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Old 07-03-2014, 05:12 AM   #1
WaltBennett
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AC Breaker Panel Wiring

Started getting into the dirty part of wiring in the inverter. I've read posts about how the two leg 50 amp service is supposed to be split between two halves of the breaker panel from the main breakers in the center. Well, my main breakers (two ganged) are on the left side and all house breakers from there lined up going to the right with the last 5 or so slots vacant. It's been in the 90's here for over a week and I don't want to shut off the AC until tonight to start tracing things out. Anyone got a simple explanation?
 
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Old 07-03-2014, 05:17 AM   #2
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On some distribution panels, the breakers alternate on different legs. Meaning the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. on leg 1 and 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc. on leg 2. Don't know how these RV panels are set up.
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Old 07-03-2014, 05:23 AM   #3
WaltBennett
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Yup, should have looked closer. I can see it when standing outside the door & looking at eye level.
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Old 07-03-2014, 05:56 AM   #4
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If you are not sure, you shouldn't mess with it!!!
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Old 07-03-2014, 07:58 AM   #5
WaltBennett
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"If you are not sure, you shouldn't mess with it!!!" So, who want's to live forever anyway???

Actually, although I've never been a for real electrician, I do know what I'm doing (sometimes - according to LOML).
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Old 07-03-2014, 09:33 AM   #6
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While you are in there, with your power cord disconnected from the pedastal, check all the wiring connection screws for tightness, hots, neutrals, grounds, and 12v, if you have not already done that. I found a number of screws that were not tight on mine.
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Old 07-03-2014, 12:14 PM   #7
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quote:Originally posted by NCFischers

If you are not sure, you shouldn't mess with it!!!
Hey, a guy has to learn about electricity some how! That's why my Dad gave me a butter knife when I was 3 and pointed me towards the wall socket. At least that's what he told Mom.
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Old 07-04-2014, 01:23 AM   #8
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I had a customer one time that had a small son with a fascination with electrical outlets and forks and knives. He took him out to the car and had him touch the coil. It bit him pretty hard but having no amperage that would kill him, taught him a lesson. He stayed away from outlets from then on.
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Old 07-06-2014, 06:27 AM   #9
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Once more I've found out the hard way not to believe much from Keystone. After rearranging the circuits from how they were labeled so the AC, 2nd AC, hot water heater, fireplace, converter and washing machine are all on one leg with the rest on the other, I started rewiring to add the inverter. Once I'd cut the feed cable and put a junction box to splice things the way I wanted, a little voice told me to make certain the AC was where I wanted it. I put wire nuts on the leg it was supposed to be on, neutral and ground and went inside. Lo and behold, all the living area plugs were hot, the fireplace worked, the AC did not, the kitchen outlets were hot and the bedroom was not. Taking a mental health break now before going back & finding out just what circuit is where. I'd suggest that there may be many more Montys out there with mislabeled panels! I'm beginning to wonder about the DC panel as well.
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Old 07-06-2014, 07:28 AM   #10
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One of the early things I did was relabel my breakers. There was some difference from reality. My daughter learned about electricity, and scared the crap out of her parents, by getting a metal clothes hanger across a live plug that was pulled out of the outlet just enough to let the hanger drop on there. She was ok, but the hanger was welded to the plug.
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Old 07-06-2014, 08:31 AM   #11
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After quite a bit of time flipping breakers and wandering around with a plug tester, I found some interesting stuff. Two 'pairs' of circuits labels were swapped. Something labeled "Live" was the outlet in the rear wall for the home theater system only, and the big screen was plugged into the outlet labeled "FireP" along with the fireplace (changed that!). Everything else was pretty straight forward, although I found that the big screen TV antenna coax wasn't connected to the wall jack! Always wondered why we had such crappy TV reception & couldn't get much cable when that was available!
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Old 07-06-2014, 12:43 PM   #12
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Typically RV 50A panels are NOT every other breaker is on one leg, then the other on the other leg. Usually one leg is one way from the main and the other is the other way from the main (either up and down or horizontally). These panels are two legs of 110 volt not 240 volt! Sounds confusing, but at this time RV's are 110 volt units. Having both legs just gives additional power! 30A units are just 30A ---- 50A units are two legs of 50A
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Old 07-06-2014, 02:01 PM   #13
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Typically RV 50A panels are NOT every other breaker is on one leg, then the other on the other leg. Usually one leg is one way from the main and the other is the other way from the main (either up and down or horizontally). These panels are two legs of 110 volt not 240 volt! Sounds confusing, but at this time RV's are 110 volt units. Having both legs just gives additional power! 30A units are just 30A ---- 50A units are two legs of 50A
Maybe so but I have checked several camp grounds and they all measure 240 volts across the two hot legs. The two legs are not in phase if they were you would measure 0 volts across the two hot legs.
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Old 07-06-2014, 03:38 PM   #14
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That isn't exactly true, not all parks have 240 volt power. Some parks have 208 volt power, hot leg to hot leg, but when measured hot leg to neutral, they do in fact measure 120 volts, and this is for both hot legs to the neutral. The reason this is OK, is that these rigs only require 120 volts on each hot leg, never 240 volts. This is the label next to the 50 amp socket on our rig.

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Old 07-06-2014, 04:12 PM   #15
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When I installed our Bosch washer and dryer (220) I installed the 220 box and breakers and while I was in there I discovered that they had placed BOTH AC units on the same leg. I left it as is until this year and have now leap frogged the breaker for the front one to the other leg. They had all the high amp items on one leg. While we are home this year I am re-labeling the breakers and swapping them to balance the load. At the moment all the outlets in the living area are on the same breaker. The microwave is on its own breaker but on the same leg as the AC units. The water heater and the fridge are also on the same breaker as the AC units. So I have a bit of shuffling to do..
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Old 07-07-2014, 01:28 AM   #16
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Paulinbaja,
Depending on the breaker panel manufacturer, some panels have buss bars that alternate the power legs and the main breaker is on one side (like mine) and some have the main breaker in the middle of the panel and each leg radiates out in each direction.
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Old 07-08-2014, 02:59 AM   #17
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That isn't exactly true, not all parks have 240 volt power. Some parks have 208 volt power, hot leg to hot leg, but when measured hot leg to neutral, they do in fact measure 120 volts, and this is for both hot legs to the neutral. The reason this is OK, is that these rigs only require 120 volts on each hot leg, never 240 volts. This is the label next to the 50 amp socket on our rig.
Didn't say all camp grounds were 240, just the ones I have checked. The main camp ground I checked were Core of Engineer after they did major rewire to 50 amp.

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