Badly grounded power pedestals
A lot of power pedestals on Mexican RV parks are badly grounded which can lead to nasty electric shocks if chassis is touched. We put a grounding cable into frame attached to grounding rod. Did notice...
Forum Discussion
When Comision Federal de Electricidad applies themselves their work is on a level to match a typical US grid. The main problem down here is those centralized transformers feeding entire neighborhoods. That's why when looking at the powerlines in a city you see 4 wires stacked vertically. 254 volts phase to phase and 127 volts phase to neutral. A bunch of air conditioners (home or RV) starting and stopping affects the entire neighborhood's quality of power. North of the border, each service drop has it's own exclusive transformer. And it acts like a giant filter in reverse as well as forward.
USA parks on a single transformer face the same thing when heavily occupied and everyone's running A/C. Phase balancing is an art form with transient load duty and in Mexico I have seen some sections of some parks with high voltage while the more popular areas are having low voltage.
Years ago I remember the facility next to the gasolinera north of Zacatecas. It was a cold winter night. The only space available was cramped at the end of a service hookup island. I plugged in a 15 amp plug. It fell out. So I went inside and grabbed one of those 3 wire to 2 wire plastic block adapters.
The tangs had been pre-spread out. It slipped tightly into the receptacle. I started the catalytic heater and two small circulation fans and an electric blanket. Water was freezing up outside. Voltage was slightly under 100 even with my almost non existent load.
The next morning I couldn't help but overhear crabby comments by neighbors as they were winding up shore power cords. "Dammned heater quit in the middle of the night! Cold! Let's get moving!" I wasn't the only one with receptacle and low voltage problems.
USA parks on a single transformer face the same thing when heavily occupied and everyone's running A/C. Phase balancing is an art form with transient load duty and in Mexico I have seen some sections of some parks with high voltage while the more popular areas are having low voltage.
Years ago I remember the facility next to the gasolinera north of Zacatecas. It was a cold winter night. The only space available was cramped at the end of a service hookup island. I plugged in a 15 amp plug. It fell out. So I went inside and grabbed one of those 3 wire to 2 wire plastic block adapters.
The tangs had been pre-spread out. It slipped tightly into the receptacle. I started the catalytic heater and two small circulation fans and an electric blanket. Water was freezing up outside. Voltage was slightly under 100 even with my almost non existent load.
The next morning I couldn't help but overhear crabby comments by neighbors as they were winding up shore power cords. "Dammned heater quit in the middle of the night! Cold! Let's get moving!" I wasn't the only one with receptacle and low voltage problems.
