Camper Shore Power Hookup: Cable, RCD, Charger and Winter Loads Explained

Once the nights get long, the solar panel on the roof stops pulling its weight and the campsite hookup becomes the main power source for many camper and van owners. Shore power (electric hook-up, EHU, or Landstrom in German-speaking countries) looks trivial: plug in the blue cable, done. In practice it is the only part of a camper's electrics that runs at 230 V, and it is where most tripped pitch breakers, cooked cable reels and confused battery chargers come from.

This guide covers campers and vans: the CEE inlet and cable, what a 6 A or 10 A pitch allows, the protection your consumer unit needs, charger sizing, when an inverter/charger makes sense, and what changes in winter. Boats have different requirements (galvanic isolation, marine inlets), so for those read our boat shore power and inverter guide. This is a researched guide, not a hands-on test of specific products; the numbers come from the standards and manufacturer datasheets named in the text.

The hookup chain at a glance

Every camper shore power system follows the same order:

Campsite post with its own breaker, limited to a fixed current per pitch
Hookup cable with CEE plug and connector
Inlet on the vehicle
Consumer unit: a 30 mA RCD directly after the inlet, then one miniature circuit breaker (MCB) per 230 V circuit
230 V loads: sockets, the charger, maybe a fridge or water heater element
Battery charger (or inverter/charger) feeding the house battery through a fuse at the battery
12 V side: battery, main fuse, fuse box, circuits

Almost every hookup problem is a mismatch between two of these links.

The blue CEE plug and the right cable

European campsites use the blue three-pin CEE plug (IEC 60309, 230 V, 16 A). Blue marks the 200-250 V range, and the plug only fits one way, so phase, neutral and earth land on the intended contacts. The German standard for caravan and motorhome installations, DIN VDE 0100-721, requires CEE-blue connectors at both the vehicle and the pitch; Schuko plugs are not permitted for this connection.

The same standard requires the hookup cable to be at least heavy rubber-sheathed H07RN-F with 2.5 mm² conductors. A 1.5 mm² garden extension cord does not qualify. Camping guides and the ADAC camping checklist give the same practical spec: 3 x 2.5 mm², up to 25 m, one continuous run without extension cords chained together. Polyurethane-sheathed H07BQ-F cable is a lighter alternative in the same cross-section.

Two habits matter more than the brand:

Unroll the reel completely. A wound cable cannot shed heat. Reel manufacturers print separate ratings for wound and unrolled use, and their instructions typically require full unrolling above about 1,000 W. Check the label on your reel.
Keep the connector off the ground. A CEE coupling lying in wet grass is the classic reason the site's RCD trips at 3 a.m. Cover it or hang it up.

Inside the vehicle, VDE 0100-721 asks for stranded flexible cable (no solid household cable), at least flame retardant, minimum 1.5 mm², with chafe protection because a vehicle vibrates constantly. Our wire gauge guide explains how cross-section relates to current.

Campsite pitch limits: why 6 A changes everything

Your inlet, cable and consumer unit are rated for 16 A, but the pitch often is not. Depending on country and site, hookups are commonly protected at anywhere between 6 and 16 A. The site description usually says; if not, ask at reception.

At 230 V, power equals voltage times current:

Pitch breaker	Approximate maximum load
6 A	about 1,380 W
10 A	about 2,300 W
16 A	about 3,680 W

A travel kettle is often rated 1,000-2,200 W, a hair dryer 1,200-2,000 W, a fan heater up to 2,000 W, and a charger at full output adds several hundred watts. On a 6 A pitch, a full-power kettle alone can trip the post, and usually only site staff can reset it. On 10 A, a 2,000 W heater plus a charger in bulk mode is already at the limit.

So: buy low-wattage appliances for hookup use (camping kettles around 750-1,000 W exist for exactly this reason), never run two heavy loads at once, and turn the charger down on weak pitches.

RCD and MCBs: what the consumer unit has to do

The consumer unit behind the inlet is the core safety device in your camper. VDE 0100-721 and its international parent IEC 60364-7-721 require:

An RCD rated at no more than 30 mA, breaking all live conductors and connected directly to the inlet with no taps in between. Every 230 V circuit in the vehicle must run through it.
A main isolating switch that disconnects all live conductors and is easy to reach. In most units the double-pole RCD or a double-pole main breaker takes this role.
Overcurrent protection per circuit: an MCB sized for the cable it protects.

The RCD at the post does not replace yours. You do not know how well the site's equipment is maintained, and your own RCD protects the circuits inside your vehicle regardless. Press its test button at the start of each season.

Why the 230 V side is a job for a qualified electrician

The 12 V side of a camper is forgiving enough for careful DIY. The 230 V side is not: a wrong earth connection or a missing RCD can make the whole vehicle body live, and nobody notices until someone touches it standing on wet grass. Many countries require 230 V work to be done or signed off by a qualified electrician, and a tested installation also helps with insurance and resale.

A sensible split: plan the whole system yourself, build and fuse the 12 V side yourself, and have an electrician install and test the inlet, consumer unit and 230 V circuits. A pre-wired 230 V shore power inlet makes that job quicker but does not replace the test.

Polarity and reverse polarity

The CEE plug is polarised, but the post is only as good as whoever wired it. Reversed phase and neutral do turn up on some European sites, and any adapter to a Schuko socket removes the polarity guarantee entirely, because a Schuko plug fits both ways round.

In a correctly built camper, reversed polarity is usually harmless in normal operation, because the RCD and main switch break both conductors. The remaining risk sits in appliances with single-pole switches, which can stay live while "off". Carry a polarity tester plug for new pitches, and always unplug a device before opening it. UK-market caravans typically include a reverse polarity indicator in the consumer unit; if it lights up, do not use the pitch until the site has checked it.

Sizing the battery charger

The charger bridges the 230 V and 12 V worlds. Two things define its size: what your battery can accept, and how much time you have.

Battery limits come first. Victron's Blue Smart IP22 12/30 is a typical stationary shore charger: according to its manual it charges at up to 30 A, with a 15 A low mode and a 7.5 A minimum mode, and suits batteries up to 300 Ah. For lithium, Victron lists a minimum of 60 Ah at full output, which keeps the charge rate at or below 0.5C. Your battery's datasheet has the final word on maximum charge current and low-temperature limits.

Then time. A 200 Ah LiFePO4 bank missing 160 Ah after a cloudy day needs about five and a half hours at 30 A, closer to eleven at 15 A. Run your own numbers in the charge time calculator; it accounts for charge efficiency and the slower absorption phase at the end.

Then the AC side. A charger delivering 30 A at about 14.2 V puts roughly 430 W into the battery and draws around 450-500 W from the hookup, about 2 A. A 70 A charger draws more than twice that. On a 6 A pitch, those amps count.

Mount the charger where it can breathe (IP22 means drip-protected for indoor use, not a wet locker), and fuse its positive cable close to the battery like any charging source. Our fuse sizing guide covers placement; the manual lists the fuse rating the manufacturer expects.

Charger or inverter/charger?

A standalone charger only goes one way: 230 V in, 12 V out. An inverter/charger such as the Victron MultiPlus combines a charger, a pure sine inverter and a transfer switch. On hookup it passes shore power through to your sockets and charges the battery; off-grid it makes 230 V from the battery and the sockets keep working.

From Victron's datasheet:

MultiPlus 12/800: 35 A charger, 700 W continuous at 25 °C, 16 A transfer switch
MultiPlus 12/1600: 70 A charger, 1,300 W continuous at 25 °C, 16 A transfer switch

Two features make it useful on campsites:

Input current limit. You set how much the unit may draw from shore power. When your 230 V loads rise, it cuts its charge current first (Victron calls this PowerControl), so the total stays under the pitch limit.
PowerAssist. If loads briefly exceed the input limit, the inverter tops up from the battery instead of tripping the post. When the load drops, the spare capacity recharges the battery.

The habit that matters: set the input current limit to the pitch rating every time you plug in. Leaving it at 16 A on a 6 A site defeats the feature. A remote panel or the app makes this a ten-second job.

If you want 230 V sockets off-grid anyway, the inverter/charger earns its place. If you only use 230 V on hookup, a standalone charger is simpler, cheaper to replace, and has no inverter standby drain.

Winter on hookup: heating loads and limits

Winter is where shore power gets stress-tested. An electric cabin heater is the simplest way to turn hookup current into warmth. On a 16 A pitch, a 2,000 W heater plus a charger runs comfortably. On 10 A, the same heater uses most of the budget and a kettle on top trips the post. On 6 A, pick a heater with a low setting (many offer around 750-1,000 W) and leave the high stage off.

Unroll the reel fully. A heater is a long continuous load, exactly what the wound rating is not made for.
Use the thermostat, not maximum, so the average load leaves room for the charger.
Combi heaters with electric elements, common in factory motorhomes, often let you choose between fuel and electric stages. Pick the stage that fits the pitch; the manual lists the wattages.
LiFePO4 below freezing: most cells must not be charged below about 0 °C unless the battery has built-in heating. Shore power does not change that, so keep the battery inside the heated space.

Many winter campers run a 12 V diesel heater as the main heat source and use shore power for the battery and some extra warmth, which keeps them independent of weak pitches. A diesel heater needs its own exhaust routing to the outside and a CO alarm in the living area.

How it all connects

The full picture: CEE inlet, then a double-pole 30 mA RCD and main switch, then MCBs, then the 230 V sockets and the charger circuit. The charger's DC output runs through a fuse near the battery to the battery positive or a shared busbar. From the battery, a main fuse feeds the 12 V fuse box. A battery monitor shunt in the negative lead shows what the charger actually delivers. Our grounding and bonding guide explains how the 230 V earth and 12 V negative relate in a vehicle, and the 12V/240V caravan wiring guide shows the dual-voltage layout in more detail.

The fastest way to spot gaps before buying parts is to draw it. Open the VoltPlan diagram editor, add the inlet, charger, battery and fuse box, and let VoltPlan help you size the 12 V cables and fuses. Hand the finished diagram to your electrician for the 230 V side.

FAQ

Can I plug my camper into a normal household socket?

At home, yes, via a Schuko-to-CEE adapter, to top up the battery or pre-cool the fridge. Keep the load modest, unroll the cable fully, and remember that a Schuko connection has no polarity guarantee. On campsites, use the blue CEE connection.

Why does the campsite breaker trip but my RCD does not?

Usually because you exceeded the pitch limit: the post's breaker trips on overload, while your RCD only reacts to fault current to earth. Add up what was running. If the post's RCD trips instead, look for moisture in a connector or a faulty appliance.

How long can my hookup cable be?

The common recommendation is up to 25 m of 3 x 2.5 mm² H07RN-F (or equivalent) in one piece. Longer runs add voltage drop and heat, and chained extension cords add connections that can get wet or loose.

What charge current should I choose for a LiFePO4 battery?

Within the battery's datasheet limit, and enough to refill your typical daily deficit overnight. For a 100-200 Ah bank, 20-40 A covers most hookup use. A bigger charger only helps if the battery accepts the current and the pitch can supply the power.

Can I install the shore power inlet myself?

You can plan the system, buy the parts and do the 12 V side. The 230 V installation, from inlet to sockets, should be done and tested by a qualified electrician; in many countries that is a legal requirement.