Winter heating

[PCC]

I had a small oil filled heater but it didn't last long and tripped out the power. The warden at the campsite said it's a regular problem. Has anyone else had this happen to them or was I just unlucky?

[maggyd]

We dont heat the van at all when laid up!! neither did we in our caravan,we put in two damp traps on plant trays, I stand the cushions away from the walls on their sides open all cupboards, of course the system is drained down so nothing freezes, plugs in the sinks remove all food and clothing etc; the bedding sleeping bags all in the loft and everything is fine, never had any damp or smells.

[maggyd]

PCC - 2010-11-27 1:27 PM

 

I had a small oil filled heater but it didn't last long and tripped out the power. The warden at the campsite said it's a regular problem. Has anyone else had this happen to them or was I just unlucky?

 

I always make a point of never having more than one heating element going at a time :-S even if I put the kettle on the electric plate on my cooker I switch the water heater off, I am always worried about tripping.

[Brian Kirby]

You shouldn't need to worry, but you do need to know how many Amps the site supply allows.  Most of the UK club sites seem to be rated at 16 Amps.  That equates roughly to 3kW that you can draw without tripping the supply.

Most, if not all, appliances have a rating plate that states the load in kW, and all will have the Amperage stated.  If the rating is in kW, or just Watts, providing the total Wattage you have switched on does not exceed 3,000 (3kW) there should be no danger of tripping the supply.

Just don't forget to allow for your battery charger/power pack (somewhere around 1A), fridge (about 0.5A), and possibly, heater consumption (about 0.35A) - a possible total of around 2A, or 500 Watts/0.5 kW (Figures based on our van).  That will leave about 2,500 Watts/2.5 kW for everything else that might be switched on.

So, a normal domestic kettle at around 2.5 - 3.0 Kw will probably trip the supply.  Ours is 900W, so is OK.  Whether you can also use that electric hob will depend on the load, maybe 800W/3.5A, so should be OK if you use a low wattage kettle.

You can get devices that measure consumption and just hook around the supply cable, enabling you to continually monitor your consumption.

[Guest pelmetman]

In 18 years we have never put the heating on in our van when it is laid up for the winter.

 

We have always made sure its been garaged though, when we first had it we rented garage space up the road from where we lived. The last house we had a specially built garage for it and here we have a large garage / workshop.

 

Never had any damp, can even leave the bed made up etc. so its always ready to go.

 

Sue

 

:D

[tp002c784tp002c784tp]

Mel B - 2010-11-23 5:28 PM

 

In case anyone is going away over winter and needs an electric heater, or wants a small heater to leave in the van when it's laid up, Netto are doing an 800w 7-fin oil filled radiator for £14.99 from Thursday.

 

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/a8f99eaa#/a8f99eaa/1

 

Hot footed down to Netto at 10am on Thursday I intended going a bit sooner as there phamphlet said limited stock, searched the shop and could not find one anywhere, I was going to drive to another Netto's about 6 miles away but I decided to ask one of the staff if they where all gone, and he said oh I think they are all in the back shop. !!!

 

Cracking little heater and does not take long to heat up

 

Terry