At 16:54 5/9/2000, Andrew Marshallsay wrote:
>      Fire up the fridge (nervously)

If you don't find it elsewhere, the taxi service in Arbroath (Scotland) can
fill your LP tank <g> -- but only 2/3 because they're on a steep hill.

The 110v element in the fridge is about 85 watts -- I bet a transformer
will be cheaper than a replacement element.  Try US military families if
it's not easily available otherwise (RAF Edzell, Scotland, for example).  I
don't know whether an SCR-type voltage reducer will work on a load this
small (but your ironmonger might).

US electrical wiring colors -- Black is hot, White is neutral, Green is
safety earth.  If you look at a three-wire socket and imagine it as a
little face, the round mouth is earth, the (smaller) left eye is hot, the
(larger) right eye is neutral.

I don't imagine it will make any difference to the van, but we don't use a
ring-main setup -- our house wiring is a star configuration from the
service entrance/breaker box with one or more loads in parallel on each arm
of the star.  Our ordinary service (since I've gone this far) brings three
wires into the house -- a neutral which is earthed, and two 110v wires
running in opposite phase.  110v loads are connected from one or the other
hot wire to neutral, and 220v loads are connected across the two hot
wires.  We seldom use fuses anymore, but when we do they are one-time
affairs, no fuse wire in the shops here.

It should be fun installing a UK-type socket on the side of the van...

cheers
david

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"