Help needed with electrics in france

[lauramumof3]

What if anything do we need for france in addition to all our stuff we use here for hook up

also i think i booked 6amp for our campsite??? is that ok??
thankyou for your help (again!)

 

[TINHUTONWHEELS]

Hi Laura
Don't panic...
Right, you will now find most European Campsite now use the blue 16amp sockets same as the UK. With the possible exception of smaller CL's. I would suggest you but a 'Continental Mains to Caravan' adaptor lead, should be around £5squid at any good caravan store or flea-bay.
http://www.towsure.com/product/Continental_Mains_to_Caravan_Electric_Adaptor
6amp should be enough to run most things ie, water heater, lights, and stuff. Hopefully you won't need the caravan heater on this time of year....
Hope this helps
Kev...

 

[RayS]

Suggest you make a note of the consumption of various items - water heater, fridge, heater (on lower settings, kettle etc. on a card

Check with the site when checking in and then work out which loads you can have on together. For example, water heater and kettle together usually a no-no on 6 amps. The problem is that many sites do not have their circuit breakers accessable to the visitor and should you trip them by connecting too much load, you will have to go and find the owner or warden to re-set. This is pretty tedious if it happens too often, particularly at night.
Note too that you may be lulled into a false sense of security when first plugging in a new load, say the kettle. If the water heater has been on for a while and has heated the contents fully, then the termostat will operate and it will be taking no current until the water temperature drops again, either when you use some or by natural cooling. This extra load may be enough to trip the circuit which had been working perfectly well beforehand.

There is quite a lot on this topic in earlier postings both in the overseas touring section and in technical. However, as a rough guide, look at each appliance you have e.g. kettle and find the power rating in watts or KW (thousand watts). Assume the site voltage in France will be 220. Then the current taken by the appliance will be given by the value of the watts divided by 220. For a 1000watt (I kw) appliance, the current will be 4.54 amps. You can find the rating for fridge, water heater, space heater etc. from the handbooks for these items, and things like hair driers will be marked on the appliance. Add up what you have or want to connect and keep this below 6 amps to avoid tripping.
Hope this helps - enjoy your holiday.

 

[lauramumof3]

thankyou we will check it out xx

 

[plotter]

From personal experience I have been on sites with 6amp (Gandspette for example) and when asking the owner about it was told dont worry.Even at peak use times we have gone well over 6 amps without incident,I always think they say 6 amp to keep usage down.
Also many sites will switch the trip for a higher ampage if you ask (they charge more obviously)

 

[ValA.]

Perhaps I shouldn't share this, but we found that an angular metal tent peg can be used to open the tripswitch boxes! They have a lock which takes the three sided meter key, but the tent peg works just as well.
We were tipped off about using it by our Dutch neighbours on one site who regularly popped out to reset the electrics!

 

[lauramumof3]

do you set it to a higher amp then?

 

[ValA.]

No, you can't do that - just if it trips (ie the supply suddenly goes off because you've overloaded it by using too many appliances at once) then you can switch it back on yourself, without having to bother the campsite reception staff or the 'handyman'.
I can sometimes happen if I'm drying my hair, and OH suddenly fancies a cuppa and puts the kettle on!

 

[RayS]

The key is called a Utility key and is sold here for less than £2 by Screwfix, Toolstation etc. I've carried one for year and never found a box in France it would fit - they all had key locks. While those in Spain had either keylocks or padlock and chain.
I always test the sockets for reverse polarity and usualy check all the unused ones on the box at the same time, so I where these is another working socket should I trip the one I first connect too. Unfortunately and particularly in low season, others do the same and omit to tell the owners such that you can find an entire bollard without one working socket.

 

[DeliDave_]

we have 6amps at the moment at La Tabardiere its been fine.Needed a continental to blue socket but trhats all.Sometimes on smaller sites you may need an extra lead as they can be some distance away We can upgrade to 10 Amps for 1.50 a day but no need so far.Our power bollard needs a proper key.

 

[PatrickStoner]

I'm on a site in the south of France as I write. Of the six sites we have visited so far, most have claimed 10Amps and a quick inspection of the box has revealed everything from 6A to 10A, but the same rating has been applied to the box overall, so in high season we could be down to 2.5A per pitch.
Two of the six pitches have had French plugs, one wired 'backwards,' and the rest Euro sockets, with one wired 'backwards' again. I carry both French and Euro reversing plugs, so no problem.

However, running the usual stuff plus air-con hasn't caused any problems so far.