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We have just bought a new (to us) caravan & it has blown air heating that can be used on gas or electric. My question is can you put on the heating on electric & use another high powered electric item like a kettle, of hair dryer at the same time.

As in our old van if we used a fan heater, we had to unplug it if we wanted to boil a kettle in case we tripped the electric on the supply box.

depends on the current available at your hook up, and the power setting on your electric heating.  Ours is selectable at 500w, 1000w, or 2000w

Michael

Probably not. Our blown air heating will trip the circuit breaker in the caravan at 2000 watts- without another heavy duty item being on.

We use a gas kettle - it brings back memories of my childhood. A kettle whistling feels like real caravanning.

James

Quote: Originally posted by Septic on 21/5/2006

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We use a gas kettle - it brings back memories of my childhood. A kettle whistling feels like real caravanning.

James

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QFA we have one of these...

HI Thanks for all you replys.

Just wondered if i did forget i had the heating on and boiled a kettle would the trip go in the caravan first, or on the hook up box?

We havn't got the caravan yet we pick it up on the 06.06.06. Hope thats not a bad Omen.

You'll probably only find out the first time it happens!

As I understand it different campsites have different trip levels.

Our caravan, which is a 2003 special edition Compass Corona trips at 10 amps.

2000 Watts at 230 volts is just over 8.5 amps. As we run a fridge and a water heater from the mains and the battery is also charging from it there are times that the switch trips at 2000. As a result we generally run the heating at 1000. If it is particularly cold outside we turn off the water heater and run the heater at 2000. On a couple of rare ocasions we have lit the gas in the heater when returning to the caravan after being out for most of the day to give a quick boost over half-an-hour or so.

We have never tripped the site electrics on our own- I think many of them are set at 16 amps so we have quite a margin of error. Some small sites claim to have a 5 amp supply, but we rarely use them. If we do we would generally run on gas except for the fridge.

One tip- try out your equipment during the day, when the warden is around to reset it if it does trip. You dont want to go most of the night without electric.

Neb

My heating has 2 settings, low uses 1 Kw, high is 2 Kw. I use a low wattage kettle - 600 watt. If heating is on high I turn it to low when boiling kettle. The hot water heater is 2 Kw and must not be used at same time as blown air heating.

My caravan has a 10 amp fuse, normally this will trip before the site fuse does, unless it is a very low supply.

I know I should pay attention to this but I don't!

I never run a "plug in" heater with much else but to be honest we boil a kettle, leave the water heater on and the blower on 2kw without a second thought.

I trust that the technology will tell me if things are overloaded, up to now it hasn't.

regards

Mr Ulti-Mate

There is a difference between the old type wire fuses and the modern trip MCB's and that is they are designed to take a considerable overload for a period of time.

The ones fitted to Caravans (Bailey excluded) are the common domestic 'B' grade which take 1.45 the rating for up to 20 minutes.However if this is exceeded by just a little then the time before tripping drops dramatically.

The useful part about this is it allows say for a kettle to boil without tripping, even though the total amperage is greater than stated. We have an 1850w heater and kettle which total 16amps and trips the MCB before the kettle boils, however running the heater at half rate with the kettle is 12amps, (plus all the other bits that are on), and neither MCB trips.

So a 10 amp will take 14.5 amps for a good time, however because it's not exact and different makes vary, it's a lottery if the one in the van or the hook up post trips first. Having said that there is a 6amp in the van as well, this has to come from the total available at the hookup post so making the hookup one most likely to trip first.