Circuit breakers

[Pete-B]

As anyone used a inline circuit breaker to save tripping the camp site ones. if so is there a recommended one?

[sshortcircuit]

No such thing. You need to determine the size of the site EHU which could be anything 6A, 10A or whatever and then use your appliance so that your current is under what it is. You will certainly trip it if for example you want to run an electric kettle, hair drier, electric water heater all at the same time if it is only a 6A supply for example. Work out the current for each appliance and then use under the EHU rating.

 

I should have said that you could change the main circuit breaker in your van for one that is under the site EHU

[lennyhb]

It would be easy enough to put a breaker in a small enclosure in line but as Shortcircuit says says what's the point when you could change the main breaker/s.

 

I don't how it would help as different sites have different trips on their EHU they could be 3 amp, 5 amp, 6amp, 10 amp or 16amp, so how do you cope with that.

Also not uncommon on an EHU bollard to find one breaker feeding 2 or 4 outlets so you would need to know what anyone else that is plugged in is using.

[Guest pelmetman]

Just trip it ...............I see circuit breakers as a sense of humour check for wardens :D............not trip'd one for years until we went to Oban...........a CC site *-) ...............

 

 

[rogher]

I have a choice of breaker in my vehicle – an added extra. There is a snag, though, as it’s a 50% chance which one trips first if you match the supply amperage. OK if you set it to a lower level but that limits conumption more.

[yeti]

My 2010 Hymer Exsis has an RCD,factory fitted,I think mainly to protect the Electrobloc.

[Robinhood]

I was pretty sure that I could remember a device that was designed for such a purpose.

 

It's taken me some time to find a hit, but one did indeed exist, though I don't think it is still on the market.

 

If you search for "Reich" or "IVRA" and "fuse control" there are still some details around.

 

Effectively, this was a circuit breaker where you could "dial in" the maximum current (variable up to 10A), setting it to slightly below the site trip value, such that your own trip would be triggered, rather than the site one.

 

It was sold in the UK through Grove Products for some time.

 

This link gives some details:

 

http://www.reich-web.nl/documents/handleidingen/handleiding%20uk.pdf

[Derek Uzzell]

This (not cheap) device has been around for a while and still seems to be available

 

http://www.camparo.nl/index.php?action=extra&extra=A_uitleg_watt_controller&lang=EN

 

 

 

[StuartO]

That's an intriguing devce Derek. On the face of it it allows you to use a higher wattage device (at full power) than the EHU supply would otherwise sustain, although presumably only for a finite time.

 

What is it doing? I assume that it works as some sort of accumulator of power reserve, so for limited periods it can deliver a higher current at 230v than the input current. Would a big capacitor be the underlying major component of the device?

 

You could presumably achieve the same thing by using an inverter of the relevant rating to power the coffee machine or hairdryer, and the EHU would recaharge the leisure battery after the discharge. This arrangement would also presumably have more endurance.

[rogher]

I think it will interrupt the power at high frequency so that the net power consumed matches that available. I imagine that’s why it’ll get hot if the demand is high, because it’ll be doing more work to cut the demand down.