Hi Carolyn, and welcome. There are no stupid questions, only ones you haven't got the answer to yet. So let's start at the beginning of yours.
The "convertor" is the firm who originally transformed your vehicle from a basic Peugeot van into a camper or motorhome. Some of the more common ones, which have been around for years, are Autosleepers, Autotrail, and Elddis, but there are lots more, large and small. And each convertor (rather like car makers) builds a number of different models, which they change every few years. John ("Flicka") asked about that, because if it's one of the more common ones there are probably people on here with exactly the same model.
1. The "leisure" battery (the one which powers your internal stuff, not the one that starts the engine) will be kept charged while you're driving, so it should be fine for the odd night or two. If you plug in to a mains hook-up, that will keep it charged as well.
2. The 12v electricity supply switch (probably marked "Car/Off/Caravan") can be left at "Caravan" all the time, it will do no harm at all. The gas should be turned off at source before you start the engine to move off (a knob on the regulator, either on top of the cyllinder or on the wall of the locker housing it).
3. Some water heaters can work on mains when you have a hook-up, pretty well all of them will work on gas. The only electricity you've got if you're NOT on hook-up is 12v, which no heater can use.
4. To use the mains hook-up on a site, you'll need a mains cable. In this country, that's usually orange, with a round blue plug on each end. The shortest you're likely to get would probably be 10m, which is plenty long enough on most UK sites.
5. Most people prefer to buy a "food grade" hose, which will be blue, but I know lots of people who use ordinary garden hoses, and I don't know any who've died from doing so. When the tank is full, it overflows - either from the filler, or from overflow pipes underneath, or both.
6. The chemical for the loo comes in either liquid or plastic-sachet form. There will be a hatch somewhere to let you withdraw the cassette (you may need to life a small catch under the cassette itself before you can slide it out). Once out, you'll see a spout on top of the cassette which will swivel, usually with a yellow screw cap on the end. That's where the nasty stuff comes out, into the place designated for it.
Everything I've mentioned can be bought from the accessory counter at almost any caravan or motorhome supplier. Most of them can also fix you up with gas cylinders (usually Calor in the UK).
Oh, and your fridge willl probably be designed to run on 12v while you're driving, mains when you're on a hook-up, or gas otherwise.
Hope that helps so far - feel free to fire some more at us!
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