Quote:
Originally Posted by boisesmith
Need a tutorial on Amperage v watts. Basic question are: (1) how many watt generator do I need to run a 50 amp trailer (including air conditioners)? and (2), if only 30 amp service is available and I use a dog bone to plug in my 50 amp trailer, what are the possible ramifications?
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Watts is power which is the product of volts and amps. A device that can operate on either 12 V (battery) or 120 V wall plug will as an example use 240 Watts regardless. The amperage will be 20A at 12V and 2A at 120V.
Your lifestyle and equipment will dictate what generator you use. Many folks get by with a built in Onan of 5,500 W but then you are buying propane every few days if it runs a lot. Step 1 is to install soft starts for your Air conditioners, that saves a lot of start up power. I get by with a pair of Honda EU2000 (now 2200) because I have a Victron inverter that allows me to use 30A from the generators and 20A from my battery bank of 7.2kWh. We were planning on boondocking maybe 5 out of 7 days so that is why the big battery and solar. Some younger stronger folks go for a 3,500 W generator but too heavy for me so I went with the pair of smaller. When not running Air Conditioners I see on average 150 - 300 watts of power. It's that high because we got the better residential fridge which is about half the power we use. I rewired my main power panel so that of the 6 circuits on one leg, I have 1 spare, MBR AC, W, D, Fireplace, HW elec. My lifestyle allows that as we don't plan on going anywhere hot when we are off grid so don't need AC. We also don't need the Fireplace or furnace as we don't go anyplace cold. HW runs on propane, W and D wait until day 6,7. A little planning and a killl-a-watt meter will go a long way.