240 volt is earthed through the EHU cable as you connect it. if you plan to go france read this.
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In the UK we fuse and switch only the positive feed, apart from a few instances like your immersion heater, shower, cooker ect. which should a double pole switch.
Abroad its different, they fuse both sides, and use D/P switches, so for them it doesn't matter which way around the plug is, the result for us is that when you turn off your 230v socket in the motorhome, the positive could still be live.
You can buy a simple polarity checker which plugs into a socket for a few pounds, alternatively you can do as many do and ignore it. If you want to be 100% safe then you need to buy or make a short lead which has the positive and negative reversed, you then plug this into the EHU and then plug your main lead into it.
Post last edited on 21/01/2011 12:22:43
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Quote: Originally posted by michael on 21/1/2011
In the UK we fuse and switch only the positive feed, apart from a few instances like your immersion heater, shower, cooker ect. which should a double pole switch.
Abroad its different, they fuse both sides, and use D/P switches, so for them it doesn't matter which way around the plug is, the result for us is that when you turn off your 230v socket in the motorhome, the positive could still be live.
This is not correct & it would be his caravan he would be towing to France not his house. All modern UK built caravans have double pole switches & so do any modern electrical appliances he might be using. They are perfectly safe to use in Europe.
Do you seriously think UK manufacturers would sell caravans that were not safe to use in Europe?
All metal parts of a caravan excluding the metal sheets forming part of the structure must be bonded together and to the circuit protective conductor.
I presume the same applies to a motorhome.
Saxo1
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Topic: electrical safety?
