hi to all,its that time of the year just booked our camp hols in south of France (can't wait)one of the camp sites have 5amp ehu , can I run my micro/hot water heater in mhome / halg-oven , will it trip the power , or should I use one at a time ,i could turn off the water heater when cooking , but I do like to use my ovens , it quick when you got children to feed , thanks for your time & help ,Wango,
5 amps is equal to 1150 watts, so you will only be able to use electrical appliances up to a total of 1150 watts on a 5 amp supply before it trips the switches.
that's not much to use many appliances at once, I would just use one at the time, do not forget that out of that you will have fridge and the on board charger for the leisure battery that will power your lights and pump, although all this does not use an awful lot of power,one at the time should see you cook your meals without tripping the power.
Your Microwave is very likely to draw 5 amps on it's own! ( A 600w Microwave is in reality a 1200w (5 amps) device!)So you would need to ensure all else switched off (Charger, lights, TV, Water pump etc)before using or you will almost certainly trip the supply. Sacre Bleu! Put your fridge on gas if a 3-way one. Also remember that your battery charger may draw more than normal if your leisure battery is well down.
Sincerely hope you won't need an electric heater down there but large fans can draw an amp or 2!!
If you have time it is possible to check actual current load of each 240v device on your Motorhome at home before you leave (Easy to do if your primary feed to Motorhome is a 3-pin socket in the garage say). Suitable metering units are not too expensive - look like a combined 3-pin plug and socket with a small lcd display - Lidls did one once .. also see Maplin - http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/15a-plug-in-energy-saving-monitor-l61aq Then put details of each major item's maximum current on chart .. inside wardrobe door is always a good place!
------------- The older I get the better I used to be.
Most electrical items will have the watts stamped on them somewhere but few show what amps they draw.
So a 2000 watt fan heater for instance would be 2000 watts divided by 230 volts = 8.69 amps (or 8.33 amps if you assume the voltage is 240v). Obviously too much for a 5 amp supply.
We've never done it ..but I would've thought that when "camping" in the south of France(presumably in summer?), it would be relatively easy to manage with such a low ampage supply....
As the weather should be warmer, the nights lighter..and a good deal of any "cooking" could be done outside anyway(BBQ/Cadac etc)..
For water heating,boiling a kettle etc, what's wrong with using gas?(..and what's wrong with using the gas oven, for that matter?)
(..we manage on "gas-only",off-hook-up in the UK for a week long plus stints, easy enough..and that's without any solar panels or additional leisure batteries).
To be honest,I certainly wouldn't be relying on such things as halogen ovens and microwaves.
Unfortunately low ampage supplies are just a fact of life in many European countries. Although 10 amps is becoming more common in France. We managed perfectly well on 4/6 amp supplies. On one site that claims a 4 amp supply we even ran the microwave. Its a bit trial and error but providing you can get at the circuit breaker switch in the site bollard just test it out!!!
The little old caravan I used to have didn't have mains electric at all so I used gas for the fridge, gas fire and cooking and a leisure battery for the water pump and lighting and charged the leisure battery at home before every trip. I was very comfortable with no problems although you can't run high power stuff, like a TV, on a leisure battery for long.
Check when you get to the south of France you may find they have 1 20 amp circuit breaker to 4 pitches if its early season and the pitches around you are empty you will have no problem this has been the case on a couple of sites I have been on.
We do have a halogen oven, but don't have a microwave. The halogen oven never goes to France! And if I did have a microwave that wouldn't be going either. When we go to France, most of the cooking is done on the gas BBQ, or on an outside gas cooker. That's one of the nice things about the outdoor life in good weather. We usually only use the MH for sleeping in, and travelling of course!
Hot water: I usually wash up in the sinks provided, that way it minimises any water we have to empty out of the tanks and doesn't use as much of the water we do have on-board. If I do want hot water, gas heats it up very quickly, quicker than electric I always find.
thanks to all for your help,i do all the cooking out side the mhome on a lec/bbq and a glass of red maybe 5!!!!,I just use the microw for heating up the kids food when thay come home later,i did ask you guys about halogen oven you all said good things about them, for got I get the kids to wash-up on site(use there hot water),i pay for the electric so why pay for gas when on site,like you ina we use the mhome for sleeping/travelling,have stayed out side many nights,thanks again to all for your time & help,wango
We had 5 amps one year in the Netherlands . It was -1 freezing . Easter . We could only have our heater on 500 if we turned it up it would trip. We would have to turn it off to boil the kettle. Never used a micro wave. The fridge and water heater were on . we did have to juggle and only put one thing on at a time. We were happy to put the stove on to warm the van .
We tried not to use much gas because we were afraid we might run out and not be ale to replace it there.
You should be fine in the summer. Though. We were able to switch ours back on our selves. So every time it tripped we would put it back on.
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Topic: 5amps ehu on camp site is
