How much a campground can charge for electricity depends on whether you’re on a flat rate or a metered site, and on your state’s submetering rules. If your site is metered, most states that regulate this require the campground to pass through its actual utility cost per kilowatt-hour, with no profit markup and only limited administrative fees. If you’re on a flat rate rolled into your site fee, the number is set by the market rather than by utility law, and comparison shopping is your main check.
Flat Rate or Metered Changes Everything
Campgrounds bill electricity in two ways, and which one applies to you shapes your total cost more than any other factor.
A flat rate is a fixed daily or monthly charge bundled into your site rent, no matter how much power you pull. Short-stay parks lean on this method because they don’t have to read meters. The fee reflects average expected use for the service level. It’s simple, and it can feel unfair in both directions: light users subsidize heavy ones, and someone running air conditioning all day pays the same as someone charging a phone.
Metered billing gives each site its own meter. The campground reads it at the start and end of your stay and multiplies your kilowatt-hours by a per-kWh rate. This is standard at parks catering to monthly and seasonal residents, where consumption varies too much for a flat fee to work cleanly. For long stays, metered billing usually favors campers who manage their consumption.
The Pass-Through Rule on Metered Sites
Campgrounds buy electricity in bulk from a utility and redistribute it to individual sites. Most state regulators treat this as submetering or electricity resale rather than operating a public utility, which brings consumer protection rules without full utility regulation.
The core principle in states that address the practice is that a campground cannot profit on reselling electricity. Maine’s statute allows a campground operator to charge a submetered user only for the kilowatt-hours that user consumed, at a rate no higher than what the campground pays its utility per kilowatt-hour. Vermont authorizes campground submetering on a nonprofit basis and requires operators to follow the Public Utility Commission’s rules. Oregon prohibits billing above the utility’s charge and bans additional charges for system maintenance or profit.
Not every state names campgrounds specifically. Virginia’s submetering statute covers apartment buildings, shopping centers, and campgrounds together and forbids charges above the per-kWh cost and associated utility fees. California’s master-meter statute, aimed at mobile home parks and similar residential complexes, requires that tenants be charged the same rate they would pay if they bought directly from the utility.
So on a metered site in a state with submetering law, the number on your bill traces back to what the campground actually pays. The per-kWh energy charge should match the campground’s commercial utility rate. Delivery charges, transmission fees, demand charges, and taxes are legitimate pass-through costs that a campground can divide proportionally among metered campers based on individual usage.
Administrative fees are the gray area. Some states let campgrounds collect a modest monthly fee for meter reading and billing. Virginia explicitly permits additional service charges for administrative and third-party billing costs when they’re disclosed in the rental agreement. Oregon prohibits any charge beyond the straight utility cost. If an administrative line item appears on your bill, whether it’s allowed depends on your state.
One cost campgrounds generally cannot pass through is infrastructure. Installing meters, running lines to sites, and maintaining the distribution system is the campground’s capital investment, not a line item on your electricity bill.
What an RV Actually Uses
Knowing your own consumption is the best defense against an unreasonable bill. Most campers have never thought about their power draw in kilowatt-hours.
- Light weekend use with lights, phone charging, and small appliances runs roughly 1 to 3 kWh per day.
- Moderate use with a refrigerator, TV, microwave, and occasional AC runs roughly 3 to 6 kWh per day.
- Heavy or full-time use with air conditioning, electric heat, or a washer and dryer runs 6 to 12 or more kWh per day.
Climate control is the biggest single driver. Running one RV air conditioner for eight hours can use 12 to 28 kWh by itself. Electric space heaters are similarly hungry, pulling 1,500 to 2,200 watts while on. A Class A motorhome with dual ACs, a residential fridge, and laundry can easily exceed 10 kWh per day. A teardrop trailer may stay under 1 kWh.
The national average commercial electricity rate sits around 12.82 cents per kWh as of early 2025, though this varies by region. At that rate, a moderate user pulling 5 kWh per day would run about $19 per month in raw electricity cost. A heavy user pulling 12 kWh per day would land near $46 per month. These are baselines for judging whether the total on your bill is in the right neighborhood.
Amperage Service Changes the Ceiling
Campground pedestals offer 20-amp, 30-amp, or 50-amp service, and the service level caps how much you can draw at once. A 30-amp connection delivers about 3,600 watts, enough for one AC unit and a few smaller appliances. A 50-amp connection provides up to roughly 12,000 watts, enough to run two ACs, a microwave, and a washer at the same time.
On flat-rate sites, 50-amp almost always costs more per night than 30-amp because the campground expects higher use. A few extra dollars a night for 50-amp is standard. On metered sites, amperage doesn’t change your per-kWh rate, but it sets how high your bill can climb. A 50-amp rig running both AC units through July will see a much larger monthly bill than a 30-amp trailer running one unit intermittently.
How to Check Whether You’re Being Overcharged
The simplest test is comparing the rate on your campground bill to the rate on the campground’s own utility bill.
- Look up the local utility’s commercial rate schedule. Every utility publishes its tariffs, usually on its website. Find the commercial rate that applies to the campground’s service area and compare it to what you’re being charged per kWh.
- Record the meter number and reading when you arrive and when you leave. Compare your own numbers to the bill. Meter-reading errors are more common than rate markups.
- Ask for a copy of the campground’s utility bill. In states that restrict campgrounds to pass-through pricing, you have a reasonable basis to ask what the campground actually pays. A refusal to share is a signal worth noting.
- Scrutinize vague line items. Energy charges, delivery fees, and taxes are legitimate. Entries like “electrical service fee” or “power surcharge” with no clear connection to the utility bill deserve questions.
Commercial electricity rates often include demand charges and tiered pricing, which can push the effective per-kWh cost above the headline rate. A campground paying a demand charge to the utility can factor that into what it passes on. The math isn’t always a single-number comparison.
What to Do About a Suspected Overcharge
Start with the campground manager. Most disputes come down to misread meters, confusion about the rate structure, or fees that weren’t explained at check-in. A direct conversation resolves most of them.
If the answer doesn’t satisfy you, review your site rental agreement. The billing method, rate, and any additional fees should be spelled out. A vague agreement weakens the campground’s position.
When that fails, the next step is your state’s Public Utility Commission or Public Service Commission. These agencies oversee utility resellers, and most have an online consumer complaint process. Bring your campground bills, your rental agreement, your own meter readings if you kept them, and the utility’s published rate schedule. The agency can investigate whether the campground is charging above its actual cost or violating state submetering rules.
Flat-rate charges are a different picture. Most submetering statutes apply only to metered electricity. A flat electricity fee bundled into your nightly site rate looks more like a lodging charge than a utility resale, which makes it hard to challenge through a utility commission. Your leverage there is the market: if the rate seems high, other campgrounds in the area with similar hookups are the most practical benchmark.