I am planning a 240 volt hook up install and have a few questions. I am going to put a socket on the outrigger and feed the cable through the floor into the rock and roll bed cupboard. Firstly, rather than then go into a consumer unit followed by a standard twin socket, can I simply replace both of those and use one of these to save space? I take it that the earth would then need to go to the bodywork? If I do need to use a consumer unit then what rating should the the RCD and MCB be? Any recommended units?
that will be fine but a cu will be better if running lots of kit you might have a problem getting the earth wire in the terminals if you use a big one but they have changed the rules and you can get away with a 4mm2 earth now
Hook up consumer unit i use 25amp rcd 10amp 2pole mcb 6amp 2pole mcb This is the type and looks good value http://www.xtremevan.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=5088
Strictly speaking no. You have no overload protection, only shock protection from the RCD. You could connect two 13 amp appliances into this and overload the supply cable (16 Amp cable theoretically). likely outcome of overload would be that site supply would trip out as you have no circuit breaker in the bus. That said will probably be fine. But then again - a standard unprotected socket would probably be ok but I wouldnt chance it.
Forgot to say - my hook up is 30Amp 30 mAmp RCD with a 10 amp mcb for my socket and a 6 amp doing my on-board charger (also fed via a switched fused spur with 5 amp fuse.)
The maximum I would run on hook up is my C-Tek which I believe is 1.4 amp and very very rarely a 2 KW fan heater (8amps?) I am trying to save room as the consumer unit plus the sockets seems to take up a lot of room in comparison.
Mine is a similar unit to that with the biggest earth I could fit to the chassis, never tripped out any campsite but only use it for phone charger, DVD player and occasional wife's hair dryer....not at the same time! Cheers Ben
as normal ask 2 electricians and get 2 answers As it lunchtime i had a look in the regs book and we are both wrong and both right but i will put my hand up as the worse. Although the overload protection only needs to protect the circuit in the van and is not be responsible for anything on the site so the socket would be fine there is another problem. So To answer the original question That socket does not comply with the latest regs as the overload protection (fuse In the plugtop) does not disconnect all live conductors (live & Neutral) So to comply you need a 30ma RCD and a fuse or MCB that disconnects both line and neutral The box i linked to in a earlier post that i use normally comply's. As for the lead size all bought orange hookup cables should be 2.5 I have updated my how to with the changes http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=6290.msg97516#msg97516
