Caravan -- Elec Earthing

coyotte · Veteran Member

Caravan -- Elec Earthing

DeBe · Guru

Hi cyotte, The van will be earthed by the parks power point. Personaly I dont earth my generator as there should be no need as they are an isolated powersupply. Daryl

BobnBev · Senior Member

Hi , I think ive said this before some place, but its worth saying again about inverters. There are some square wave inverters that run 120 volts a side .. meaning that the netural and the active have 120 volts each. =240 volts. and if you put the power from your inverter in the vans suply it will put 120 volt in the earth line, as the netural and the earth are as one.. That will make the out side of your van live with 120 volts.. Its easy to fine out . just put a MMeter on the ac. then put one end on a good earth . Then carefuly test each side of the inverter. if you only get 240volts from one side, fine if not just use your invereter on its own , like in to a tv or what ever you use..And its easy to check if you vans earth is ok . Put your multimeter on ohms . then put one end in the earth socket and the other end on the metal body of the van .. Should be 00 ohms or if on the sound bit it should beep loud. .If you dont under stand get some one to look at it for you...Most vans are fine BUT a screw put in the wrong place can kill ..If your van is fitted with RCDs it will be very safe.. I have had water running down the side and went in to the plug that set the RCD off. All moden vans should be fitted with RCDs and all that will be working fine , its when people do things them self and are not sure what it is they are doing is when trouble comes along.. Happy travels bob n bev

brickies · Guru

A trip to an Auto Electrician is cheaper than a trip to the Undertaker never play with Electricity

coyotte · Veteran Member

I may not have asked the question clearly enough ?
the situation is that the van i have has a inverter fitted --- but not supplying the van -
you plug the device into the inverter ----- the inverter is GROUND to the van's chassis,the query is ---- how can this earth the inverter ?? ---- whay i see it it can't

Coyotte

Smokeydk · Guru

Got My new van looked at.......the charger wasnt charging the battery........they did a trace of the wiring and.....it didnt go to the battery.....it was charging the fridge frame...sorted now but scarey

brickies · Guru

Has I said Auto electrician , If needed will bring in a Electrician

Paul-NSW · Veteran Member

generator or inverter should NEVER BE EARTHED

-- Edited by Paul-NSW on Monday 16th of August 2010 08:25:10 AM

countryroad · Senior Member

What is/are RCD's

brickies · Guru

RCD is short for Residual - current Device in short a Circuit Breaker

GrumpyOne · Senior Member

From a Occupational Health and Safety professionals point of view,

ALL DOMESTIC SUPPLY ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS
SHOULD BE FITTED WITH SAFETY SWITCHES POINT BLANK

RCD's SAVE LIVES

A $90 safety switch will easily save you about $4000 on a funeral.

PLEASE DO NOT
use a domestic extension lead under any circumstances to connect to the CP power outlets they are not designed for the purpose and may overheat and cause a fire.

Hoo Roo Happy Days
Grumps

Ma · Guru

You better let us know where we can get a funeral for $4000 Grumps. I haven't seen one that cheap for a couple of years or more.

Paul-NSW · Veteran Member

RCD's dont work on generators or inverters.

What is a domestic power lead? A power lead can be 10A or 15A
Any power lead needs to be used within the leads designed capacity.

GrumpyOne · Senior Member

Hey Ma,

We were fortunate in the Funeral director that did Mum two or three years before Dad passed did us a good deal, i suppose after the memorial plot etc.... it did cost about $10k come to think of it......

Hey Paul,

Without being or sounding like a smart alec I would say a 10 amp lead bought from Coles or Woolies etc... would be classified as a domestic lead. If I am wrong someone please correct me now before I shoot myself in the other foot.

Bearing in mind not too many people have a use for a 15 amp lead in general day to day use around the home unless they are a handyperson who uses a welder etc... or they are a Van owner. I would say most leads bought are generally 10amp, and the average Joe doesn't know the difference between a 10 amp lead and a 15 amp lead without the tag....

As i understand it from a OHS perspective the problem lies in that a 10amp plug will fit a 15amp outlet thus overloading the lead at full draw which can cause the lead and plugs/sockets to heat up and breakdown the insulation leading to eventual failure of the lead.

I have seen this occur once in my years and that was due to deliberate excessive loading to test the failure rate ofthe lead.

For those that do not know the difference between a 10amp lead and a 15 amp lead they have different sized earth pins as follows.....

The 10 amp lead has thee pins that are all the same size and fits any standard three pin socket type outlet.

                                                                  / \ All pins the same size
                                                                   l

The 15 amp has two pins at the top on opposing angles which are the Common & Nuetral the same size, BUT, the earth pin (the vertical pin at the botton) is larger, this plug will NOT fit a normal domestic socket type outlet.

                                                                / \ Same size pins
                                                                 l   Earth pin is bigger

I hope that I have answered the question and as i say if anyone has a better skill as a wordsmith please correct my failings. I am not a qualified electrical trades person but i do have many years experience working with and around such people.

Hoo Roo Happy Days

Cheers
Grumps

brickies · Guru

Well done Grumps you explained that well and you didn't get Grumpy this has been a good post . from electricity to funerals how easy we could need either if we do something we play with something we shouldn't

countryroad · Senior Member

OK thanks, I have a safety switch in the electric box for the house,

so now i also need one for the van...?

Bearing in mind my van will be a campervan not a caravan...still suppose that makes no difference

electricity is still the same wherever it is.

And to sort out the leads I just make sure the single bottom pin is bigger than the one on the

extension lead I use for my Bernina at Quilt Camp or Dorrigo.

Thanks brickie and Grumpyone for making it clear.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

There is a lot of advise being given here that is quite misleading.
SEE AN ELECTRITIAN who knows about caravan wiring.
Caravans are mobile structures and the rules are quite DIFFERENT from household domestic wiring in many aspects, especially in regard to earthing, inverters and generators and RCDs.
The rules are different because the risks are different and much higher.
Get it done right.

Cheers,
Peter

brickies · Guru

Peter if you read my post I did state see an Auto Electrician and if needed he would refer you to an electrician , also my van does have a safety switch I might be wrong and may differ from state to state only electrician can work on 240 ac . So I still believe IF you are not sure wether it is 12 v or 240 start with an AUTO electrician

PeterD · Guru

GrumpyOne wrote:
As i understand it from a OHS perspective the problem lies in that a 10amp plug will fit a 15amp outlet thus overloading the lead at full draw which can cause the lead and plugs/sockets to heat up and breakdown the insulation leading to eventual failure of the lead.

That is not my understanding of how electricity works. It is perfectly safe to plug a 10 A lead into a 15 A socket. The lead does not draw current, it is the load on the end of the lead thatdraws the current. If a fault occurrs in the load it will draw a high current that will take out the circuit breaker.

A 15 A socket in your home will be protected by a 15 or 16 A breaker. This is exactly the same size breaker that protects a circuit with 10 A outlets on it. A 15 A outlet at a caravan park may be on the same circuit as a second 15 A outlet and protected by a 30 A breaker. In this situation it is not expected that 10 A leads will be used but even if they are they will carry 30 A for long enough for the breaker to trip.

The specification in the standards do not base the size of conductor on the liability of it fusing. The copper size specified is such that the lead will not cause more than 5% voltage over a maximum permitted length of lead. If you are using leads that are likely to overheat in their intended usage then you will have far too much voltage drop in them when you are using them.