning that €1 per hour is reasonable. :lol:


I have often wondered who would want to pay a euro for just one hour. Indeed some places ask two or three euros for the same hour. Most likely very few people, because I have never seen anybody connected up to one of these.

It would be interesting to know where the one euro for ten minutes aires are, for I have never seen one of these either.

Sandy


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

Hi,

me, too, have wondered many times about the short hookup times on many French aires. Though I haven't come across 10 minutes yet, but an hour is quite common.



johnthompson said:


> It is to power the sewerage discharge pumps on RVs that need to have the tank contents pumped to a discharge point rather than a gravity drop.


Though this sounds plausible, I do not believe that the French have US RVs in mind. After all, by far the most French MHs do not exceed the 3.5-tons limit (on paper at least ...), due to driving licence restrictions.

The only possibility I can see is that these hookups are intended for short-term use only, e.g. for running toaster and coffee machine for breakfast. Perhaps the intention is also to prevent long-term stays on aires?

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## blondel (Jun 12, 2005)

That is why we can rarely use aires - we need to be able to charge an electric wheelchair!


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## greenasthegrass (Oct 27, 2007)

We stopped at Ducey aire that is a ten min one am sure!


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## brynric (Oct 17, 2009)

The time limit for water on the 3 aires around the Lac du Der was 8 minutes for water. I'm not sure about electric but I didn't see anyone hook up.


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