Vocal Voices

Since I came back my van has been having power issues. The dimmable LED bulbs were acting like they were dimmed right down. I talked to my dad (electrician), then pulled the cover off the trip box and put my meter across the input power.

206 volts. A few will recognise immediately what that means. Essentially it was about 30 volts too low and since all a dimmer does is actually drop the voltage, my lights were detecting low voltage.

I went to the site manager and told him on Friday but it was pub quiz night and he just said "talk to the electrician". I suspected the installation of the meter as that was the only change when I was away. So I bought a device you plug into your socket and tells you the voltage from Amazon and waited for Monday.

This morning the power went out about 09:40. The entire site. It did come back on by around 11:30 but my lights were, by this time, glow worms. I had to go to lunch with my parents so I headed off.

When I came back I switched the lights on and had to squint a bit to deal with the really bright light in the kitchen. My plug in device had arrived from Amazon so I plugged it in. 236 volts. There has been something wrong with the power to the site since I took over the van. Seems it is now fixed. Pity the site manager didn't listen to me....

Glad it's fixed!

In many years of camping, campsites are not the best places for steady voltages and frequencies. Wind, rain, and sun all play their part. Overhead or ducted seem to make no difference. And a bit of damp in the multiple connectors can also play havoc.

At least you now have light when it is dark.

Well this is true. I now have direct evidence of what is going on, the adapter is plugged in constantly and I look from time to time. It varies from around 220 to 238.

Also I bought a bunch of bulbs from Amazon, non dimmable so they will work full power regardless. I changed most of the bulbs but left 3 so I can see if this is happening again. Then I can go check my device and tell the site manager to go hassle the electric company.

The bulbs from Amazon are more powerful and cost under £10 and I have 2 spares even if I fitted them all. The dimmable from B&Q cost me about £80. No more buying LED bulbs in B&Q.

We had power out again Wednesday night. Which ran on all day Thursday and into Thursday night. This time it blew a 100a fuse and started a fire which had to be put out with an extinguisher.

My van was one of three that were the last to get power back, they were having trouble identifying the circuit. They had laid out a temporary cable but I couldn't get connected to it, told me they'd be back Friday to fix it. So iff I went to try and find blue 240v camping adapters with socket on one end and plut on the other. I got the socket one in Halfords but was struggling with the plug one when I found it at Toolstation. Quick trip to B&M after that for the outdoor extension I'd been eyeing and I was set. Arrived back to a fully powered on van. Ah well, next time.

By Friday morning it was pretty bloody freezing and I was cold even under the winter 15 tog duvet. So I took the battery and inverter I'd been using to watch a movie on Netflix and disconnected the boiler from it's switch box and put a plug on the end. That worked for about 5 hours till the battery dropped below boiler pump power. However the van was warm by then and the sun was up.

Back in France I have a 3kw inverter (enough to run the whole van) and a large leisure battery. I'm going to replace the battery in the Peugeot and the two old batteries I will then have will go with the leisure battery to give me at least enough power to run the heating all night.

I'm much better set up in France, I have a generator.

Have you thought about a portable solar panel of 100W / 120W with variable voltage to trickle charge batteries or lights / lanterns and phones? I keep mine in the window for emergency lighting purposes during power cuts.

I can even run the laptop with its TV dongle so that I am not totally out of the loop.