Electric Hook Ups

[mexicoboy68]

I
After a couple of trips away this year, I am still amazed at sites still using 10 amp sockets! With all the electrics in a modern caravan,it doesn't take much to trip out. On none trip away in Yorkshire, it was like synchronised dancing,watching people re-setting the trip switch! So come on site owners,time for an upgrade to all hook up points. After all,many are not slow charging £2.50 per night for this!

 

[Martin24]

Or of course do what we do and avoid sites with EHU and stick to the solar panel to keep the battery charged up. If we can do it with three peeps, two adults and two dowgs almost anyone can, except maybe those who need to use essential medical equipment. Makes life much cheaper and the extra cupboard gained by leaving the microwave out is quite handy!! If you don't like the power supplied and the price you pay then hook up and move on to somewhere you are happier with.

 

[Surfer]

I
After a couple of trips away this year, I am still amazed at sites still using 10 amp sockets! With all the electrics in a modern caravan,it doesn't take much to trip out. On none trip away in Yorkshire, it was like synchronised dancing,watching people re-setting the trip switch! So come on site owners,time for an upgrade to all hook up points. After all,many are not slow charging £2.50 per night for this!

And there is good reason for them doing this and charging the £2.50 a day as many selfish people have fan heaters going in their awnings all day during tghe cooler periods and this costs the site owner a fortune in lost revenue. We have a double door fridge, ALDE heating, TV, laptops etc no issue even if we boil a kettle, but gthe mains will trip if using the kettle and the microwave so we don't do it. Simples.
IMHO 10 amps is more than sufficient as I don't want to see meters on every site because of a few inconsiderate people.

 

[ProfJohnL]

mexicoboy68

I know what you mean, but it may not as simple as it may appear. By their nature many caravan sites tend to be in rural settings, where the mains supply may be limited by the capacity of local substations or the national grids infrastructure.

If you have a service that is currently (no pun intended) running at 80% capacity, then by simply upping the pitch limits from 10 to 16A is a 60% increase, which would mean your supply capacity needs would be overloaded by 48%.

Obviously not acceptable, you would need to have an uprated supply which can be very expensive. A factory I worked at needed to increase its supply capacity to cope with a new paint plant. The paint plant cost about £100K and the cost to have the incoming supply uprated was a further £50K.

 

[DavidO]

We have 10 amps on our cl with a 16amp outlet My electrition advised we should upgrade all our sockets to 16amps, cost between £8 and £10 thousand. Ie £2000 per outlet. This was a no situation should we be compleled to upgrade we would close the cl.

 

[Whittakerr]

Prof.
All your calculations are, of course, correct, however there is one important part missing, namely diversity.
When calculating the maximum load a facility, say a house, or office block, or caravan site, you do not obtain a supply capacity of the total potential load i.e. everything switched on at the same time. A diversity factor is applied. This can be anything up to 80%, and is up to the designer to ascertain. However there are some guidelines laid down.
The diversity factor allows for the fact that not everything will be switched on at the same time, i.e. everyone will not but the kettle on, or switch the microwave on at the same time. Also electric space and water heaters, once up to temperature switch on and off via the thermostat control.
I do agree that on site infrastructure may require upgrading to allow 16A supplies at each hook up point, it is dependant on the existing switchgear and cable size to the hook up points, but this can only determined on a site by site basis.

 

[Parksy]

Or of course do what we do and avoid sites with EHU and stick to the solar panel to keep the battery charged up. If we can do it with three peeps, two adults and two dowgs almost anyone can, except maybe those who need to use essential medical equipment. Makes life much cheaper and the extra cupboard gained by leaving the microwave out is quite handy!! If you don't like the power supplied and the price you pay then hook up and move on to somewhere you are happier with.

I'm with Martin on this one!
We sometimes use sites with ehu and accept what is there as long as we are aware of the price of ehu beforehand, but we also often use the caravan off ehu and like Martin, we use our solar panel to re-charge out 110a/h leisure battery which is more than adequate for what we need.
With the constant upgrading of tourers to the point where all the electrically driven home comforts are onboard there will come a point where smaller certified sites could be forced out of business. I've also seen inconsiderate caravanners using fan heaters to warm up awnings when the occupiers are out.

 

[TonyG]

I
After a couple of trips away this year, I am still amazed at sites still using 10 amp sockets! With all the electrics in a modern caravan,it doesn't take much to trip out. On none trip away in Yorkshire, it was like synchronised dancing,watching people re-setting the trip switch! So come on site owners,time for an upgrade to all hook up points. After all,many are not slow charging £2.50 per night for this!

it's a good job you don't caravan in europe then, as more often than not you get 6amps.. Is it not just a case of being sensible, Don't put the toaster, microwave and the kettle on at the same time!!!

 

[SteveW77]

I
After a couple of trips away this year, I am still amazed at sites still using 10 amp sockets! With all the electrics in a modern caravan,it doesn't take much to trip out. On none trip away in Yorkshire, it was like synchronised dancing,watching people re-setting the trip switch! So come on site owners,time for an upgrade to all hook up points. After all,many are not slow charging £2.50 per night for this!

it's a good job you don't caravan in europe then, as more often than not you get 6amps.. Is it not just a case of being sensible, Don't put the toaster, microwave and the kettle on at the same time!!!

I have been on a lot of sites that only have 3 amps, you have to be careful, but it soon becomes "normal"

Steve W

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Whittakerr,

I am aware of diversity, but chose not to confuse the thread too much. Even allowing for diversity though, a potential 60% increase is still a very large jump in demand, and for some sites could still exceed the supply capability, if for no other reason the diversity would need to be recalculated for the 16A rating.

 

[drsorento]

It would be a very naive person whos line of thought is that if everyone turned off fan heaters and the like in awnings, the price per night would drop significantly.
I have heard it siad that camp sites can only charge the amount that they are charged for electricity, how true this is I have no idear, but I do know there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I have heard it siad that camp sites can only charge the amount that they are charged for electricity, how true this is I have no idear, but I do know there is more than one way to skin a cat.

In the UK it is true, but that can only apply where the supply is metered, and the site owner charges per unit of electricity used. However there is no formal structure for the hire of he equipement you plug into.

 

[Dustydog]

I have no problem with 10amps and in parts of Scotland have used 6amp EHU . I am prejudiced in so far as I don't carry toasters, electric kettles etc.
Why carry all that extra weight around?

What has caused me problems is SWMBO electric hairdryer

. It's 2000 watts full blast!! No wonder her brain gets scrambled