Please help - power question

[dop]

G'day, could you please help.

Going camping next week and have a powered site. Have been told I will need to have a 15 amp extension lead for my power use.

Will only be running a couple of lights , radio and electric jug which all have 10 amp plugs. My question is can you buy a power board that converts 15 amps to 10 amps or can a 10 amp power board run off the 15 amp lead.

I noticed that a 10 amp male fitting will fit into a female 15 amp fitting ( extension lead). Is this OK or will I blow out all of the Tweed Coast power supply ? All of the power boards have a 10 amp male fitting.

I don't understand how this all works

regards

Peter

[Ausfish]

Hi

They may mean that you have to have a minimum of a 15amp lead. That is that your lead must be at least capable of handling 15amps.

A 15 amp lead obviously has thicker cable, it also has a larger earth pin on the plugtop.

You can not convert 15amps to 10amps. You simply plug your 10amp powerboard into the socket of the 15amp lead.

I would imagine that they are simply wanting to make sure that people don't use undersize, 10amp, leads and overload them. An electric jug can use up to 10amps by itself, depending on the wattage, add in a few lights and a fridge, frypan, etc, etc. and you are well and truly over 10amps.

But if you have a 15amp lead to your tent or van and then to a powerboard that has a 10amp cutout you should be fine.

Check the wattage on your appliances

Current (amps) = wattage divided by 240

A jug of 2400 watts = 10amps

[FNQCairns]

This is interesting, I can only assume powered sites are doing this because of the grey nomads - to use a stereotype, that have thumping great big aircon units on top of their transportable homes.

Personally I would just plug an everyday extension lead in if I was to power run of the mill appliances, as mentioned above they fit and they also have the identical wiring pattern.

cheers fnq

[finga]

They stipulate the 15A lead to cover themselves.
Most 15A leads have larger conductor sizes and thicker insulation on them as compared to the ordinary light duty leads people have in their homes.
I used to change a lot of power points in van parks where people have used 10A light duty extension leads to run everything on the camp site. This is especially so when everything is plugged into power boards with no over current protection ie black button on the side.
The leads get hot and the plug starts to melt and when that melts it takes the parks power point with it.
And sparkies charge a motza now-a-days
Pity I don't work any more
As said....use the 15A lead to the parks power point to your power board then your power board to distribute the power to everything else.
It would not do any harm to have a safety switch either in the first power board or before the first power board.
These sorts of things are good for the campsite http://www.hpm.com.au/Uploads/10A&15...r%20centre.pdf