Losing power while plugged into Shore ? Follow up more info

We have an "Autoformer" that will boost low voltage down to 95VAC. This means our EMS won't trip. We have had an Autoformer since we had some problems in parks with poor electrical systems. It makes a huge difference when everyone is running their AC. My inside voltage is sitting at between 104.5 to 119.9 VAC and everyone else's voltage is from 95 - 109 VAC. Surge Guard has a 50 AMP Autoformer for about $556.99 and Hughes has one for about $100 less. There is no substitute for an Autoformer. My prior post was overly simplified in that I failed to explain that most commercial Autoformer units only boost by 10%. This means that if the input voltage is 95 VAC with an Autoformer the output voltage from the autoformer would be 104.5%, if the input voltage is 109 the output voltage would be 119.9. This has saved us multiple times.

If you can move to a site closer to the transformer supplying the power to your section you will have higher voltage. My EMS shuts me down at 107V.

Yep, there is always a problem with the RV parks where the owner is not willing to spend the money to keep up with changing conditions. Unfortunately I have never heard a park owner tell me when I checked in that he is giving me a large discount because the 50 amp service that I am paying for may or may not work to supply the power that you expect.

doxiemom11 wrote:
It can be the campground electrical. There was a campground I worked at that had 3 sections wired seperately. The oldest section could not support all the rv's running everything, especially all the AC's when it got hot. One weekend while working the power would go out (main box just about burning up) wait a bit, turn it on and everyone's AC's kicked on at about the same time - that would trip it again. Could not get them to understand that everything coming on at once was also contributing to the problem. We are talking an area with about 50 rv's. Campground and county admin knew about the problem, but planned on redoing that whole section within 2 years so were doing nothing about the electric. Only happened when they were full like on a holiday weekend. What a pain as the campers took their anger and frustration out on us workers. We couldn't do anything about it. Stuck between the powers that be and the campers.

X10
And the elephant in the room, unfortunately the overloads at smaller CG's are caused by the coaches equipped with 2 ac units.

Older CG electrical power were built figuring one RV per site with one ac. Fast forward to today with so many coaches with 2 ac units they are over loaded at the get go. Add hot weather and the CG grid doesn't have a chance.

At a sporting event on a very hot day at a CG they kept loosing power. They made an announcement that the coaches with 2 ac's please only use one. Since we were all friends with the same sporting interest everyone with 2 ac's complied and only used one ac......the power never went down again. Been there seen it.

If there is a Home Depot nearby you can buy one of those Kill-A-Watt meters that plugs in to any 120 volt electrical outlet. They sell for about $20. With this you can monitor your exact voltage at any given time and take a photo of the voltage to give to the park owner.
One of the problems with low voltage is that it puts a strain on any motor, such as your AC compressor/fan. For them to function, they need to draw more amps than normal when the voltage is lower than normal. This means they will run hotter and can also trip any thermal sensors.
Your AC unit has it's own time-delay reset so any changes in your EMS delay will not affect the delay on your AC units.

Dale said it, Your EMS is shutting you down due to low voltage.> Of course when the park electrician comes out it's always good because HE UNPLUGS YOU BEFORE HE READS THE VOLTAGE so there is no load.

ALso your EMS is set to the default (Short) Delay, this is not long enough to let your Air Conditioners recover, You need to re-set it to LONG delay, this means more seconds without power when it happens, but it's easier on your A/Cs.

From Progressive Industries website:

High/Low Voltage Protection | Whenever AC power lowers below
104 volts, or rises above 132 volts, the EMS automatically shuts down
power to the RV. The EMS will monitor the power and once the AC
power rises above 104 volts, or drops below the 132 volt level the
time delay indicator flashes for the preset time and then automatically
restores power to the RV.

Time Delay for A/C Compressor | If AC power is interrupted or
the EMS detects a fault condition, the built in time delay is activated.
There are two settings on the EMS: one is 136 seconds (02:16), and
the other is 15 seconds. Consult your air conditioner manual to see if
it has a time delay built in. If so, use the 15 second delay, if not, use
the 136-second delay. The factory setting is 15 seconds.

Thanks for the info. No, I won't bypass the EMS, I bought it for protection. I assume when the voltage drops, and the EMS trips off line, that it is doing so before any damage can be done to the AC's?
If 104volts plus or minus is their setting, then again, I assume anything above that is ok, not the best, but is ok, not doing any damage?
Thanks again.

I wouldn't bypass the EMS. I would try to get away with 1 a/c and a fan. And if needed, put the fridge on propane.

Your Progressive Industries EMS-LCHW 50 not only has surge protection but also under and over voltage protection. The specs call out a low limit of 104 volts it could trip a little higher or lower. Either way when it trips it will recycle back to the initial plug in delay before turning power back on.

The office isn't losing power because they don't have a protection device like you do. Plus unless someone has a meter monitoring the voltage level and constantly watching they are not going to see that anything is wrong.

Your neighbor keeps tripping the breakers because of the low volts. As voltage drops a device, such as your A/C is going to demand more amps to before the same amount of work. If you A/C needs 15 amps when power is 120VAC drop the volts to 100VAC and the amps will climb to 18 amps.

Until either campers start departing and the power demand drops or you move to a different camp site there's nothing you or the camp ground can do short of rewiring power to the row your currently camped on which isn't going to happen in the next day or so.

You can throw caution to the wind and bypass the protective features of the EMS-LCHW 50 but you risk potential damage in particular to the A/C compressor motors. Give Progressive Industries a call if you are willing to take the risk.