need electrical advise

[ray fischer]

I'm on a 30 amp site. My voltage line meter reads 115 volts. Using a pelonis electric heater at 1300 watt medium setting drops voltage under 110. Ref on elec, hot water on propane. If coffee pot or mic used, voltage drops towards 100. I understand voltage under 115 can damage appliances. Electric included in site fee, I'm trying to conserve propane. Will a ceramic htr use less power? Am I being over concerned. I'll be in Md 4 to 6 weeks. Temps dropping to low 40's at night. Any suggestions? Thanks, Ray

[snfexpress]

103 volts is the minimum safe voltage for an air conditioner. I would turn your refrigerator off when using your microwave. For the few minutes you are using the microwave, you will not have a significant loss of cooling in your refrigerator. As a matter of fact, I use one of the suggestions on this forum to defrost the fins in our 5er - I turn the refrigerator off overnight for as much as 12 hours. The food is still chilled where it needs to be, and the fins are frost free.

We use a SurgeGuard to protect our power and it turns off at less than 103 volts. I would suggest that most appliances, especially those that use controlled short circuits (like coffee makers and toasters) will still work fine - they will just take longer.

I'm sure others, like Ozz, will chime in here to set the record straight.

Power management is a skill we are all forced to acquire...

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

When on 20 and 30 AMP services, use only one big draw ticket item at a time. Toaster on, heater off; hair dryer on, toaster off; no coffee pot and toaster at the same time. We don't turn the refer off to run the microwave tho. We would turn the heater off first, run coffee pot, when coffee done, heater would go back on.

Since you won't be running the electric heater and the air conditioner at the same time, you should not have to worry about the air conditioner. As pointed out when the numbers drop tooooo low it is not a good thing to run the air conditioner, damage can be done.

As pointed out, power management is something we learn. Have you tried running the electric heater on low?? We find that low setting is all we need in many instances.

Good luck, let us hear how you deal with it. Your lessons learned will help us all.

Cheers,

[ray fischer]

I won't need AC on this trip, highs 72, lows 40 + or -. My concern at night is heat for my 18 mo grandson. I'm trying to use less furnace and more elec heat. Thanks, Ray

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Ray, enjoy the grandbaby.

In the temp range you are speaking of, we find that the electric heater can keep us very toasty. We have a heater that the thermostat control is flaky, and that thing can toast me right out of the RV.

When we have the granddaughters, we insist they wear warm jammies at night and socks, just in case they toss of the covers.

Oh, have fun!!!! 18 months is such a wonderful age, so curious, and full of hugs!

[BB_TX]

Sounds like they have either some undersized wiring or some bad or loose connections. Either one will cause voltage drops and as the current increases, the voltage drop will increase at wherever the problem area is. Even on 20 amp or 30 amp service, that service (wired correctly) should provide the full voltage at the full current.
You probably don't want a technical explanation, but here goes. The voltage drop across each element in a series circuit is a function of the current squared times the resistance of that element (v=i*i*r). If a loose connection has a 1 ohm resistance and there is 1 amp going thru it, the voltage drop is 1 volt (1 amp squared times 1 ohm = 1 volt). But if you increase the current to 2 amps, the voltage drop is 4 volts (2 amps squared times 1 ohm = 4 volts). As the current increases, the voltage dropped increases faster. If there is a bad or loose connection in the post for example, you would be losing part of your voltage in the post before it ever gets to you camper. If the breaker is getting very hot, then it probably has a bad/loose connection or maybe a bad breaker.
That voltage drop is also energy lost at that point. That is why things get hot when they have bad connections to the point of sometimes causing fires.

[Waynem]

Voltage is typically indicated for appliances as 115 volts, + or - 10%, or 103.5 to 126.5 without damage to the appliance. However, as Bill indicated, a drop in voltage when you turn something on usually means there is a problem somewhere.

[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by ray fischer

I'm on a 30 amp site. My voltage line meter reads 115 volts. Using a pelonis electric heater at 1300 watt medium setting drops voltage under 110. Ref on elec, hot water on propane. If coffee pot or mic used, voltage drops towards 100. I understand voltage under 115 can damage appliances. Electric included in site fee, I'm trying to conserve propane. Will a ceramic htr use less power? Am I being over concerned. I'll be in Md 4 to 6 weeks. Temps dropping to low 40's at night. Any suggestions? Thanks, Ray

Ray,
My suggestion which arises from many years of RVing, the last eight plus years full time, is that even though electric is included in your site rent, I would run the refrigerator and water heater on propane. Then I would carefully manage my use of other appliances. As far as changing to a ceramic heater goes, most of the heaters with two stage heat (750 watts and 1500 watts)will draw about the same amount of current (watts divided by voltage equals current). The more current being drawn the more the voltage drops.

As snfexpress posted, a Surge Guard will protect you against low voltages (as well as high voltages).

Orv

[Ozz]

Another factor to consider is a (possible) inaccurate volt meter. I also check the voltage at many different locations on the power supply to, and in the trailer.