Caravan Park

You will get all sorts of vehicles and tents and wide variety of people from traditional "camping types", who utilise gas for cooking and have meager electric expectation and to those who bring the contents and appliances of a house and be all electric with  microwaves, ovens and hobs, not to mention the washer dryer in the awning, with a 3 kw heater in there, also, to keep the dog warm.  Many small "5 van" sites, especially, have this as a problem during the colder months and deliberately have 6 amp MCBs fitted to manage usage.  Worryingly, the first electric Motorhome available, in addition to being an electric vehicle, is also "gas free" [ zero carbon ?], so that has an expectation for all electric cooking and heating. 


The provision the OP describes seems fairly usual for camp sites. Sites that do experience problems with wholesale tripping of a distribution circuit do sometimes go for a full upgrade if their customer base has an expectation of unlimited electric demand and are happy with a higher pitch fee required to fund the new wiring. Where I have seen issues, this is almost always on "Club type Sites" where the caravan and motorhome users do have a high expectation of 16 amps demand per pitch for a significant amount of time and when  the site is very busy the demand per pitch overlaps; say early evening when everyone comes back to site and start cooking and heating simultaneously.

Whilst I have no direct experience of caravan site wiring it's worth while being careful with load planning and management a relative of mine had a caravan on a site where they were limited to 2 5 amp sockets and a few lights per van then after some time people started to unofficially upgrade to 15 amp sockets for kettles wash machines etc. At first it wasn't a problem then within a year or 2 they got the problem of fuse blowing at the site intake this was upgraded unofficially and for many years power cuts became a regular event for the whole area it turned out when the site was busy they were regularly tripping the local pole mounted TX. Even to this day there's a notice warning of evening power cuts. Mapj1 whilst I'm not questioning your expertise I thought it was 35 houses per 400 amp substation fuse  this works out as they reckon 2 kilowatt per house X 35 is 350 amps although at peak times the fuse will be overloaded y a bit. If it was 70 houses I think the fuse would be glowing like an electric fire bar!!

I can see all electric motor home being a non starter (literally) even with a microwave and induction hob cooking. I take the point  that Scouty type users even in caravans are nearer the camper hiker mentality and the caravan has a  gas bottle so the electrics are to charge a phone and run a night light or two.

None the less, the 70 houses per phase, (say five and a half amps each) while an upper limit, is true where the main heating is gas and the property is only small  (2 bedroom say) which I think could be similar to a camper wagon.  section 8 of this doc for example has typical nos  .   For estates of houses with electric storage heating we do indeed expect considerably more demand, and yes an average figure of more like 30 properties per phase of houses of mixed size and heating type is probably more reasonable.

Which is partly my other point - mass recharging of vehicles even at the "granny lead" rate of 2-3 kw will not be possible at more than a few houses at a time in most streets in the UK without quite a bit of reinforcement work. Makers of 11kV to 400V Xformers are probably in for a bit of a bonanza.

Thanks mapj1 I hold the of doubted yor figures  but you could see where are got my idea from

Well, electric motorhomes are here already, if you have very deep pockets!  A year or so ago the range was sub 150km , but the latest versions claim a lot more than that.

A you tube link to electric motorhome test drive

How about an auxiliary motor slung under a caravan to drive its wheels along with its own batteries mounted under the floor?


Or additional batteries slung under the caravan connected to the towing vehicle to increase its range?


Andy B.

It could also mean A total redesign of the car coupling and the braking system, as these are designed round having a non-powered trailer. 


Regards,


Alan.

One of my neighbours who was in his late seventies bought a double cab pickup converted to pull an articulated motor home, a very impressive rig.


He was most put out because on the very first trip he was pulled over by the police for them to check his licence and rig, less than five miles into the maiden voyage he was told to take it back home and sell it.


After a conversation with the DVLA that's precisely what happened. 


Andy B.