Is 10AMP HOOKUP Enough for MODERN Caravan Holidays? 

Very interesting mate.👍 Nice site and quiet too.

Interesting point of view, thanks. We have just returned for a 4 month winter trip to Europe and Morocco. In Europe we were mainly on 6 amp and in Morocco down to 5 amp ehu. Yes, it was a lot warmer in Morocco during the day (up to 25c) but at night it gets cold. In The Algarve it was up to 21c but cool at night (we were on 6amp ehu). On our trips down and up again we experienced cold, wet and freezing conditions whilst we were on 6amp. It is perfectly possible to cope with this and still stay warm. The basic 6amp 'rule' is one big electrical item at a time. Put the heating to 1kw, boost it with the gas for 10 mins, then switch the gas off. If it gets a bit chilly, put the gas on again for a few minutes. If you want to use the electric hob or microwave, switch the heating off electric to gas whilst you use the appliance, then when finished switch off the gas again and put the heating back on 1kw. We tended to use gas to boil the kettle anyway. We have a Calor 6kg gas cylinder and a 7.5kg SafeFill cylinder. In Morocco we purchased a 13 kg gas cylinder, regulator, hose and clips. LPG is very cheap there and to fill the 13 kg cylinder costs about £5.00!). We then fed the gas through the BBQ point. We would also experience voltage drop in the evenings as people all put their heating on and started cooking. Most things in the caravan will work at lower voltages (the Avtex TV will work down to 115v) but the Dometic fridge will only work down to about 210v. When the voltage dropped the fridge (3-way automatic) switched to gas. So 10 amp would have been a luxury! KH

Hi Graham, 16amp does make life a lot easier. We keep a reminder in the caravan listing all the electrical items wattage. 230v x 10amp = 2300w and 230v x 16amp = 3680w. As an example, a 10amp pitch in winter would see us turning the room heater down to 500w whilst the hot water is on high for showering. After showering we turn the hot water to low and the room heater back up. Same goes when using the kettle as we don’t have a stove kettle. Site looked nice by the way 👍. Cheers, Rob & Gail 😀

Nothing like getting back to nature in the great outdoors is there.😢😢😢

This shows the benefit of cheap gas with a Safefil bottle. By the way the CMC site at the NEC used to be 6amp

Hot water is a by product of having the heating on, basically the elements that heat the heating fluid are around the outside of the hot water tank, when heating is on the elements heat the fluid and a pump then circulates the warm fluid around the system, as a result of this the water in the tank it heated up. However if you have just hot water on like in the summer, the only difference is the pump that circulates the heating fluid doesnt run so heats up the water in the tank instead.

You will always have hot water with the heating on ,it is in a separate tank but its all one unit

You've just reminded me of a Lake District site we stayed at Ullswater in NOVEMBER 2022 with a Lusso ....electrics often tripped ...not sure how it seemed to do more so in the dark but the cause turned to be because it was a 10A supply...lovely antique shop that sold a load of household items too ( in Keswick ?) had a low amp travel kettle so we bought it and although it took longer to boil but saved electrics cutting out as much...switched fridge to gas and used hob instead of electric plate on cooker but had to alternate still between toaster and kettle . Fortunately, we were the only van on our part of the site so once the electric credit has run out just plugged into neighbouring sockets where people had left without using all of their "allowance"...oops shouldn't have said that. Lovely quiet site close to Patterdale for stunning scenic "olden" steamer boat trips on Ullswater to Pooley Bridge and Aire Falls etc.

We've struggled with 10amp in the winter and have then used a fair bit of gas to heat the van and cook. Not really an issue but a bit irritating when the site was still charging prices as high as the 16amp ones. We have the same Swift Command power limit feature and I always set it. Its saved me many a walk outside to reset the trip switch!

We have always boiled the kettle with a single burner gas canister stove. We started doing this because it saved opening up the cooker just to boil a kettle. Particularly useful if when stopping in a lay-by mid journey you don’t have to worry about shutting the glass lid on a hot stove. Also we have never had Aldi heating always blown air. So what is better as we find warm air is pretty instant and gets warm very quickly.

We had the same thing on a CL site. Our system is an Adele and we could only run on 1 KW. I'm not sure if we have a setting like yours. But we try and stay away from 10amp 😊

We must have just missed you we were there on Saturday last weekend, what a fabulous site! Just a bit of a hold your breath moment on the lane coming in to the site, incase something else was coming!

I did a 6 amp hookup once and we don’t have a limiter. Thankfully it was warmer weather at the time. Just had to be mindful of what was on at once. Heating was used at 1kw. Hot water is 850w (I think?) our kettle is 750w. Have induction hob too, so just tended to turn hot water off and heating off whole kettle and or induction on

M on a 10amp seasonal pitch. I run my alde heating on 2kw with the boiler on all the time. We use gas to boil a kettle. However we use the microwave with the heating on with no problems. problem

You can run alde heating on electricity and gas simultaneously to boost the heating and use the fridge on gas. Have a gas top kettle, and then there is no problem with 10 amp

Go off grid with no option for EHU….you’ll be checking every amp all day 😂😂 kettle on gas is defo the answer on 10amp. Enjoy sunny Essex 👍🏽👍🏽

Now this has really got me thinking how careful I'm going to have to be on a 10 amp supply in France in the summer... Fridge, water heater on, possibly air conditioning, kettle, kids devices charging 😬

Hi Graham, I use my caravan all year round and I've found the best way is to leave the thermostat on 23 degrees, keep the heating electric turned down to 1 amp and keep the gas turned on. The temperature in the van stays constant so the gas only kicks in when the outside temperature is very low. Domestic electric kettles can be as high as 9amps. I notice that you had a 25 metre cable with an extension plugged in to reach your caravan which can create unnecessary extra resistance with further increased demand on the electricity supply.

Use 800w topped up by gas when it needs - 16amp rare in Europe - dropping back to 10 will help avoid unexpectedly large bills for sites that meter - bit like using 5g instead of 4g. You’ll get hot water as a byproduct of using heating because the hot water container is in the same boiler unit not separate like at home - if the heating doesn’t come on your water won’t heat - 10amp works in Winter for us - heading over to Bavaria Friday near the alps so will be on 10amp 🤞🏼Thanks as always for the content

Did you check your wheel nuts 😂 There will be a certain amount of hot water through the boiler heating system

I don't turn the hot water on and always have hot water. I just turn it on before a shower just so it doesn't run cold 👍

If heating is on hot water will be there also. The temperature you are running the heating on will dictate how hot your water will be. When heating not on such as summer you need to use that button you illustrated. Re boiling the kettle just turn the heating off for a couple of minutes whilst it boils, that’s what we did when on 10amp anywhere.

Alde system is just a box that gets hot - using electric, gas or both. You can run the system without water in it to heat the van if needed: If the van is cold a pump circulates the Alde fluid to the radiators to heat the van, and at the same time heats the water if there is any in the system. If the van is warm but the water is cold the system runs the same, but without the circulating pump, so the heat goes to the water. The way it’s set up, it can’t overheat the water, either the system shuts down if the van is warm, or when running the Alde fluid limits the water temperature by taking the heat way to the radiators. Yes it’s magic, and we love this system in our Challenger 650 too. 10 amps is plenty if you keep the Alde system at 1Kw, but allow the gas to make up any shortfall. Sadly our 650 (2022 model) has the older LED style control panel, so doesn’t allow us to set the incoming power limit.

You will have to review a power bank and let that boost your power

The Alde boiler is two concentric tanks. The inner tank is the heating fluid. The outer tank is hot water. So basically hot water is produced as a by product of using the heating. The control panel water setting, with it off the hot water is just a by product, with it in mid position, the boiler will heat to maintain the heating or hot water temperature. With it set to max, it inhibits the heating pump for thirty minutes, to put maximum heat into hot water. After the thirty minutes, it automatically reverts to the mid level. Did you know you can select simultaneously gas and electric as fuel source, and you can set which one to use as priority. Doing this would use electric only, until the system can’t cope, then it would automatically use gas to top up the heat level.

Hi Graham do you know if you have to notify your insurance company if you are going to start towing a caravan

£25 for 10A electric and a CS is poor. You should think about using out and about ( caravan and camping), e.g. £22 a night on a full facility site with a fully serviced pitch 16A (hendra, Newquay)

Yea, more than enough, unless yer one of these nougats that tries to recreate Blackpool illuminations with 2 million fairy lights hanging in the awning, which is a recreation of their home they tried to escape from in the first place. 🤪🤪🤪😂

Have you not got gas ? Just use 1kw and put it on gas for main power, but 25 on 10amps is crap

Welcome to the rabbit hole of site electrics. Here's one for you. 10amp may not be 10amp in terms of 240v you get at home as it is depending on where you are on the cable run and the variable nature of the accuracy of the trip and a whole lot of other variables. Have you got a year or few to discuss 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Easy solution, get a gas stove kettle, run heating, water, cooking and fridge on gas. Use electric for 12v stuff which 10amps is charging the battery. Job sorted you right old softy 😂😂😂

once upon a time the hiss of gas mantles lit the caravan. Now you need kilowatts of power to run your air fryer or the tumble dryer. Learn to camp, eh? Ite supposed to be the great outdoors not suburbia on wheels