Can you help please
we are huge fans of CL sites. we have arrive a CL site today and the electric hook up has tripped 9 times since we arrived at 6pm. we only had the heating and one ring on the cooker (Bailey Unicorn 2. 2017). we had to ask the owners to come and put it back on as the trip switch is locked away in a separate cupboard. i then started to to cook only on gas so the only thing on would be the heating and I turned off most lights. It still keeps tripping. The owner eventually unlocked the cupboard so my husband can put it back on
in the time of writing this it has gon e off again. Any help advice very much appreciated
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Do you know what amps the hook up is?
Is your heating on a high setting?
as for your lights they will be 12volt probably leds so will be taking very little power fro m the 12v system
ps have the owners mentioned your type of problems before?
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Hi. It has gone off again. Only thing on is heating and one light. Any advice welcome
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Hi Jvb66
The owner said it is 10 amp
yes heating is high so we have turned down now
the owner said the problem is with new caravans
thanks for the advice
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The owner has just come back to say he needs to lock the cupboard back up. This seems strange. I wonder if this is all safe
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WE can never have our heating on 3kw on a CL and get away with it so we never put it up over 2kw. Hopefully you are sorted now you have turned it down. Presumably you also had the fridge on?
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Here’s a link to a similar topic of another forum, Trevor. You may be able to work out if you’re overloading the EHU.
https://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=6&TopicID=204721&get=last
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Do you know what ampage the site offers? Some are as low as 6amps, which won’t allow you to do everything all at once. Some kettles trip bollards out very easily as well.
You sound quite experienced regarding CLs, but some bollards offered cannot cope with lots of electrical devices operating together. Your fridge/freezer will be working off hook up, is water heater on, is TV on, is microwave in use, do you have any devices charging, do you use a low wattage kettle, what level of heating do you have on? It’s a process of elimination.
We found we couldn’t use our electric kettle on one site, but it coped easily with everything else. Might depend on number of outfits on site as well. We shared a bollard with a brand spanking new van that was all electrical, even down to Glade plug in, they just didn’t get the “how to stop the electrics tripping” equation at all.
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Rvb66
looking like your advice worked. We turned electric down to 1kw
we have had the electric on ever since doing this and turning down the heating down
many thanks
janet
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I suspected that was the problem. You can see from the chart in my link that you’d not get away with the heating on 2kw as well as running other things.
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It’s something many of us have done, all too easy to get caught out. Hope the rest of your stay is trouble free😁
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Thank you all very much for your replys
we are in Lancashire to visit my old mum with dementia and take her out for days this week
we thought we would have to move sites but now we can stay here which is great. Thank you
we are new to caravaning but know to turn off the heating if we put the kettle on something like that on as we are ex campers
we have learned that we need to keep the heating lower etc
thank you all for your support and advice. Really important support when people like us are new
many thanks janet
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That’s a lovely reason for a visit, hope you have a good time. My sister brought our Mum (who also has dementia) over to our motorhome on a lovely CL not far from home. We all had a great time, Mum enjoyed being in MH and going for a stroll around pretty village. Don’t hesitate to ask on here if you come across something else a bit puzzling, or want help with site suggestions.
All the best😀
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Enjoy your days out with your mum, Janet, and there’s no need to be cold as you can use gas.👍🏻
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We use gas a lot for heating which we find more efficient and allows us to use other elec goods.
Last night we had our small elec fan heater on (B&q) the water heater on, listening to music, lights and charging a phone and I pad, no problem at all on the CL we are on.
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Just another thought you might check out your electric kettle. Last time out when we switched on the Kettle it tripped out the bollard. Took kettle home and switched it on and it tripped all the leccy. 7 years old so it didn’t owe us anything. Currently heating water via gas
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I hope the Op is sorted but we were on a new CAMC site at Cayton recently where the amperage on the bollards varied between 10 and 16 amps. We discovered this after several blips on the supply (along with a neighbouring van, who OH kept meeting at the bollard!) Whatever we reduced didn't make a lot of difference the supply set up needed TLC. We don't have an electric kettle and it wasn't cold enough to have the heating on at top whack, it isn't always due to limited amperage some supplies need upgrading and checking. At Cayton the wardens knew the problems but didn't tell us in advance, not all sites are up to standard, luckily Cayton will be fixed after this year. So it isn't always the fault of the user with a "new" van or anything else.
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There’s no doubt that new vans will use more electric, if on hook up, given all the gadgetry involved. It just a matter of not using it all at the same time if you stay on lower ampage sites. Or on too high a setting.
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No idea how many trips a bollard will take, but even those who want to use everything cannot do it all at once!😁
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Thank you for all of your help
heating off now when we want to use anything else seems to have worked
it is a funny site though
we got a knock on our door at 9.15pm last evening in the pitch black. We asked who it was and they said the owner coming to collect our site fees as they were going away this morning and their son was visiting to look after the site. We don’t leave until Thursday. Funny site
😱
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It is not just about Amperes - Volts come into it as well. However, the trips actuate on the actual current drawn. Somewhat simplified, what is called the "wattage" of a device is the product of the voltage and the current. The wattage is constant, if voltage decreases, the current has to increase.
What can happen, especially in rural areas with long overhead lines, is that as the load on the distribution circuit feeding the CL and all the owners stuff, and probably a few nearby houses and farms, increases - and the voltage drops.
This can happen quite suddenly, and could be caused by a piece of machinery on a nearby farm starting up, and nothing to do with a particular caravan, bollard, or CL. If a caravan is happily drawing 9.5 Ampers from the supply and a voltage dip pushes the current above the 10 Ampere rating, the trip does what it is supposed to do, even though the root cause is not on its circuit.
The comment about newer caravans could well be that they are equipped with microwave ovens. The ongoing cooking power rating is always a bit lower than the actual electrical power required, but to start the microwave up takes a short burst of considerably more power - often about three times the rated power.
Now, there are different types of trips. Some respond instantly to a current overload. Others are designed with a short delay before breaking the circuit. Fortunately, the Caravan Club seems to use the latter type!
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Ha ha, at least you got to meet the owner!😁 We use some where you post your money, cheque whatever into a post box on site. If it’s an older established CL, then things tend to be rather laid back. We like this sort, arrive, choose a pitch, get settled, pay when it’s convenient. Others prefer a more organised type of visit, pay on arrival, that’s your pitch, sort of affair. CL vary greatly, something for everyone.
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We've had all sorts of different way to pay on this trip. The one we're on at present took full fee on booking by Credit Card, one we had to post the payment into a letter box and we never saw the owners, we paid 1 night's deposit on another, and another wouldn't take payment until we left. As tda says there's something for everyone, and that's one of the reasons we love them.
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