What Utilities Cost the Most to Operate at an RV Park?

August 23, 2026 · RV park investing, explained

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Ask five people which utility costs the most to run at an RV park and you'll get five confident, often wrong answers. Part of the confusion comes from residential thinking. Homeowners obsess over their electric bill because it's the one utility bill they see every month. RV parks are a different animal. The mix of water, sewer, electric, trash, and sometimes propane depends heavily on whether the park is on municipal service or well and septic, whether sites are submetered, and how many long-term guests versus overnight guests the park runs. Skip that context and you'll misjudge the operating statement.

"Electric is always the biggest utility cost"

Electric is the utility people worry about most because RVs run air conditioners, and big rigs can pull real power. But at a lot of parks, especially ones where sites are submetered and guests pay their own electric, the park's electric expense is mostly common areas: office, laundry, pool pump, security lighting, maybe a bathhouse. That can be a modest line item, often a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars a month depending on park size and climate. The myth has a kernel of truth at parks that do NOT submeter, where the owner eats all electric costs. In hot climates with lots of long-term residents running AC around the clock, unmetered electric can genuinely be the largest utility expense on the statement. So the real question isn't "how much is electric" in the abstract, it's "who pays for electric" at this specific park.

"If the park submeters electric, utilities aren't really a risk"

Submetering electric is smart operating practice, but it doesn't make utilities a non-issue. Water and sewer are much less commonly submetered at RV parks, especially older ones, and those two together can rival or beat electric as the biggest combined utility line. If the park is on municipal water and sewer, rates have been climbing in a lot of markets faster than rent, and sewer in particular tends to be billed as a multiple of water usage, so a leak or an inefficient irrigation system quietly inflates both. If the park is on well and septic, you swap a monthly bill for a maintenance and capital risk: well pumps, storage tanks, and septic fields don't show up as a scary number on the P&L until they fail, and then you're looking at a repair or replacement that can run from a few thousand dollars for a pump to well into six figures for a failing drain field or a septic system that's undersized for current occupancy.

"Utility costs on the trailing twelve months are a reliable number"

Trailing twelve month utility expense tells you what happened, not necessarily what will happen. Seasonal parks show this clearly: a park that's half empty in winter and full in summer will show utility costs that swing a lot month to month, and if you're buying in the off season, the T12 might understate summer water and electric draw. There's also the ownership effect. A seller who hasn't raised rates in years also may not have invested in efficient fixtures, leak detection, or metering upgrades, so the utility expense you're looking at might reflect years of small leaks or an aging well pump working harder than it should. And if the park recently added sites, expanded a campground store, or added laundry machines, last year's utility number won't reflect this year's load. Treat the T12 as a starting point for questions, not a finished answer.

What actually matters instead

Instead of asking which utility is "the biggest" in general, ask these specific questions about the park in front of you:

• Is each site individually metered for electric, water, or both, and who bills for it?
• Is the park on municipal water and sewer, or well and septic, and when was the well or septic system last inspected?
• What do the last 24 months of utility bills actually show, month by month, not just a trailing twelve total?
• Are there any recent rate increases from the utility provider that haven't hit a full year of statements yet?
• Does the park have propane service to sites, and if so, is it metered per site or a flat fee built into rent?
• Is there a history of leaks, well pump replacements, or septic pumping that shows up as capital expense rather than a monthly utility line?

Get actual utility bills, not just the number on the P&L. A P&L can bury a leak inside "repairs and maintenance" instead of showing it as elevated water usage. Compare the bills against occupancy for the same months. If utility costs went up while occupancy stayed flat, something is worth explaining, a leak, a rate hike, an inefficient system, or new equipment that wasn't there before.

Utilities rarely make or break a deal on their own, but they're one of the clearest windows into how well a park has been run and what's aging out of sight. At Invest With Zac we look at utility structure as closely as we look at rent roll, because it tells you what surprises might be waiting after closing.