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USB sockets

A

Adrianchandler

Hi all I am after some advice on fitting some new usb sockets into my caravan I wish too fit 2 new usb sockets one each side of my bed but the only power I have nearby is the lighting in the wardrobes can I take a feed of off these too power the new usb sockets ?
Many thanks
Adrian chandler
 
Hi Adrian
The wardrobe light is likely to be 12v
from the leisure battery but make sure before you break into any circuits.
There is an article about USB sockets Here.
Alternatively you could enter usb socket into the forum search box, click on Search and you will see older postings from members who have done this.
 
Invest in a couple of decent capacity power banks, as an alternative?

Recharge these from either your car's 12 volt outlet or the one in the caravan, depending if on or off EHU and so desirability to reserve battery energy.
 
Adrianchandler said:
Hi all I am after some advice on fitting some new usb sockets into my caravan I wish too fit 2 new usb sockets one each side of my bed but the only power I have nearby is the lighting in the wardrobes can I take a feed of off these too power the new usb sockets ?
Many thanks
Adrian chandler
Click to expand...
Hi,
I salute you for considering the load on wiring. As standard in caravans the wire size for 12V lighting wiring will be a minimum of 1mm CSA which has a rated current capacity of 8.75A. Some manufactures have used 1.5mm CSA which has a rated current capacity of 12.75A.

Without knowing exactly how many lamps are on the circuit I can't be certain how much spare capacity the wiring would have if all the lights were on at the same time, but in reality we rarely use all of them together so it's quite likely you could fit the usb's, especially if your lighting uses Led lamps.

Ultimately even if you did put too much load on the circuit, it's fuse or circuit breaker should blow operate and protect the wiring.
 
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Not sure what layout you have but our fixed bed model has a 13 amp plug in the bed base. If you have this then a cable could be taken from the socket up to the bed side, and I would fit a socket there with the USB port which in our case would be far better than the layout we have, in fact you have me wondering if that might be worth doing in ours as the current socket is very badly placed.
 
Look at the 12-5V adapter on the back of the proposed socket. It will probably be 5V at 2.4A which is 12W. Assume 75% efficiency for the switching supply in the adapter (in reality likely to be much better than that) then you would be drawing 16W from 12V or a bit over 1¼A - and that is if the item being charged is making full demand - it is more likely to be less than that so IMO essentially the additional load can be ignored.
 
I had the same problem on my ACE, I tapped into the reading light circuit (12v) and added this usb adaptor it is flush mounted under the overhead cupboards
 

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Could you replace the socket on the bed base with a 13A with one or 2 USB outlets? Then you could run a USB extension lead to use on the bedside shelf? Alternatively so many new vans advertise LED light units with usb in the base, so could you replace your overhead lights above the bed with something similar?
 
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