i have just started getting my camping gear ready for next year and decided being as we are going EHU i would get an electric mini kitchen. will this be fine to use or will i experience any problems?
Hi. When you say the rings take 1000 watts, could you please clarify. How many rings are there? and are they 1000 watts each or in total. Using Mike's table above, if there are two rings each of 1000 watts and an oven/grill at 900 watts you could easily be looking at getting on for 16 amps in round figures. However, not all sites have 16 amp hookups. Some an be only 10 amps and others have been reported as low as 6 amps. So the message has to be think carefully before going down the electric route only. Personally we use a gas cooker with a grill which can cope with all our cooking needs, but also take an electric kettle, toaster, fan heater, mini electric oven, slow cooker etc which all help to make life sooooo much easier if we have a decent power hook-up.
Most campsites seem to have 10amp supplies but quite a few have 16amp. There may still be a few sites around that still only offer 5amps so when you book a pitch you should always ask what the power supply is.
Electrical equipment usually has a label on it somewhere which tells you how many Watts it uses. You have to convert this to Amps so that you know how many Amps it will draw from the supply.
Watts divided by Volts = Amps.
Add up the watts of all the electrical equipment you want to use then divide by 230 or 240 volts and this will give you the total amps. You obviously have to keep within the campsite supply or you will trip the fuses, so you won't be able to use everything at the same time.
I use this table which another member kindly posted some time back. I print off a copy and take it with me as a quick reference
WATTS TO AMPS CONVERSION
60 Watts=0.26 Amp
100 Watts=0.43 Amp
200 Watts=0.87 Amp
300 Watts=1.30 Amp
400 Watts=1.74 Amp
500 Watts=2.17 Amp
600 Watts=2.61 Amp
700 Watts=3.04 Amp
800 Watts= 3.48 Amp
900 Watts=3.91 Amp
1000 Watts=4.35 Amp
1100 Watts=4.78 Amp
1200 Watts=5.22 Amp
1300 Watts=5.65 Amp
1400 Watts=6.09 Amp
1500 Watts=6.52 Amp
1600 Watts=6.96 Amp
1700 Watts=7.39 Amp
1800 Watts=7.83 Amp
1900 Watts=8.26 Amp
2000 Watts=8.70 Amp
2100 Watts=9.13 Amp
2200 Watts=9.57 Amp
2300 Watts=10.00 Amp
2400 Watts=10.43 Amp
2500 Watts=10.87 Amp
2600 Watts=11.30 Amp
2700 Watts=11.74 Amp
2800 Watts=12.17Amp
2900 Watts=12.61 Amp
3000 Watts=13.04 Amp
3100 Watts=13.48 Amp
3200 Watts=13.91 Amp
3300 Watts=14.35 Amp
3400 Watts=14.78 Amp
3500 Watts=15.22Amp
Using the above table you would probably get away with using both hobs on a 10amp supply but stick the oven or grill on and you would trip the supply. On a 16amp supply, no problems.
Another thing to bear in mind, and a lot of people don't realise this.Assuming you are using a "proper" EHU.
Even if the site hook up point is backed up by a 16amp breaker the 10Amp breaker in your EHU will limit your use to 10amps anyway, so in the above chart posted by bob61 the maximum you can use at any one time will be 2200W.
Now, A 10A MCB will NOT trip at 10Amps but will trip after a time if that load is maintained. Inother words you do have a margin of error. so you could possibly go over by a couple of hundred watts for a very short time without tripping the supply.
I always assume I have slightly less power than the bollard can provide because if everyone on site is drawing the maximum power then it can also trip!!
Personally I wouldn't use a mini kitchen for camping - apart from the fact it is bulky and heavy, they are designed to be used indoors. How about keeping the EHU for lighting, heating and fridge/cool box and use gas for cooking?
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Topic: are you limited to use on electric hook u
