We are novices and need advice on electrical matters!

[sarah_374569427]

Hi, last summer we bought a rather vintage 1987 Avondale Olympus Perle caravan of which we are very proud! The only thing is we're not sure what we're doing! After a couple of tentative weekends away we are getting there but I'm still not sure about the electric we receive via the hook up. Basically, can we run normal household appliances off it? We had a little electric heater and it kept cutting out last year. Also our caravan doesn't have an oven and I was thinking of getting a little Cookworks one from Argos but its 1050-1300watts, is this ok? Are there certain rules about how many electrical appliances you can have going at once? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks in advance for any advice you have 🙂

 

[jacky3]

hi,

yes you can to a certain degree,depending on the site ampage.sites vary from 5,6,10and 16 amp.kettle 3kw(3000 watts) will be 3000 divided by 240 volts = approx 12.5 amps

toaster 2 kw(2000 amps) = approx 8.3 amps

which gives a total of 20.8 amps,seen as you might only have 16 amp site electric which you dont always have at peak time you will trip the electric.so you must work out what you can use at any one time.

 

[jacky3]

hi,

yes you can to a certain degree,depending on the site ampage.sites vary from 5,6,10and 16 amp.kettle 3kw(3000 watts) will be 3000 divided by 240 volts = approx 12.5 amps

toaster 2 kw(2000 amps) = approx 8.3 amps

which gives a total of 20.8 amps,seen as you might only have 16 amp site electric which you dont always have at peak time you will trip the electric.so you must work out what you can use at any one time.

http://www.jobsite-generators.com/power_calculators.html

 

[Rusty1]

Hi sarah, have a look at the 240v circuit breakers and there might be 2 the smaller one will probably be lights and the bigger one is sockets see what the amps is, a rough calculation for what you can have on is example(240v x 10amp = 2400w) that might help.

Rusty

 

[Sproket]

Sarah

Have a look at this link from the Caravan Club, it tells you what amperage most appliances use....

Hooking up to the mains

 

[sarah_374569427]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I didn't realise what amps really meant before! Basically as long as I don't have lots of things or 2 big things going at once we should be alright. Well, we're going off at the wknd so we'll see how I get on!

 

[oldievanner]

To keep the amps down, buy from caravan dealer, a low wattage kettle and toaster.That way you save on gas and make the most of the electric you are paying for.

 

[robert_374565247]

generally things that get hot use a lot of watts

a rough guide is 4 amps per kilowatt

 

[Steve L]

Hi Sarah.

First of all welcome to the world of carvanning.

Yes you can use houshold electrical items in your caravan, but you do have to watch how many watts of power you use. Typically a household kettle uses 3'000 watts to boil water which is over the ampage for a 10 amp hook up which is the common uk size. On some sites you do get 16 amps and that size is becoming more frequent these days. (I'm keeping the info simple as I guess you and your OH are not electricians).

For a kettle all you need to do is avoid any that say fast boil on the blurb, and go for a 1800 watt power one. You will find a data lable on the base of the kettle that states wattage.

As for any other appliances just aim to keep them below 2000Watts or 2Kw power and your should be fine in the uk.

Now all you have to do is a bit of basic maths. First of all, keeping it simple, 5amps of hook up = 1000watts or 1Kw of power. So a 1800 Watt kettle - 10 amps. Or kettle only on 10 amp hook ups, but if you have 16 amps to use you can use kettle + small microwave or George Foreman grill.

Sure you'll blow the trip occassionally we all do. I've been caravanning 28 years and still do it a couple of times a year. But as you get wiser, you blow trips less often. One tip would be to use the kettle on it's own, and mix the other power users.

A fan heater is usually a 2 stage unit, each heat setting being 1'000 watts.

One final item you do need to get a low power one of is, a toaster. Again you can find ones under 2'000 watts but you have to read the labels.

Happy hunting in Curry's, Argos, Comet and all the DIY's for the low power options.

Atb Steve L.