10 amp advice

[gravesyt]

Having decided to put the van on a seasonal pitch this but still touring a least 10 wks of the year having found the perfect site in Bala but its only 10 amp now with the size of the family and with everything tec now days and heater,(truma 3002) kettle (standard) then lights ,cooker toaster etc what in reality can I expect to get away without doing the magic turn off./turn on of items I know it impossible to get a perfect figure without knowing the wattage of everything. But what I do know is I get away with most on a 16amp site

 

[ProfJohnL]

Having decided to put the van on a seasonal pitch this but still touring a least 10 wks of the year having found the perfect site in Bala but its only 10 amp now with the size of the family and with everything tec now days and heater,(truma 3002) kettle (standard) then lights ,cooker toaster etc what in reality can I expect to get away without doing the magic turn off./turn on of items I know it impossible to get a perfect figure without knowing the wattage of everything. But what I do know is I get away with most on a 16amp site

How long is a piece of string

 

[Mel]

Hi gravesy. Our van is on a seasonal pitch with 10 amp electricity. We have only tripped it twice. You will soon work out what you can do. We have Alde heating. We can boil a low whatsit kettle and run the microwave and fridge and lights and TV at the same time provided we are running the Alde on 1 (amp or is it KW I can't remember) setting. Never tripped it with Alde at 1. If we turn it up to 2 ( whatever's) we are Ok with the fridge but if we push our luck and boil the kettle it sometimes ( not always) trips. Just have to send OH out to flip the switch in the box.
Enjoy your seasonal. I am counting the days to go back to ours.
Mel

 

[Gafferbill]

It is simple mathematics........

Electrical appliances added together are less than 10 amps
Electrical appliances added together are more than 10 amps

Sorry but you did ask

 

[Hutch]

GafferBill correct, he can never be wrong, This Year, On a 10 amp site,
Put heating/ water on low electric 4 amp, first one up boils the kettle, who, if wife has shower first, waits 5 minutes before drying her hair, another 5 minutes before putting toast on. , and then when I come in from walking the dogs, breakfst ready. Have shower and getbready for gentle walk to the local pub for lunch.

 

[gravesyt]

As I guessed it going to be trial and error and a quite a few trips the fuse box but luckily for me its all hard standing so no muddy feet on those dark rain soaked nights when it normally trips thanks all

 

[Hutch]

I keep a multi Key from Wickes, which has Trianglar Larhe and small square and half round drives, to get into most trip boxes,,. As long as you have a dry suit not a wet or damp one, you should be ok.
Checked my heart out again the other day, stupidly thought , yes I can rewire that socket without turning the power off.
Muppet me.

 

[gravesyt]

or an even better one is to let the little lady do it as she always poking her fingers it to things that don't concern her :lol: :lol: ::woohoo:

 

[Hutch]

Show the good Lady , where the CB trip box is, and how to reset it, so that when the kettle, we use a full power one, not a fluffy low powered one, why take 10 minutes to boil a kettle when it takes only 5, Sorry Mel, tripsmthe CB , using her hair drier, . Just wish the old girl would have her showermwhen the pubs open, The dogs love a ppacket of Porky Scratchings. :cheer:

 

[Hutch]

Thanks, Parksey. Apprecieted..
Hutch.

 

[Parksy]

Naughty step for you my boy

 

[Gabsgrandad]

Was on a site near Paris a few years back (Easter time) the site had electric (said) 5 amps, reckon it was nearer 4!, Just enough for the fridge, lights, charger, radio etc -- no problem we knew what we had. 1st. morning white over outside, a really hard frost. Sat there having breakfast when noticed the guy/lady from the next van (In their night attire) were in and out to the reset box. Watched this a few times, had to ask if they had a problem, yes we can't boil the kettle for a cup of tea. -- "what kettle have you got?" - The one from home, - I said you've no chance of using that here! - Knew it was obviously no good talking about amps & load. so I suggested thy use gas for the kettle. -- But we've only the electric one. -- "well boil some water in a pan then", I suggested, -- Ah! never thought of that, will it make tea alright? I kid you not, - how do some folks survive?

 

[ProfJohnL]

I do agree that we have become a far more tech dependent society, and that means an ever greater dependence on the electrical supplies both at home and in caravans. It always amazes me the numbers of people with mobile phones to their ears whilst walking down the high street, Like Gabs grandad It makes me wonder how we managed when telephone lines were rationed to 1 per two houses giving a shared line, Black and white 10 screen family televisions with just two channels, and no broadcasts from midnight to about 3 pm. The nearest thing to a mobile phone was a GPO phone box with buttons A & B! hmy:

From a personal point of view which i know is shared by some others on the forum, I see holidays as an opportunity to get away from some of the pressures at home, to some extent getting back to basics, board games instead of computer, etc. Perhaps radio instead of televisions.

Even so I have been guilty of taking tech on holiday. At certain times I had to be on call and accessible by phone over a school holiday period so I needed a phone and a laptop to deal with certain technical issues. and undoubtedly these days access to the WWW can make finding out about local attractions so much easier. SatNav to help find the more obscure POI's,But it doesn't have to be permanently on.

But here are a couple of ideas which might help the OP:

The first one is get into the habit of turning things off when they are not needed. Not only can it save onthe nuisance tripping of the MCB, but it saves energy too.

And let's try to educate our families into how much current appliances use. :woohoo: - both in how much appliances use, and how to add it and work out what can be on together etc

Get some sticky labels and mark each appliance with its operating current in a visible place to the appliance (in a safe way so the label won't get too hot or be a danger) It should be easy to add up what is currently running and to work out the remaining capacity, and to see what needs to be turned off to accommodate another appliance.

 

[Raywood]

Not sure what you have got but if you turn on the water heater and room heating on our Truma system then you can reach 9 amps which leaves very little for anything else. On a 10 amp site I would have either the water heater or room heating on gas or reduce the electric to the lower limit. You then have to be a little careful with what you use at any given time but a low wattage kettle is cheap enough and worthwhile.

 

[KeefySher]

Was sure we had a thread on this, but can't find it.

2 ways to do the sums, either by adding up the amperage of all the items, or the wattage.

I use the wattage as I find it easier for the sum, and gives a bit of scope. Others will think different, but there we are.

At 10 Amps and a supply voltage of 220V (you won't always get the 240V you think the supply is, so err on the safe side in terms of the sums, not the electrocution risk). So in total you have 2200Watts available at any 1 time.

As you have a leisure battery, use lights, TV, phone chargers that can be charged via the 12V circuit. Your solar panel if fitted will keep the battery topped up most days, even in the winter. At night the charger will draw power if required.

The heating will generally have 3 settings on electric supply, 1Kw, 2Kw & 3Kw. Therefore the 3Kw is not available as it draws 3000Watts. At 1Kw it draws 1000Watts, 2Kw draws 2000Watts of your available 2200Watts. So if you put the heating on to warm the van up using the 2Kw setting you can't use the microwave (800Watts), kettle (750Watts) or hot plate (750Watts), hair dryer (1200Watts) etc whilst the heating is on. Once the caravan is warm, turn the heating down to 1Kw and you can use the microwave on it's own, the hot plate on it's own.

When you want a shower put the heating/hot water to 2Kw for 15-20 minutes should give you sufficient water, then drop it to 1Kw. When you finish your shower turn the heating off and use the hair dryer, then turn heating back on.

Your fridge draws very little power, so it can stay on all the time.

You'll soon get used to watt you can and can't do. The only time we've tripped the supply was on our first winter CL trip where we had the heating on 2Kw, then put the microwave on as we were trying to get everything done at once. Lesson learned, girls edumacated on what could go on when, job done.

Using gas is an option for faster warm up on the heating, or boiling a kettle. But as you've paid for the electric in the pitch fee, then use it.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

At 10 Amps and a supply voltage of 220V (you won't always get the 240V you think the supply is, so err on the safe side in terms of the sums, not the electrocution risk). So in total you have 2200 Watts available at any 1 time.

Yes, we have been through this before - a kettle (and other heating appliances) has a heating element with a fixed resistance. The power of the kettle will reduce if the voltage lowers, as wattage equals voltage squared divided by resistance. This also has the effect of the current reducing. It is therefore best to stick with the nominal 230v supply voltage for calculations (Note - 240v went away a long time ago).

 

[ProfJohnL]

Something like this inside a caravan could be very usefull:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DIY-Tools/DROK-80-260V-Digital-Multimeter-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Monitoring/B015GQOLU2/ref=pd_sim_328_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=64XGG775BKAQW9Y41CDN

 

[Woodentop]

Something like this inside a caravan could be very usefull:

]https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DIY-Tools/DROK-80-260V-Digital-Multimeter-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Monitoring/B015GQOLU2/ref=pd_sim_328_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=64XGG775BKAQW9Y41CDN

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DIY-Tool...UTF8&psc=1&refRID=64XGG775BKAQW9Y41CDN[/quote
AAggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE. It is supposed to be rated 20A but has screw-down connectors a
that are not even good enough for 5A let alone handle 2.5mm cable at 20A - the minimum you would need. Plus it would have to be wired in series with your incoming supply which, apart from being highly dangerous even if you know what you are doing, would probably infringe the type approval and/or electrical certification of the caravan.

And it comes from China - say no more.

What you need is something like this:-
Energy Monitor
You have to clip the sensor around the live (red or brown) wire only on your incoming supply inside the power box - which may be a challenge to some. The wireless connection unit houses the batteries for the sensor and can be outside the power box.

Sorry Prof.......

 

[gravesyt]

I would like to thank you all for your input and ideas so me and the little lady sat down and went through what /when we would use the leccy {scouse for electric } nigh time would be say TV,lights, Heater on 1or2 say and few gadgets charging kettle on now and again so heater off day time kettle.radio, and the kids teck so should be ok but when the tribe are down 5 grandkids and mum {most wk ends :dry: } they with sleep in the annex so will need a heater on low so we will have to use gas in the van . so all should be ok
ps hutch sill taking my suit :woohoo:

 

[ProfJohnL]

Something like this inside a caravan could be very usefull:

]https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DIY-Tools/DROK-80-260V-Digital-Multimeter-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Monitoring/B015GQOLU2/ref=pd_sim_328_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=64XGG775BKAQW9Y41CDN

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DIY-Tool...UTF8&psc=1&refRID=64XGG775BKAQW9Y41CDN[/quote
AAggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE. It is supposed to be rated 20A but has screw-down connectors a
that are not even good enough for 5A let alone handle 2.5mm cable at 20A - the minimum you would need. Plus it would have to be wired in series with your incoming supply which, apart from being highly dangerous even if you know what you are doing, would probably infringe the type approval and/or electrical certification of the caravan.

And it comes from China - say no more.

What you need is something like this:-
Energy Monitor
You have to clip the sensor around the live (red or brown) wire only on your incoming supply inside the power box - which may be a challenge to some. The wireless connection unit houses the batteries for the sensor and can be outside the power box.

Sorry Prof.......

Hello Wooden Top,

I did say "something like....... " Because it gives the actual current consumption simultaneously with the voltage and the calculated wattage, and power used

Also I note it has no CPC connections.

The device you have suggested is good if you are looking to monitor costs, but as far as I can see it does not show the current which is the factor your interested in to avoid nuisance MCB trips.

 

[Hutch]

Come on folks, Love the wife, SWMBLO, BUT ask her to do wirhout the hair drier every otner day, we have learned to live with 6 amp power and still have our 1000kw kettle. When in Europe.
I did get hacked off in C and CC site, 6 amp charging £4. A day, Re Bri Ba..？Warickishire,, ,, lovely pitchig site, basic, kept tripping power. sked why , his reply was, the C and CC wanted to stop, people using heaters in their t8ents. , He asked for comments, stramgley enough, our bad revue, they were on the website for two weeks and dissappeared.

 

[DaveA1]

I do agree that we have become a far more tech dependent society, and that means an ever greater dependence on the electrical supplies both at home and in caravans. It always amazes me the numbers of people with mobile phones to their ears whilst walking down the high street, Like Gabs grandad It makes me wonder how we managed when telephone lines were rationed to 1 per two houses giving a shared line, Black and white 10 screen family televisions with just two channels, and no broadcasts from midnight to about 3 pm. The nearest thing to a mobile phone was a GPO phone box with buttons A & B! hmy:

.

Showing your age Prof, next you will be telling us you had a meat safe outside the bock door and no fridge

On low EHU we always preheat on gas then run on 1000 or 500 watts switch between the two (about 4 or 2 amps) boost heating on gas if needed, water heated on gas then never run kettle and microwave at same time and a towel is a good hair dryer. Charger and telly run as normal.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Showing your age Prof, next you will be telling us you had a meat safe outside the bock door and no fridge .....

Not Quite, but we did have a full domestic gas powered fridge :silly:

 

[Gabsgrandad]

Up to leaving home to get married (alot of years ago!) my mother never had a fridge (50/60's) and most people didn't. Mothers 'cold store' was a concrete gantry in the pantry, frozen food of course was virtually unheard of. How did we survive? Even when we started caravanning 1977 many peoples vans didn't have fridges in. Buckets of water stood outside with a milk bottle in was not uncommon!

 

[Hutch]

Ah the lovely sound of a whistling kettle in the morning, 10 amps is very easy to do, especially as you can change mains powered lights to led's.