kWh monitor
Hi has anyone fitted a KWH /Volts/amps monitor to there caravan or motor home ?There is various available where you simply clamp around the incoming live conductor,some even with app on your mobile just thought it would be useful to see how much electric used whilst on site .
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Am I missing something here? Why monitor the amount of lekky used when you’re on a metered pitch? Surely a glance at the meter is all that’s needed🤷🏻♂️
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Thanks for the response👍🏻
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I use one that was originally supplied by my electricity supplier before communicating smart meters became available.
I find it very useful to see my instantaneous consumption to avoid tripping the site supply.
It's particularly useful where the supply is limited to 10 or even 6 Amps and the connection point was locked by the guardian. I can easily see how much capacity remains before switching on the kettle or toaster.
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I must admit to using basic maths and a bit of common sense. Our favourite Loire site has 6 amp supply that needs resetting by the site staff if tripped, something I've avoided in 8 years.
I just make sure we only have have one "heavy" electrical appliance on at any one time, be it 500 watt water heater, 470 watt Remoska, 500 watt space heater or Induction hob on one of it's lower settings. In theory I could run two at once, but if I aim for one and I've accidently left another on I'm safe.
Colin
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The point of fitting a meter is more to not get a nasty shock at the end of a stay on a metered site.
On sites in Germany, for example, the hook up box is often unlocked to allow you to plug in, then locked again, so you cannot keep an eye on usage. Or the site may have remote monitoring with no meters at the hook up points.
The kWh charge can be as much as 85 euro cents, no limit there on what can be charged!
To prevent tripping, like Colin, we have a good idea of what we are using, but also have an Alde load monitor fitted, which is very useful. This cuts the power to the Alde system if other appliances are using too much, but of course, if you put on a load of other appliances at the same time and exceed the available amps, you will still trip the breaker.
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I fitted one in our van - cost was about £10 or so from Amazon and it's quite easy to fit. The big advantage for us is that you can set an alarm - with sound and a flashing screen if you exceed a set level of current draw because although we're careful most of the time, it's very easy to switch something on, having forgotten about something else that's consuming lots of wiggly amps! So far, it's always given us sufficient time to switch something off before the bollard breaker trips.
Not an essential item by any means but definitely falls into the 'nice to have' category.
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I think it stems from my Navy days in the late 60's, ED
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Years ago I fitted an instantaneous consumption meter to avoid trips and blown fuses with all the different rates of supplies in different places. Interestingly it has shown that many site trips don't go off at the stated current, but substantially more. It is a "clamp on" sensor, but one does have to seperate the three cores in the supply cable and clamp just the live one.
Also I recently fitted a total consumption meter to keep a check before final bills at sites arrive. It has a useful display of kWh used since last reset so no need for arithmetic to know what's been used. All we need now is an accurate way of measuring gas consumption on a short timescale.
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