Power Watts amp ????????

[Richard_374367253]

New to this so looking some advice.

could some please explain the electric usage to me.

we are hooked up to the house mains the fridge is running off electric and i think from reading other posts the lights are running off the battery. My wife is looking to add a number of other electrical items such as a kettle, toaster, tv, dvd player and a oven. sure there would be the odd other thing like mobile chargers ect.

firstly what would i need to look for when buying these thing is it low wattage or low ampage.

secondly is t easy to install a electric oven and what precautions should be taken.

thirdly will it all run when on house mains or are you still limited by the amount of amps.

I should probably have posted a few posts but any help would be greatfully recieved.

Richard

 

[CheapnCheerful]

If installing a conventional electric oven it will have to be a small one like the old portable'baby belling' type that can run from a 13 amp plug. (There must be a modern equivalent!) Basically you will be restricted to 13 amps max, and as one of these ovens will draw that on its own, you would not be able to run anything else at the same time - unless you are talking about a microwave oven which draws a lot less and would be ok. The kettle and toaster would draw less, so as long as you do not use these at the same time as each other you should have enough spare capacity for the other electrical stuff to keep running. If you go touring, the electric hook ups on site might be more restrictive than the 13amps you get at home so care may be needed.

 

[Richard_374367253]

Hi Cheap And Cheerful

I was looking at something like the mini oven in argos

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4202134/Trail/searchtext>MINI OVEN.htm
says its 1200w but from reading other posts it seems to be the amps i need to add up and not go ever 10amp at one time if i'm reading the other posts correctly.

Richard

 

[ChrisUK]

watts (or power) = volts x current (amps.

so it is easy to work out. The best you will get is 16A from a caravan hookup, or 13A from plugging in to a home socket. Then often in the van the power socket circuit breaker is set to 10A. So say 10amps max, times 230volts, you can get a total of 2300watts. All appliences will have this rating on them.

 

[Richard_374367253]

Thanks for the reply Chris

so while using the oven of 2000w i'd only have 300w left to use with other items this does not seem like much but i guess i can work around it if need be.

Once again thanks for he replies

Richard

 

[Gafferbill]

Hi Richard

The best way to understand this topic is to regard your caravan

mains supply as coming from JUST ONE 3 pin socket that you would find in your house.

That 3pin socket can supply 3000watts maximum in your house.

On campsites this supply can vary between 1000 watts and 3000watts sometimes described as 5 amps and 15 amps.

Appliances creating heat are heavy users of electricity.

Caravans are not supplied with electric cookers because they use too many watts.

Your proposed 2000 watt cooker, could by itself blow the trip at a campsite with a 1000watt (5amp) supply and you are quite likely to have forgotten to turn off your 700watt water heater!

Caravaners have to know the wattage of their eppliances and make sure that the totals do not exceed the site supply.

This means in practice learning what you can use in what combination at any one time.

Domestic kettles are the commonest mistake as they can be 2300watts.

You need a low wattage version for caravaning.

See Towsures website

http://www.towsure.com/category/6772-Low_Wattage_Appliances

 

[alaintaylor]

My advice is don't do it, use a gas oven if you can. As all the other posts suggest, an electric oven with anything else running will be close to the limit and will not be as good as a gas oven. In cold weather it is best to use electric wisely, ie it is free (on-site anyway) and best used for heating to save (considerably) on gas costs.

Alan