Static caravan electrical question

[JohnW2]

As I said before I was curious to whether a solution other than the one I offered ("use less power then,dummy!") existed, even if it was a prohibitively expensive, bespoke piece of equipment that I was unaware of.

In the final analysis, you are up against the laws of physics, so long as the load (in winter) remains as it is. No piece of equipment, no matter how clever or expensive, could prevent the full current being used going through the site owners 16A MCB!

As has been said, the only way in which 'clever equipment' could help would be if it automatically switched off (or reduced) some of the loads if/when the total demand became excessive.

What sort of loads are we talking about, and for what periods of time? Although it's obviously not good practice to 'let' it happen, a B16 MCB ought to allow about 23A (about 5.3kW) to flow for about an hour before tripping.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

There have been instances of the main breaker operating when all of the vans are occupied and getting up to temperature.

It would seem from that statement they are holiday homes not living quarters. In which case 16A is all that is required. Many of the sites don't have an all year around licence and should be vacant in winter months. However the owners often turn a blind eye to there use in winter.

Where I was living near Sizewell during the building of the Power Station the site I was on had a licence for just 10 living vans which could be occupied all year around but in fact there were around 100 and council turned a blind eye to the fact we were there which was good as we did not pay pole tax which was in at the time.

With the caravans I have today both have central heating and using gas for heating is no problem with blown dry air. However at the time of living in Sizewell the caravan only had a heater for the odd cold day working on gas without any flue. So heating with gas made the caravan very wet. The larger of the two caravans I have used by my son has the options to use either gas or electric for both hot water and central heating.

The big problem is unknown loads. With central heating and water heating both thermostatically controlled one does not always realise when on and when off. So some device is required to show what is being used. From a simple plug in (Euro one so 16A) energy meter, or one of the meters with a RF link like given away free by Scottish Power or a Priority Switch (current sensing relay) the latter either directly switching or even lighting a light or sounding a buzzer it does not really matter but he needs something to tell him he is over the top or auto reduce load before the MCB trips.

I know there are units to supplement power from battery I would think a narrow boat shop is the most likely place to find them. Google "Power assist inverters".

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You can get relays (forget what they're called) which will shed loads.

I think they're called load shedding relays

 

[ban-all-sheds]

council turned a blind eye to the fact we were there which was good as we did not pay pole tax which was in at the time.

Why should you - you're not Polish.

Sorry - couldn't resist

 

[ericmark]

Untitled

• ericmark
• 14 May 2015
• 1

I think the idea of the current assistance inverter is good. However today I can't find many for sale websites with them only web sites showing how they are used.

This site lists them at 1046 Eur which at least gives some idea of the price.

I would seem unlike most other grid tie inverters on power failure it disconnects from source, but continues to provide power to the user.