for those that use EHU and have a seperate kitchen tent, do you have the EHU in just one tent, move the EHU between tents depending on what is needed, use an extension lead when needed in the second tent or something I haven't thought of?
While in Cornwall the weather was a little wet but luckily I had the foresight to get the cheap changing tent from argos for cooking in, I had the EHU in the awning of the TT and used an outdoor extension lead when I needed electric in the 'kitchen' but left the fridge in the awning so it could be plugged in and no worry of the extension lead being left plugged in. Now we have the pop up family room from Blacks I'm tempted to put the EHU in there and only use the extension lead if needed in the awning as we can charge stuff in the pop up.
Yep, for our fortnight campings in the South of France in July, we run a heavy duty extension from the main EHU in the tent over to the kitchen tent, and that feeds 10 UK style sockets most of which are used.
In fact including the EHU we run a total of 20 mains outlets, well at 5€ per day for electric, you have to make the best use of it. Although keeping under 10amps is a challenge but we have a meter to keep that in check, save tripping the campsite electrics.
Yep, for our fortnight campings in the South of France in July, we run a heavy duty extension from the main EHU in the tent over to the kitchen tent, and that feeds 10 UK style sockets most of which are used.
In fact including the EHU we run a total of 20 mains outlets, well at 5€ per day for electric, you have to make the best use of it. Although keeping under 10amps is a challenge but we have a meter to keep that in check, save tripping the campsite electrics.
Can you give me an idea of the extension I would need to buy to do this? Having only 3 sockets can be a bit of a challenge sometimes, even just actually fitting them as some of the phone charger plugs are so big they seem to impact on the socket next to it meaning it can't be used, so therefore can only use 2 sockets at once!
I have also bought one of the Blacks pop up tents which I plan to use as a kitchen tent, so having an extension I could put across from our main EHU would be great.
To be fair any extension is suitable, but try and choose one that has rubberised trailing 4 gang socket and good quality heavy cable, of course you need to place the extension socket of the floor to help prevent water ingress etc.
As you mention phone chargers etc, can take space, on the main EHU, and in this day and age we all have many electronic gadgets that need charging, all these kind of items draw next to no current, but they all require vacant sockets to plug into.
As I mentioned if your paying for a EHU connection you might as well use as much lecy as you can, it won't be long before campsites start metering each individual camper for there electric usage, especially as many campsites now have wi-fi it's only a matter of time.
We use the E.H.U unit in the main tent and use an outdoor orange extension lead to run into the kitchen tent for the griddle if i'm using it, cost about a tenner from B&Q....
You need to make sure the extension lead has a 3 core cable as some of the Orange garden type leads are only 2 core as they are used on double insulated appliances. If its on a reel make sure its fully unwound to prevent overheating
------------- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
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A small confession here I have an old extension lead which has a built in safety cut out so have been using that but wondered why it would click off when using over approx 1.4kw, tonight I decided to check the plug had all cables connected tightly (which they were) then examined the embossed details. It actually states max 3amp when wound on reel and 6amp fully unwound obviously not adequate for the double hob hence only being able to use the 1kw one but should be fine in the awning/tent for charging stuff as planned
Well done you for checking. I completely melted a cable and reel once by not unrolling it fully and overloading it and it was only rated at 6amp but had a 13amp fuse fitted that was in the days before RCDs though
------------- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Everything has been said before, but since nobody ever listens we have to keep going back and saying it all over again and again and again