Hi all, new to this & hoping someone can help, we have just bought brand new van & new to caravanning, we are on a seasonal pitch at the moment & loving it but the site is 10 amp & our van is 16 amp, the fuse or breaker melted on the site post, (not sure which) the owner is saying it's the van that's the problem & we need to change it to 10 amp, as it's under warranty we're not keen on doing this, having spoke to others on site they have same amperage as us, we're aware of not using too much in the van at same time, so I don't think this was why it happened, we would be grateful for any advice please!
16 amp caravan on 10 amp site
- Thread starter Minikar
- Start date
You don't/can't change anything on the caravan - you need to use less electricity !!
Personally, we cope just fine at sites with only 5 amps in summer although we go to sites with 10 amps in late autumn or early spring.
Consider buying a low wattage caravan kettle rather than simply using a domestic one.
Personally, we cope just fine at sites with only 5 amps in summer although we go to sites with 10 amps in late autumn or early spring.
Consider buying a low wattage caravan kettle rather than simply using a domestic one.
Thank you RogerL, that's what I thought even though at the time we were sat outside in the sunshine, we did have a fan on for the dog but that was all, maybe it was that, really didn't want to start messing with fuses in the van, thanks for your advice
I think we've all gone through the scenario of using too much electricity on site and blowing a low ampage trip. I would have thought the trip should have blown rather than melt the fitting. We usually only have a 6 amp connection and rarely blow it.
What caravan have you got?
What caravan have you got?
We do have low wattage kettle, toaster etc, even use hair dryer in site bathroom, so we do try & keep things to a minimum
We have a Bailey Pursuit, it hasn't tripped in the van at all, which is why we were a little confused why it should melt whatever it was in the post, my husband spoke to site owner so not all together sure what it was so I thought I'd do the girl thing & ask advice 
When you say you had hardly anything switched on, did you have the water heater and battery charger on electric?
Parksy
Moderator
I'm assuming that you used a normal ehu lead from the post to your caravan?
It would appear that the site owner is trying to make you feel guilty because his own equipment is faulty.
If a circuit breaker melts it would indicate that there's a problem with it, it should trip and switch off if overloaded.
Maybe this guy is hoping that because you are new to caravanning you'll be naive enough to pay for repairs to his equipment? :evil:
Whatever he's after he's talking rubbish, the 16 amp rcd's in your caravan wouldn't cause his circuit breaker to melt.
Take care with what you use, a microwave an electric kettle together usually trips a site circuit breaker but if it's melted rather than tripped then the fault would be on the post belonging to the site, not with your caravan.
It would appear that the site owner is trying to make you feel guilty because his own equipment is faulty.
If a circuit breaker melts it would indicate that there's a problem with it, it should trip and switch off if overloaded.
Maybe this guy is hoping that because you are new to caravanning you'll be naive enough to pay for repairs to his equipment? :evil:
Whatever he's after he's talking rubbish, the 16 amp rcd's in your caravan wouldn't cause his circuit breaker to melt.
Take care with what you use, a microwave an electric kettle together usually trips a site circuit breaker but if it's melted rather than tripped then the fault would be on the post belonging to the site, not with your caravan.
Circuit breakers do wear out and need changing especially if continually being tripped. CB's are also rated to trip at different time rates when on overload.
But they should be capable of carrying the rated value continually, in this case 10amp.
You need to make a note of what current each appliance uses, and use your 10 amp maximum accordingly, I would target 9 amps as a safety margin, just incase something cuts in such as the fridge on mains.
The worst culprit IMO is the microwave, a 700 watt microwave actually uses around 1200watts. Around 6 amps.
But they should be capable of carrying the rated value continually, in this case 10amp.
You need to make a note of what current each appliance uses, and use your 10 amp maximum accordingly, I would target 9 amps as a safety margin, just incase something cuts in such as the fridge on mains.
The worst culprit IMO is the microwave, a 700 watt microwave actually uses around 1200watts. Around 6 amps.
Minikar said:We have a Bailey Pursuit, it hasn't tripped in the van at all, which is why we were a little confused why it should melt whatever it was in the post, my husband spoke to site owner so not all together sure what it was so I thought I'd do the girl thing & ask advice
The caravan is fitted with a 16amp CB for the sockets, and 6 amp for other circuits, so you can take full advantage when sites supply a 16 amp supply.
My 2004 Senator only had a 10 amp supply for the sockets, but the Unicorn has 16 amp.
Yes we did have the water & battery on, so we may have caused a problem there, we will take that into account in future, it is a normal ehu lead & not had any problems with the electric tripping up until that day, the owner has replaced the fuse & circuit breaker in the post so hopefully it won't happen again, we just didn't want to tamper with our fuses in our lovely van. Thank you so much for your advice, we are absolutely loving the whole caravan experience, met some really lovely friendly people, big thank you to Parksy you've stopped the feeling of impending doom & sick feeling in the pit of my stomach :lol:
H i there,
I'm not so certain there has been an over current situation. It the current had been too high the sites cct breaker should have tripped, it didn't so we need to consider what else may have occurred.
It would help to know exactly what parts started to melt.
My suspicion is that there hasn't been an over current , but more likely a poor connection. With a poor connection, the joint will allow some current to pass - perhaps enough to run the fan and fridge, but even with this modest current usage, if its passing through a high resistance connection, the point of high resistance will start to heat up, may be enough to soften the plastic supporting the components.
Perhaps the plug on the EHU cable was not fully pushed home fully in the stanchion, or the conductors not properly trapped in the plug housing. or the 16A receptacle in the stanchion may be worn as has been suggested else where.
I'm not so certain there has been an over current situation. It the current had been too high the sites cct breaker should have tripped, it didn't so we need to consider what else may have occurred.
It would help to know exactly what parts started to melt.
My suspicion is that there hasn't been an over current , but more likely a poor connection. With a poor connection, the joint will allow some current to pass - perhaps enough to run the fan and fridge, but even with this modest current usage, if its passing through a high resistance connection, the point of high resistance will start to heat up, may be enough to soften the plastic supporting the components.
Perhaps the plug on the EHU cable was not fully pushed home fully in the stanchion, or the conductors not properly trapped in the plug housing. or the 16A receptacle in the stanchion may be worn as has been suggested else where.
It could also be that someone before you had got fed up with having to go out and re-set the trip on the post so they jammed something in the ballard rcd to stop it tripping off, i remember seeing this on a pitch we were on once, Its bloody dangerous and i cant understand why anyone would risk a fire just because it saves them getting off there behind's.
A warning to everyone to check the that the RCD trips when you press the test button, if it doesn't check that its not been tampered with.
A warning to everyone to check the that the RCD trips when you press the test button, if it doesn't check that its not been tampered with.
Parksy
Moderator
If there's anything at all that you want to know about tourers, caravan parks, the price of fish.......Minikar said:
We're a friendly forum and always happy to help, who knows, one day you might be in a position to help someone else who wants to know about seasonal pitches
Could the problem be the Truma water heater/blown air heater if it has one. They give you two choices of electric power and number two is 8 amps. If this is heating water on the second setting and you have anything else on this could be the problem. If so I would use the lower power.
Hi, I have just joined your forum and maybe can add a little to the subject as we have a 10 amp CL in Perthshire, only limited in power supply as it is domestic and at the end of the power supply line. Most times people trip their power is when they come on site, as the fridge starts up and is cooling from ambient temperature, the water is starting to heat up, and maybe the heater gets switched on and their is a dive to put the kettle on after setting the van up. This means you are drawing maximum in a few seconds, so may I suggest using a little gas on start up on some appliances and then switch over to electric. There can also be issues with circuit breakers and their age where the ones on the main house boards can be more sensitive than the newer ones on the electric posts so electricians need to check all is compatible. We have also had issues with brand new vans where an accessory has been wired incorrectly and tripped our posts.
David
David
We haven't been told exactly what started to melt, but in the OP it does suggest something in the stanchion rather than the EHU lead. The purpose of the RCD and MCB's in the stanchion is to protect themselves and the sites wiring from faulty caravans being attached or caravans that are trying to use more current than the pitches rating.
In my view based on the information so far supplied, it strongly points to a faulty bollard system for two reasons. The first is if the caravan was trying to use more than 10A why didn't the bollard trip? and secondly if as per my earlier post there was a high resistance contact in the bollard which started to overheat, then again the site is responsible for maintaining the bollard.
John makes good point about checking the RCD will trip by pressing the test button before you make your connection to it. However if the RCD complies with the standards you should not be able to jam it on as suggested. They should be designed to physically disconnect from the reset switch so you cannot force it when a fault condition is present.
In my view based on the information so far supplied, it strongly points to a faulty bollard system for two reasons. The first is if the caravan was trying to use more than 10A why didn't the bollard trip? and secondly if as per my earlier post there was a high resistance contact in the bollard which started to overheat, then again the site is responsible for maintaining the bollard.
johnandrew70 said:
John makes good point about checking the RCD will trip by pressing the test button before you make your connection to it. However if the RCD complies with the standards you should not be able to jam it on as suggested. They should be designed to physically disconnect from the reset switch so you cannot force it when a fault condition is present.
I'm beginning to wonder now! There was a couple next door at the time & she did look as though she had a problem with her sight (she walked into our car & on another occasion tripped over our storm strap) it may have been possible she tripped over our lead dislodging it slightly, somebody did complain about her walking across pitches but to be fair the path is gravel & uneven, or it could have been us not making sure the plug was fully pushed in, definitely something to check next time, also totally guilty of sticking kettle on ASAP so will take that into consideration, yes, we also have 2 settings on our water heater & have turned it down to lower setting since this happened, I really don't think we over loaded the system, I've checked the fan, which was the only thing on other than fridge & water, that was really low wattage , I'm pretty sure the site owner said the circuit breaker hubby reckons fuse,, to be honest I think we both panicked & thought the worst, thank you everyone for your help & comments, it truly has helped & put our minds at rest, also rang Bailey & was told not to change fuse under any circumstances, fingers crossed, once again thank you all
so will take that into consideration, yes, we also have 2 settings on our water heater & have turned it down to lower setting since this happened, I really don't think we over loaded the system, I've checked the fan, which was the only thing on other than fridge & water, that was really low wattage , I'm pretty sure the site owner said the circuit breaker hubby reckons fuse,, to be honest I think we both panicked & thought the worst, thank you everyone for your help & comments, it truly has helped & put our minds at rest, also rang Bailey & was told not to change fuse under any circumstances, fingers crossed, once again thank you all Parksy is correct,it's the owner's circuit breaker that is faulty,nothing wrong with your caravan electrics.
Only thing I would say about Parky's response is that an RCD device will not operate (open) on electrical overload,it will only operate when an earth fault is detected
Only thing I would say about Parky's response is that an RCD device will not operate (open) on electrical overload,it will only operate when an earth fault is detected
bertieboy1 said:
Hello bertieboy,
I think you were refering to my post above. Just to clarify I stated
"The purpose of the RCD and MCB's in the stanchion is to protect themselves and the sites wiring from faulty caravans being attached or caravans that are trying to use more current than the pitches rating."
I mentioned Faulty caravans being attached, which does not limit the faults to being over current.
We use an OWL CM160 set to show current, its normally in use at home on a daily basis.
Note not all models when we bought ours would display current so check.
Only downside besides a small error is an approx. 12 second delay in the display updating.
For it to work in the caravan you need to modify the incoming mains flex to enable the clamp that detects the current flow to be fitted, it has to go round only one core preferably the brown live.
As I said previously on a ten amp supply we target around 9 amp.
Note not all models when we bought ours would display current so check.
Only downside besides a small error is an approx. 12 second delay in the display updating.
For it to work in the caravan you need to modify the incoming mains flex to enable the clamp that detects the current flow to be fitted, it has to go round only one core preferably the brown live.
As I said previously on a ten amp supply we target around 9 amp.
Remember your school boy physics. .
Watts divided by Volts = Amps.
It's worth making an amp table of all your appliances which use the mains.
10amps doesn't go far.eg 2000watts heater is 9 amps plus water heater fridge battery charger etc.
It all adds up and if you are not careful you'll blow the ehu trip.
Watts divided by Volts = Amps.
It's worth making an amp table of all your appliances which use the mains.
10amps doesn't go far.eg 2000watts heater is 9 amps plus water heater fridge battery charger etc.
It all adds up and if you are not careful you'll blow the ehu trip.
Dustydog said:
Ah but which Volts do you use? 230 or 240?
The point is Dusty, if the OP was trying to pull too much current, the stanchions MCB should have tripped and not over heated.
ProfJohnL said:Dustydog said:
Ah but which Volts do you use? 230 or 240?
The point is Dusty, if the OP was trying to pull too much current, the stanchions MCB should have tripped and not over heated.
Must be EU 240v erring on the side of caution.
Mine is an aside. A melted ehu I'm is nothing to do with the caravanner.
Back in the annuls of time PCv published an amperage chart of most electrical items used in a caravan .
Sir Sprocket to the rescue.
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