The Camping Forum

[Curlyminx]

You could bring a cotton sheet to project on to - there was someone else talking about a pico-projector on here the other day - sorry can't remember who - oh it was the lovely chap with the camper van :-)

[Kernow]

I was going to buy a cheap electic hook up lead from ebay , but for another £10 can get this one from our local Go outdoor shop that has just opened round the corner. What you all think is this a good deal? http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/mobile-mains-kit-p155317

[Rob-merlin1973]

Definatly would go with the go-outdoors one for an extra tenner mate

[Kernow]

Ok Rob i will cheers.

Im not liking this £5 discount they are tryin to make you buy! You only get the cheaper price if you buy a card, but if you order online you dont have to pay the £5 for a card but still get the cheaper price , but then theres £5 postage!!
This makes the whole £5 discount card leave a sour taste in my mouth because if u take the ''''discount''''' away its not much use, sorry rant over i just dont want to pay for a yearly crappy membership card.

[Rob-merlin1973]

I know ... the discount card thing is a bit of a crappy thing really but i have to admit i have one becouse they are local to me and i do use them quite a lot

[Curlyminx]

I bought a sun hat, the discount I got paid for my discount card. seemed like a good investment. Have used it often since.

[Kernow]

The one near me is only a mile away so i will end up buying a card a using the shop alot. My problem is this tho when you go in the shop this lead is £100 reduced to £39 if you buy a discount card, fair enough so far, but if you want to buy it online its £39 without a discount card. This makes the intial £100 price a joke and they are just putting pressure on you to buy the card.

So now we can discount the discounted price with the card heres what you get..

5 Incredible Benefits: For £5

Our Famous Discount: Save at least 10% off the retail price of everything
Price Guarantee: Show us a cheaper price on any product and we'll beat it by 10%
Reserve and Collect: Reserve products online and pick them up in store
Amazing Deals: Receive regular amazing deals offering savings of up to 70%
Regular Updates: Be the first to know about special events and new products


Doesnt sound so good to me now and of course you supply them with alot of your details. I hope other shops dont start using this system!

[Rob-merlin1973]

The one think i do like about it is that they use your details to send you offers and vouchers that you would not otherwise know about ........ this is why my bloody trailer is so full

[Kernow]

Ah so you are saying the vouchers and offers they send you are for stuff you actually might need Rob?

If thats the case i wont moan in the shop when i have to buy one next week

[Rob-merlin1973]

Mmmmmm as far as the other half is concerned .... yes we need them ...

As far as i am concerned it is purely want want want

[Kernow]

Ive just took delivery of one of these lights
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 978wt_1139

I paid £7.50 inc postage, it seems ok even tho a not a bright as i thought it would be, but the biggest problem i can see is thats its disposable when the bulb goes so i wont buy another (as could do with 3) until i see how long it lasts.

[pitkin2020]

Ive just took delivery of one of these lights
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 978wt_1139

I paid £7.50 inc postage, it seems ok even tho a not a bright as i thought it would be, but the biggest problem i can see is thats its disposable when the bulb goes so i wont buy another (as could do with 3) until i see how long it lasts.

I have the same one and like you not impressed that the bulb can't be replaced, seems a bit wasteful. As for brightness at home I didn't think too much of but we used it this last week and it was more than bright enough for reading, cooking etc. Its a soft light but lit a good area, I would buy another one and it has a good length of lead too!!

We both bought from the same seller but i paid £8.04 inc postage for mine grrr lol still a good deal

[Rob-merlin1973]

I used to use those and they lasted me 3 seasons and stil going so can't complain

[rexgrant]

Most electric hook ups are protected by a 16A MCB (Miniature circuit breaker).
So you can grab 15A from this without tripping.

Without going to far into Ohms law, below is a few useful conversions.
(this is at 230v, but use it as rule of thumb for all campsites)
100Watts = 0.43Amps
500Watts = 2.17Amps
1000Watts = 4.34Amps
3000Watts = 13.04Amps

From the list above you can soon see that its OK to actually boil an electric kettle, even a fast boil 3kw one. Though I would not do that as you have to allow for your length of cable and volt drop and the kettle drawing more power to compensate for volt drop, but that's getting too technical.

I take a 750W microwave on camps where I have an electric hook-up = 3.2A
I also take a smaller electric kettle, about 2000w (or 2Kw if you prefer) = 8.6A
I have a small cooler running, about 100w = 0.43A
I also have 2x 11w lights running = 0.09A

Total load = 12.32A, so I don't even use my full 15Amps available.
This all said, I don't run the micro and kettle at the same time, just as a precaution.

Also it does pay to check you have a 15A supply, some sights might only give you a 6A MCB to prevent you plugging in a heater etc. Even with the 6A a 750w microwave is fine.

Look on the MCB where you plug your hook-up into and you should see it says something like B6 or B16 or C or D before the number, ignore the letter, its the number that matters.

Hope this helps a little, any questions please ask.


More information to follow on RCD's, Invertors and safety.

Hi Wayne.
What I have found is that the majority of hook -up leads for tents have a 10A double pole MCB, I see that some sold on eBay quote 16amp MCB but the ones sold by most camping shops like the ones from Towsure that Comply with BS6500 and BS4343 http://www.towsure.com/product/Camping_ ... t_3_Outlet What I used when winter camping and pitched on a pitch with a 16 amp supply I used one of these http://www.towsure.com/product/3Way_Car ... _Connector and a second one of these http://www.towsure.com/product/Pitch_Po ... upply_Unit the trouble is it give you the potential to draw 20 amps and trip the sites mains or pitch trip so if you go down the road you must use your conversion chart so you know what your equipment is drawing. But it is time the manufacturers produce a hook up with an RCB that you can change the fuse in the box to suit the pitch you may be on There are still pitches out there with 6,8,10,and 16 amp supplies. Calculator http://www.jobsite-generators.com/power ... ators.html
While checking voltage on campsite all over the country the average voltage as been 234 volts.
Regards
Rex.

[TerryV]

Just read through the whole of this thread and its been really helpful. Thanks to Wayne and everyone else that contributed. We (ie my wife) has decided after 5 years of family camping (and many more years on my own) that we are going EHU for our holiday in August and will probably test it out at a weekend away later this month.

I need to look at stuff like lights etc, but do have the EHU unit already.

Funny, but I did an apprentice as an electrician and remember a lot of the stuff about Ohms law etc and at home I get really twitchy about overloading multiple socket extension leads, but as it was over 20 years ago, it would be a case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and this thread has really helped. Besides my apprenticeship was as an aircraft electrian anyway, rather than domestic wiring