We are travelling to Brittany next year and as its our first trip into Europe what type of electric hook up do we need please?
French Connections
- Thread starter breeze1470
- Start date
You can use your British EHU cable with a short adaptor to fit French supplies. The French wire their supplies different to UK and sometimes I would come across a bollard which when connected showed negative polarity. So I made up a reverse polarity adaptor cable just in case. I also carried a mains test plug too.
Here is a Towsure cable adaptor and a mains test plug which is also useful in UK.
Brittany is a lovely area for a first visit. The Caravan and Motorhome Club sell touring guides for various countries in Europe. They are an excellent source of information from tolls, distances, municipal camp sites (cheap ), legal aspects of towing and driving. A veritable Britannica of information. Even when we had been regular visitors to France we always carried the latest CMHC guide.
Here is a Towsure cable adaptor and a mains test plug which is also useful in UK.
Brittany is a lovely area for a first visit. The Caravan and Motorhome Club sell touring guides for various countries in Europe. They are an excellent source of information from tolls, distances, municipal camp sites (cheap ), legal aspects of towing and driving. A veritable Britannica of information. Even when we had been regular visitors to France we always carried the latest CMHC guide.
Many French sites use the standard EHU cable connection (the blue male/female type) used in the UK, but nit all so a short adapter lead is a very wise acquisition. Don't let others frighten you about "reversed polarity" it can occur on some sites, but everything in your caravan will still work just fine so don't stress it!
France is simply brilliant for camping, if going out of season ACSI Camping Card is a very worthwhile investment, pay the extra for the app, its brilliant ACSI saves you a fortune and it works offline as well.
France is simply brilliant for camping, if going out of season ACSI Camping Card is a very worthwhile investment, pay the extra for the app, its brilliant ACSI saves you a fortune and it works offline as well.
With the French method of double pole switching reverse polarity isn't an issue. But some UK caravans don't even have switched mains outlets, or other items could be live even though switched off. I always used my test plug on arrival on site and if required used my reverse polarity cable.
As Plod has suggested, UK caravans should work on a reversed supply with no problems. The mains wiring inside the caravan will be protected by double pole RCD's and MCB's which mechanically disconnect both the Live and Neutral conductor's if a fault occurs. (Most UK houses only have single pols MCB's)
Permanently fixed mains appliances in the caravan should have double pole on off switches which again also break both Live and Neutral conductors when turned OFF.
The problem might arise if you plug in a device which only has a single pole On/Off switch, with reversed polarity, the internals of the device would still be live when the switch is on the Off position. This would only be a problem if you started to poke around inside the appliance.
One scenario I can think of where this is a possibility would be a toaster, where sometimes it might not eject the slice of toast and you might be tempted to ease it out with the tip of a knife.. To be safe always unplug the toaster do not rely on an On/Off switch.
Permanently fixed mains appliances in the caravan should have double pole on off switches which again also break both Live and Neutral conductors when turned OFF.
The problem might arise if you plug in a device which only has a single pole On/Off switch, with reversed polarity, the internals of the device would still be live when the switch is on the Off position. This would only be a problem if you started to poke around inside the appliance.
One scenario I can think of where this is a possibility would be a toaster, where sometimes it might not eject the slice of toast and you might be tempted to ease it out with the tip of a knife.. To be safe always unplug the toaster do not rely on an On/Off switch.
Excellent advice as it has saved us a fortune over the years that we went to France and Spain.
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