Apologies for the dumb question but are the electric hook ups in France the same connections as UK sites, just wondering if we can use are existing one or if I need to buy a new one
Thanks in advance :)
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Hi some sites are reverse earth. i.e live and earth the opposite way to ours. Easy just switch your wires in the main plug. Or make up a pig tail lead so you can just plug in the pig tail that's wired one way on the male plug and the other way on the female plug. Contact the site,they will be able to tell you if reversed or as in the UK
If the site uses the same connector as we do in the UK then there should be no problems as you just plug in and it will be wired as it would be in the UK. I believe it get a little more tricky when the continental plug connector is used. You can get a connector for this at most accessory shops. It's a bit like the connector you can buy to connect your hook up at home but with a continental plug. Now, this is where it gets a little more complicated. You can plug in to these with the conversion connection and everything should work fine. However, the problem arises for UK visitors when the electric posts have been wired with live feeds to the neutral pin and -ve connection to the live pin - Reverse Polarity. If you are a member of the Caravan or Camping & Caravan Club look this up.
On the continent it does not matter whether the live and neutral connections are reversed as they have double pole switches which when off, break the circuit on both the live and neutral connections, whereas in the UK only the live wire is interupted when the switch is turned off. Therefore the risk arises with reverse polarity when the switch is turned off but the live circuit will still be on! The RCD should protect against these instances but it is safer to take a reverse polarity continental plug (make your own, buy two continental plug adapters and swtich the live and neutral wires round in one and clearly mark it as REVERSE POLARITY). You can buy a detector off EBAY which will tell you whether your connection is reversed, if so just change your adapter for your switched version. We have been away and on the same post there were connections with correct and reverse polarity so unless they use the UK style connections assume you may run in to reverse polarity and be prepared.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Quote: Originally posted by selseybill on 18/6/2011
Hi some sites are reverse earth. i.e live and earth the opposite way to ours. Easy just switch your wires in the main plug. Or make up a pig tail lead so you can just plug in the pig tail that's wired one way on the male plug and the other way on the female plug. Contact the site,they will be able to tell you if reversed or as in the UK
Do you not mean they have live and neutral reversed?
Hi some sites are reverse earth. i.e live and earth the opposite way to ours. Easy just switch your wires in the main plug. Or make up a pig tail lead so you can just plug in the pig tail that's wired one way on the male plug and the other way on the female plug. Contact the site,they will be able to tell you if reversed or as in the UK
The above serves to illustrate the dangers in unqualified people offering advice to make up your reverse polarity connectors!
Saxo1
We are in france now and have been on tour for 4 weeks and all the sites we have used are like uk and no probs with reverse polarity, funny watching the french having to use adaptors .
Thanks for all your advice guys, safe to say I wont pig-tailing or cross wiring anything myself as I like my fingers where they are thank you very much!
I will invest in a euro adaptor and check with the sites as and when I book
Hi some sites are reverse earth. i.e live and earth the opposite way to ours. Saxo1
Saxo
The reason I questioned that post was that in over 20 years of caravaning in Europe I have never come across a reversed earth/live although have found live/neutral plenty of times. Not sure I would be comfortable trying to correct such a connection and trip to the site office would be my first action. The trouble is that if they are slap dash about their electrical connections they are unlikely to react in a positive way if you will forgive the pun. As a 'non expert' observation wiring live to earth seems very negligent if done by an electrician!!! Makes you wonder if they have any form of regular electrical testing?
In nigh on 30 years o fusing site electric in France I think we have come across every combination of wiring possible with 3 wires, we always use a plug in circuit tester to check - and TBH we have never found a site office/owner where they think their system is problematic ( whatever fault has shown up) - they point to French vans to show it works! However the most common fault has been line and neutrak reversed - so we carry a reversed adapter and re-check when hooked up. The fact that a site has the blue euro type connection does not make it immune to reverse polarity issues.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Modern appliances, built under EEC rules, can cope with reversed polarity.
Just get a the CCE connection ( the blue plug) and an adaptor for French 2 pin connectors.
Plug in and forget about it.
One thing to be aware of is that the system may be 5, 6 or 10 amps. ( 5 amps won't accept a standard electric kettle)
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Topic: Electric hook ups in France
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