Being a first-time caravan owner is a lot of fun as you make this new portable home your own and plot your first journey away. When it comes to thinking about the different appliances you want to put in your van, whether they are replacement items or completely new additions, there are three basic rules that you must follow before you pull out your wallet. Keep these tips in mind and you'll be able to make the right purchases every time.

Uniform Voltage Through The Caravan

Unlike an odd pair of socks that you may get away with wearing together, the mix-and-match theory does not work when it comes to introducing appliances that have a different electrical voltage to that which is running through your caravan.

While you can purchase inverters to change the voltage, doing so means you are throwing energy away as it flows through the inverter. This is a waste of energy and as your caravan only has a small energy supply, wastage should be discouraged.

Fuses Protect From Fires

Make sure that every new electrical appliance that you have installed in your caravan has its own fuse. If you do not know how to do this, your caravan appliance dealer can advise you where to start. If your new appliance has a fault that overloads the circuit, the fuse will trip and you will be saved from a potentially disastrous fire. It is estimated that a fire can double in size in just one minute so it would not take long to overpower your caravan.

Helpful tip:  make sure all the fuses in the caravan are correctly labelled for each appliance so that you know which one is causing the overload to occur. You can test the fuses by switching them off one by one and then testing the appliance they are supposedly connected to. If the appliance no longer works, you know the fuse label is correct.

Appliance Standby Mode

When considering new appliances, be sure to ask the salesperson if the appliance enters a standby mode when not in use or if it can be completely turned off. Appliances that have a stand-by mode still draw a small amount of power 24 hours a day, and if you have several of these in your caravan they add up to drawing a lot of your van's power supply. If the appliance you want does not have an on/off switch, you need to consider disconnecting it when not in use.

These three tips will help you to easily choose the safest and most energy-efficient appliances for your new caravan. Now all you need to do is decide where in Australia you will head for your first trip away in your new home away from home. For more information on caravan appliances, talk with someone at a business like Caravan Services (C.R.S).

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