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Hi

Although not new to camping we are going to use the electric hook-up for the first time later this year and was wondering what is actually needed to do this.

I have already bought a cable with 3 way socket on one end but am unsure if I can then just plug in my normal 240v household electrical items.

The campsite we are going to states that their hook-up is 16 amp but I'm still none the wiser!

Please help!

Hi,

Well I obviously don't know the exact details of the 3-way socket thing that you have. Like does it include a maximum current trip (or fuse) and/or a residual current device (RCD)?

But we regularly go camping and use an electric hook-up which consists of a reel of cable (25 metres which has almostly universally been plenty long enough) with a blue 3-pin IEC 60309 plug (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60309) on one end and various standard UK 230-volt mains connectiors on the other end.

We also have a residual-current-device RCD which we can insert in-line if the campsite's own mains hook-up point/socket doesn't include one.

In the UK we have never encountered anywhere that provides electric hook-ups that do *not* use this standard blue IEC 60309 3-pin connection.

When camping on the continent we have sometimes encountered sites what still use continental sockets and thus expect continental sockets. So we have a short lead with continental plug on one end and an IEC 60309 in-line *socket* on the other.

We run: A compact 12-volt fridge/electric cool-box powered via a 240-volt(AC)-to-12-volt(DC) converter, an low-energy 240-volt fluorescent light bulb and an electric kettle quite happily.

But note that you have to be careful to use a relatively low wattage kettle (1KW maximum) on some sites on the continent because you sometimes encounter a maximum 6-amp hook-up

I presume what you've got is something like this?

These aren't cheap at well over £40 but they are the real deal. Please don't be tempted to use a cheap one purchased from ebay or similar, cheap is usually that and some could possibly be dangerous.

You should be ok plugging in your various normal electrical items but just be aware that if you plug too many in at once you could trip the site electrics, which won't make you very popular with other campers. As a general rule of thumb, unplug one before plugging in another, especially if you are using a kettle or fan heater, that way you should be ok. Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

By luck rather than knowledge based judgement I seem to have bought the right thing so thanks guys for your replies.

Deby28