French Aires electricity

[Col]

Hi All,

I have not used electricity on French aires on previous French visits as I didn't carry a cable. This year I will be travelling around the La Rochelle area where more aires have electricity available so I am thinking of taking a cable with me. I only have the standard hook-up cable which we use on UK campsites. What I would like to know is am I likely to need a attachment for a 2 pin source or other attachments? Thanks, Colum

[Charles]

Never hooked up to the Aire kiosk things but at the campsites 50% of the time you need a 2 pin adapter.

[PJay]

Charles - 2017-08-03 11:00 PM

 

Never hooked up to the Aire kiosk things but at the campsites 50% of the time you need a 2 pin adapter.

 

As stated definitely need a 2 pin adapter , also may need a long lead, and if you can get one, an adapter to share the outlet (not sure exactly how they work,) but have seen them being used , as EHU points are not that many on aries !

We carry 2 leads one short and one long, have been known to use both together .

PJay

[Tony Jones]

We were on the main Aire at La Rochelle a couple of weeks ago, and the hookups there (included in the 12€ price) are normal blue plugs. Can't speak of any others in the area, but most places we go in France now have upgraded to those. Still enough haven't, though, to be worth carrying an adaptor.

[StuartO]

It's worth adding that where electricity is provided free of charge on French Aires, it's often because the Aire is used as a market place one or more days per week, and parking by MHs is restricted accordingly.  And except where electricity is charged for, when the electrical installation might be a bit better, the supply arrangements maybe a bit ad hoc and "French", so use it at your own risk.  Ask yourself whether you really need a mains connection that night and maybe not bother trying to connect.

 

Probably a good idea to at least test the polarity, especially if you have a MH of British manufacture.  And be prepared to share connections as well as use very long leads.  I remember at Honfleur seeing well over a dozen cables connecting to four sockets in a pillar.

 

It's not always that bad but best to be prepared!

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Col - 2017-08-03 10:24 PM

 

Hi All,

I have not used electricity on French aires on previous French visits as I didn't carry a cable. This year I will be travelling around the La Rochelle area where more aires have electricity available so I am thinking of taking a cable with me. I only have the standard hook-up cable which we use on UK campsites. What I would like to know is am I likely to need a attachment for a 2 pin source or other attachments? Thanks, Colum

 

It’s possible to use the campingcar-infos website to establish whether an ‘aire’ can provide mains electricity. For example, the 3-pin-socket symbol in the Services section of the following record indicates mains-power is available

 

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/cci.php?numero=28199

 

whereas the lack of the 3-pin-socket symbol on this record indicates that the aire offers no mains-power

 

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/cci.php?numero=1931

 

As has been advised above, the majority of aires offering mains electricity will employ the CEE socket used on UK campsites and, nowadays (in my experience) it’s more common to find the French ‘domestic’ socket (requring a 2-pin adapter if a hook-up lead has CEE connectors) used on French campsites than on aires.

 

Multiple-connectors are available (examples attached) and I’ve seen some very dubious home-made versions.

 

If parking the motorhome and connecting to a hook-up point is going to involve careful manoeuvring, I will normally test the hook-up point to confirm that it is actually ‘live’ before siting the motorhome and connecting up. Obviously one needs to have a suitable adapter/mains-tester to do this, but it avoids running 25 metres of cable to a hook-up point only to find it’s not working.

[Len Salisbury]

Just worth mentioning as passing regarding the "Plug" I have two sorts of Continental plugs which I have used either in France, Spain or further afield Cz. one has a pin and the other a hole for Earth.

[PJay]

Derek Uzzell - 2017-08-04 9:51 AM

 

Col - 2017-08-03 10:24 PM

 

Hi All,

I have not used electricity on French aires on previous French visits as I didn't carry a cable. This year I will be travelling around the La Rochelle area where more aires have electricity available so I am thinking of taking a cable with me. I only have the standard hook-up cable which we use on UK campsites. What I would like to know is am I likely to need a attachment for a 2 pin source or other attachments? Thanks, Colum

 

It’s possible to use the campingcar-infos website to establish whether an ‘aire’ can provide mains electricity. For example, the 3-pin-socket symbol in the Services section of the following record indicates mains-power is available

 

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/cci.php?numero=28199

 

whereas the lack of the 3-pin-socket symbol on this record indicates that the aire offers no mains-power

 

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/cci.php?numero=1931

 

As has been advised above, the majority of aires offering mains electricity will employ the CEE socket used on UK campsites and, nowadays (in my experience) it’s more common to find the French ‘domestic’ socket (requring a 2-pin adapter if a hook-up lead has CEE connectors) used on French campsites than on aires.

 

Multiple-connectors are available (examples attached) and I’ve seen some very dubious home-made versions.

 

If parking the motorhome and connecting to a hook-up point is going to involve careful manoeuvring, I will normally test the hook-up point to confirm that it is actually ‘live’ before siting the motorhome and connecting up. Obviously one needs to have a suitable adapter/mains-tester to do this, but it avoids running 25 metres of cable to a hook-up point only to find it’s not working.

 

Thanks Derek. that's what I meant. i wonder if they can be overloaded, though. have seen then in places with only a few ehu points, Even in sites. Never had one, as we use sites , and aries only as a one night stop if needed

PJay

[Col]

Thanks for the info everyone. Will get myself a 2 pin attachment from Maplin, only £5 or £6 to take with me., Col

[Robbo]

Col - 2017-08-06 8:32 AM

 

Thanks for the info everyone. Will get myself a 2 pin attachment from Maplin, only £5 or £6 to take with me., Col

 

Don't know if Maplin stock these adaptors. They do sell travel plugs but you need a waterproof plug.

 

This is what you need :

 

 

 

[sshortcircuit]

PJay - 2017-08-04 3:11 PM

 

Thanks Derek. that's what I meant. i wonder if they can be overloaded, though. have seen then in places with only a few ehu points, Even in sites. Never had one, as we use sites , and aries only as a one night stop if needed

PJay

 

You can't overload them as the EHU has a 16A breaker and that the max you will get. A four socket extension will only get the same 16A shared to each socket and its up to the users to limit there demand to stop overload tripping.

[sheer lunar-see]

why do you consider European electrical installations to be inferior to the U.K's, if it were that bad, half of France would be dead, it is actualy safer, as both live and neutral are tripped if there is a fault, the same in Spain.

[Will86]

Not sure its been said but we carry one long UK cable and a variety of short extensions to suit any connection we find. This includes a standard UK household 3 pin plug for staying at a friends house.

 

Why carry several long cables when one will do ?

 

I'm no electrician but its pretty common sense to adjust the wiring to suit.

[Keith T]

we always have two main leads on the standard 16a plug, but have two short connecting leads to the 2-pin continental , one which is reverse wired, as often the main hook-ups are the wrong polarity.

[Derek Uzzell]

If it’s wished to correct for reverse-polarity, it’s simpler to have the ‘reverser’ at the motorhome end rather than have one ‘normal’ Continental adapter and one ‘reversed’ Continental’ adapter. That way, whatever the type of connector used on the 230V service pedestal, it’s straightforward to reverse the polarity of the ‘feed’ entering the motorhome.

 

(And yes I’m well aware that it’s a total waste of time checking for reverse polarity and ‘correcting’ it if found, but the practice does no harm and if motorcaravanners want to do it I’m certainly not going to try to dissuade them...)

 

The potential problem with adding adapters to hook-up cables and having a selection of hook-up cables of various lengths is the watertightness of the adapter-to-cable and cable-to-cable connectors. These will have a degree of water resistance, but they won’t normally be watertight. So, if you’ve connected a couple of cables together, and it rains and the connector ends up in a deep puddle, water is going to find its way into the connector. As has been discussed in the past, waterproof connectors are available, as are ‘boxes’ to protect the cable-to-cable connection, but in this respect it’s ’safer’ to have one cable and no adapters.

[sshortcircuit]

Will86 - 2017-08-07 8:36 PM

 

Not sure its been said but we carry one long UK cable and a variety of short extensions to suit any connection we find. This includes a standard UK household 3 pin plug for staying at a friends house.

 

Why carry several long cables when one will do ?

 

I'm no electrician but its pretty common sense to adjust the wiring to suit.

 

As a retired electrician I understand reverse polarity so just forget about it and do not complicate matters with a multitude of cables and adapter.

No earth, thats a different subject and should be checked.

[BKen1]

Most French EHU outlets are of the 3 pin blue plug type but some just have a domestic type socket as in pic 1 with the earth pin sticking out so you will need a plug as in pic 2 with the hole to recieve the sockets earth pin. Most supermarkets have these for sale in various forms so first shop stop in France you could pick them up.