The Camping Forum

[jazz]

Thanks so much for this info. Have printed it all off and put in my camping gear.

[Wayne]

Glad its helping, anything you don't understand or you feel is missing.please shout up

[jjthefridge]

hi,

i'm a fridgy was electrician in rn done lots of rn and civvy courses, lots of info,little bit to indepth i feel, but thats my opion.


j.j.

[mlb07]

Hi i've just brought a tent ( i've not been camping since i was a kid) but i have 3 small kids and i was thinking i wanted to take a heated incase it is cold. The gas ones i think would be dangerous for the kids but are you saying i couldn't plug a electric one in?
thanks

[Wayne]

Hi i've just brought a tent ( i've not been camping since i was a kid) but i have 3 small kids and i was thinking i wanted to take a heated incase it is cold. The gas ones i think would be dangerous for the kids but are you saying i couldn't plug a electric one in?
thanks

No, not at all.

I would not like to plug a 3kw heater in like this one. That would work out at around 13A and its pushing your MCB to its limit if you also have a long lead and a couple of low energy lights on. If your MCB is only 10A then your overloaded and it will keep blowing.

However, I personnally might feel that I could get away with this one at 1.8kw, at about 8A if you don't run anything else, you should be OK. Also, some people tend to bang the thermostat up high, this is just plain wrong. Keep the thermostat low, it will get the tent up to a nice warm level, and also the heater will be switching itself off more often and giving the MCB chance to cool (don't be put off by that, MCB's do get warm by there nature)

Basically, shop round and try to find the heater with the smallest KW rating, I keep thinking about a tubular heater and mount it in some sort of cage, (you might see me on Dragons Den with this lol). Its only 80w, which is nothing (about 0.40A), its designed to stay on all night and just give a very gentle heat(take the chill off), you can almost touch it for long periods.

Remember once you have a family in a sealed tent, you really don't need much additional heating,

Hope that helps a little and welcome to the forums, if there is anything that you don't understand, please ask, happy to help.

[jjthefridge]

Hi i've just brought a tent ( i've not been camping since i was a kid) but i have 3 small kids and i was thinking i wanted to take a heated incase it is cold. The gas ones i think would be dangerous for the kids but are you saying i couldn't plug a electric one in?
thanks

Hi,

don't use a gas heater esecially if kids are around, take yourself to tesco buy the smallest fan heater and a time clock, put it on a table so not to set fire of anything and you'll be surprised how warm it keeps things(on low heat) then time clock turns it off.

easy and cheap, i've figured out it don't have to cost a fortune.

j.j.

[in-a-tent]

if you sit in your tent in the evening and zip it all up it soon warms up just from the body heat, even better if you invite a few others in to help erm ... i mean chat - we had 16 in our tent one evening - cor it was toastie

[Wayne]

Little up-date here:

I picked one of these up, 700w oil filled radiator. That's gonna use about 3A of your 16A EHU during the night and if you crank the thermostat dial to low, it'll only be on periodically.


Mine is made by Micromark, it isn't like a roaring fire but it helps take away the chill in the colder months


Its about the size of a briefcase and don't take up much room in the car


Sits nicely under the table

[coachandy]

Having brought an EHU we planned to take an electric fan heater with us when we camp with the kids in a fortnight. We have two a 2kw one wuth a thermostat and a 3kw which can be switched between 1, 2 and 3kw heat. Which would you suggest we take?

[Rob-merlin1973]

I love my £15 halogen heater.
It is safe, gives off a lot of heat and has the added bonus of light.



With 3 adjustable heat settings of 400W, 800W or 1200W you can ensure a perfect temperature with the Added feature of a safety cut out switch if accidentally knocked over.

Available all over the net but i beleive you can get them from Hooties at the moment for £8

[dadsbeaniemad]

Take the one that can be switched between 1, 2 and 3 KW then you get to up the heat if 1kw is too cold.

Out od curiosity - what is the heater? We were looking to replace our 3Kw Bionnair heater but couldn't find the same one again and ended up with a 2.4Kw Bionnaire instead(all thromstatically climate controlled)

[Admin]

I love my £15 halogen heater.
It is safe, gives off a lot of heat and has the added bonus of light.



With 3 adjustable heat settings of 400W, 800W or 1200W you can ensure a perfect temperature with the Added feature of a safety cut out switch if accidentally knocked over.

Available all over the net but i beleive you can get them from Hooties at the moment for £8

Hooties??? Is that not a chain of bars in the US??

[coachandy]

Out od curiosity - what is the heater? We were looking to replace our 3Kw Bionnair heater but couldn't find the same one again and ended up with a 2.4Kw Bionnaire instead(all thromstatically climate controlled)

Its an old one, made by a company called Rima, could not find anything on the net about it. Had from the days when if something went wrong you checked the fuse and wiring first, not popped down to Argos or Dixons to replace it....

[Wayne]

Having brought an EHU we planned to take an electric fan heater with us when we camp with the kids in a fortnight. We have two a 2kw one wuth a thermostat and a 3kw which can be switched between 1, 2 and 3kw heat. Which would you suggest we take?

I agree take the one that's adjustable between 1 and 3kW

3kW is probably pushing your EHU as its about 13A, and a lot of sites are getting wise to this now and fitting 10A trips (fuses).
At 2kW your taking about 8A so your pretty if its during the night and nothing else is on apart from a low energy light and a small fridge maybe.

At 1kW your only taking just over 4A so its your safe option most of the time.

[coachandy]

Thanks Wayne

No such luxuries as fridges and low energy lighting in our set up yet.

We will have a kettle, plug in clip on light and whatever of the "boys toys" need charging - laptop (if we take it), Nintendo DS or phones. We will add a rule that charging needs to be done during the day - not overnight......