Should I disconnect from EHU if there's a power cut?

Thornebt

Thornebt

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I'm at a site in France and the EHU has gone off. Not tripped the RCD, just dead. My neighbour has unplugged his lead so I've done the same. Is that good practice in case there's a power surge?
 
I always unplug when the power goes off, just in case there is a surge when it comes back on. I also often unplug when there is someone on a lawn mower, and strimmer around the van. Dont need a problem with the electics when we are away
 
Not essential to unplug but a good precaution. After all, if you have a power cut at home you don't isolate the house.
 
I know nothing, I assumed the circuit breakers and fuses on the incoming supply protected against surges In supply.
In Turkey, where we have loads of power cuts we just wait for the supply to come back on.
 
If concerned you can fit a surge protection device , I had one in my last motorhome .. easy device to fit and gives good protection from

  • High voltage
  • Low voltage
  • Spikes/surges
  • Powerbacks surges
  • Loss Of Neutral (LoN)



www.sollatek.com

AVS30 - Max 30amps Voltage Protection - Sollatek

AVS30 - Complete power protection device combining over voltage, under voltage, powerback surges/spikes protection.
www.sollatek.com www.sollatek.com




1616.jpeg
 
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Bramidan said:
, I assumed the circuit breakers and fuses on the incoming supply protected against surges In supply.
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CBs and fuses are too slow to respond to protect from a surge, spike..

see my previous post

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scotjimland said:
CBs and fuses are too slow to respond to protect from a surge, spike..

see my previous post
Click to expand...
Right but on a risk assessment basis what will be damaged?
I don’t mean mobiles, tablets and the like.
 
treblid said:
Could you please explain what you define a "surge" as? :unsure:
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When the power goes back on, all the electrical devices that are still plugged in (TV's, kettles, etc) cause an instant drain and spike in the electrical power which is enough to trip your fuse panel.

Which is why the light flicker when power is restored, and also why once you have one power cuts it is often followed by another and another

At home, not a big issue, you simply reset the fuse on your consumer unit.
In a van that same thing can be done, but it's more lightly to happen as a vans electrics are that much more sensitive.

Therefore; on a campsite where you are EHU and there is a power cut, I'd unplug my EHU cable, and then 10 mins after all the other vans seem to have the lights back on, I'd plug back in.
 
Brains said:
all the electrical devices that are still plugged in (TV's, kettles, etc) cause an instant drain and spike in the electrical power which is enough to trip your fuse panel.
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That would only happen if your circuit protection devices are incorrectly rated or you are overloading the circuit.
 
See, you delve into some problem you never really knew existed until you read Motorhome Fun and you enter a vortex!
This knowledge is not all a positive ( see what I did there)
Mind you I can’t stop delving!

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To save venturing outside in the dark just switch off the consumer units double pole main switch.
 
Thornebt said:
I'm at a site in France and the EHU has gone off. Not tripped the RCD, just dead. My neighbour has unplugged his lead so I've done the same. Is that good practice in case there's a power surge?
Click to expand...
If I had been awake at the time, I might have worried about things such as have been mentioned above. However, it happened to us overnight last week at Versailles and all was back up and running by the time I woke up. “Everything is better after sleeping on it” my Mum used to say - and even though she didn’t have a clue about the problems I was dealing with - she was right - mostly
 
treblid said:
That would only happen if your circuit protection devices are incorrectly rated or you are overloading the circuit.
Click to expand...
The circuit includes every other motorhome, caravan and tent on the site.
Who knows what kit other people have, and what they have left on.

Some years ago we installed several hundred thousand pounds worth of computer servers into an office.
Every morning at about 7am all the severs crashed.
We eventually had to fly a guy, set him up in a hotel.
He arrived on a Saturday and set up the kit, got in early on Sunday and waited... and waited.... nothing happened!
Monday, a bank holiday, no problems
Tuesday, like clockwork, all the servers crashed, he was not there.
So he is sitting there at 6am Wednesday and at 7am the servers crash.
He traced the fault to an external power surge.

It took to Friday to find the source. A café on the ground floor of the building switched on their coffee machine when the first employee arrived at 7am.
We simply changed their plug for a surge protected one. a £5 fix for something that cost thousands to trace.
 
Brains said:
The circuit includes every other motorhome, caravan and tent on the site.
Who knows what kit other people have, and what they have left on.

Some years ago we installed several hundred thousand pounds worth of computer servers into an office.
Every morning at about 7am all the severs crashed.
We eventually had to fly a guy, set him up in a hotel.
He arrived on a Saturday and set up the kit, got in early on Sunday and waited... and waited.... nothing happened!
Monday, a bank holiday, no problems
Tuesday, like clockwork, all the servers crashed, he was not there.
So he is sitting there at 6am Wednesday and at 7am the servers crash.
He traced the fault to an external power surge.

It took to Friday to find the source. A café on the ground floor of the building switched on their coffee machine when the first employee arrived at 7am.
We simply changed their plug for a surge protected one. a £5 fix for something that cost thousands to trace.
Click to expand...
This doesn’t really equate to us sitting in our motorhomes does it?
Several hundred thousands pounds of computer servers as opposed to my kettle!
 
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pappajohn said:
To save venturing outside in the dark just switch off the consumer units double pole main switch.
Click to expand...

But if your consumer unit is in the garage?

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Brains said:
The circuit includes every other motorhome, caravan and tent on the site.
Who knows what kit other people have, and what they have left on.
Click to expand...

Lots of sites have individual breakers for each individual output so surely they would trip first.
 
Brains said:
A café on the ground floor of the building switched on their coffee machine when the first employee arrived at 7am
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I find it difficult to see how a coffee machine, which is largely a resistive load rather than inductive, taking out a supply to servers. It would have to be a very poor high impedance supply with low current capability.
If the servers were that vulnerable, why was there no UPS installed?
Anyway, this is all off topic.

Personally, I would not worry about any outages. You are more than likely not at the van when it happens anyway so why worry.
 
No, if nothing critical is connected. And in most cases even with everything switched on the peak load will be insufficient to throw any breakers.
 

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