caravan electric

[samuelcat]

I have booked into a touring site. The info pack has the following leaflet.
The electricity supply for touring caravans is 10amps per unit. To ensure a continuous supply please use sparingly.
What does this mean in terms of what I can use in my van.
Thanks

[Brum Lady]

Don't know the technicalities other than that a normal electric kettle uses too much and is likely to trip the system. We just use whatever is in the caravan and don't bother taking things from home. Anything with a heating element in it is likely to trip the power (such as hairdryer, kettle, blow heater).
Hope this makes sense!

[saxy_jag]

It means just that. Site electricity supplies are somewhat crude and quite limited. If you're planning on running a TV, microwave, hairdryer and fan heater all at the same time then you're probably going to trip the supply. Sometimes this can affect other users too. You're not going to make yourself very popular if you deprive half the site of power.

If you can manage to run low power stuff from your battery(ies), so much the better. We don't use a TV when caravanning at the moment, but last weekend we managed to run a small fan heater, small fridge and a couple of lights from the mains hook up, with auxiliary lighting from the battery. I suspect we only managed to run the fan heater, though, because we were the only van on site.

[Jugglering]

The 10 amp limit on those hook up points is relatively low for modern camp sites - the higher spec ones usually have 16 amps available. Have a peek at this link - it explains about how to convert watts into amps etc and as it's written by caravanners, it deals with the practical aspect of hook up points:-

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_to pic_threads.asp?ForumID=8&TopicID=170585&Searc hPagePosition=1&search=amps&searchMode=allword s&searchIn=Topic&forum=8&searchSort=dateDESC&R eturnPage=Search

[burbie]

Electric kettle, microwave, hairdyer, electric heaters etc. can all trip the fuse switch if you have two of them on together, depending on the wattage.
So basically anything with a heating element, only have one on at a time.
You can use the electric lights and television at the same time.

[Im a BusyBee]

i always just have one heating appliance on at a time ie i keep the water heater on but if i want to use the kettle or hairdryer i turn it off first and dont use more than 1 at a time

[Im a BusyBee]

i always just have one heating appliance on at a time ie i keep the water heater on but if i want to use the kettle or hairdryer or fan heater i turn it off first and dont use more than 1 at a time

[buildersmate]

A 10A supply means the maximum power at any one time you can draw is 2500W. A kettle is typically this. A TV is around 100W.

[4candles]

Bear in mind that the limit on a single socket in your home is 13 amps.

The rating plate on appliances will quote figures in watts or kilowatts. At 10 amps, the limit is 2400 watts (2�4 kW).

A 2kW kettle would be OK, with not much to spare. A 3kW kettle - way over the top!

[samuelcat]

Thanks for all your answers.Makes sense now. Sorry for delay to those who answered last night.