Tent camping and electrical hook ups.

[PinataHeeHaw]

Hello, I am going camping for the first time and have seen on some campsites that tent pitches have electrical hook ups. How do these work? I thought that electric was only for caravan and motorhomes.

It's basically to run an extension lead with a certain fitting on the end (same as a caravan fitting), a lot of modern tents have a zipper somewhere to feed it through.

It just means you can run anything electrical inside the tent, like lights, coolbox, kettle, heater, phone charger etc.

You need a specific extension lead which goes right into your tent. Most tents have a zipped opening somewhere near the bottom of the tent for the cable to be fed through, and then you have your socket inside the tent.

Cross posted, sorry.

Tents can use the electric hook-up as well, we use ours to run a camping fridge, phone chargers. Just remember whatever you want it to run has to be low voltage. - hairdryers are too high a voltage. I read recently that there is a trend for people to take air fryers away with them and on one campsite so many people used them that it blew the electrics for the whole site.

You need a specific charger (look on amazon). They’re a game changer for us though - we take a heater and electric blankets when we camp these days! An electric kettle makes a huge difference as well

https://www.halfords.com/camping/electrical-and-power/maypole-mobile-mains-power-unit-and-usb-cable-465150.html?cm_mmc=Google+PLA--Motoring%3ECamping%3ECaravan+and+Motorhomes%3EElectrical+and+Power--Motoring%3ECamping%3ECaravan+&+Motorhomes%3EElectrical+&+Power--465150&gclsrc=aw.ds&&$ja=tsid:%7Ccid:17253532456%7Cagid:%7Ctid:%7Ccrid:%7Cnw:x%7Crnd:4859979041562010102%7Cdvc:m%7Cadp:%7Cmt:%7Cloc:9045910&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17262801092&gbraid=0AAAAADrJx6xi-089yMTQ62E_P4ho01jkG&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2Myx75zIjQMVB4tQBh0y9QHtEAQYASABEgLAB_D_BwE

You can book an EHU pitch at many sites. Some charge in with pitch price, others by unit.

It depends what you like and what your style of camping is.

Personally I don’t use it and avoid sites that offer it. Downsides being:
Tents tend to be closer together as everyone needs to be within distance of the EHU post / supply
The people who use it for TVs and projectors and don’t use headphones

But I enjoy a ‘basic’ campfire type camping, so it depends what your own preferences are.

That depends where you go and what ampage the EHU has. We frequently use a normal 2000W hairdryer on hook up, although we unplug everything else first.

This post is so wrong. Please don't listen to this "advice"

What part of it is wrong?

Thank you everyone for your kind advice. I prefer a bit of a back to basics camping experience so I'll not be getting any electrical adapters.

If anyone can recommend a gas camping hob I'd be most grateful.

The bit about using low voltage items. A camping fridge runs at the same voltage as hairdryers, and anything else that you plug into a socket, and several people using airfryers cannot blow up a whole site's electrical system.

But they can draw more current, therefore tripping the RCD (fuse).

Having spent a few days on a particular site in Ireland this summer where a family next to use kept tripping the RCD out by repeatedly trying the same air fryer and hair dryer...

It is low wattage, not low voltage.

You need to find out what the EHU supply is rated at. We are Moho owners and have been doing this for years but the principle is exactly the same.
Most sites are rated at 16a, some at 10a and a few at 6a. As a rule of thumb, you draw 4a for each 1000w (1kw) load so a domestic 3kw kettle will draw 12a whereas a 2kw one will draw 8a etc. A cool box may run intermittently (like your fridge/freezer at home) so best to unplug it for a few minutes when boiling the kettle. Modern LED lighting is very power friendly so will make little difference, likewise phone chargers etc. Any other accessories (electric blanket, hair dryer, air fryer etc) you will need to check the power consumption before use and again, work out if you need to switch other appliances off first.

With the increase in electric costs, more sites are now metering the EHU and charging per unit but the cost varies from site to site with some having a very significant mark-up so always check first to avoid an unexpected surprise at the end of your stay.