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FoehnLeigh's avatar
FoehnLeigh
Explorer
Mar 09, 2018

Do you have a hot neutral at the Box?

Second-guess your RV Park and check their power pole for any hot neutrals before you plug in your RV. Hot neutrals can be dangerous since the breakers in your RV only work when connected on the hot side. When power-pole outlets are wired backwards, a hot neutral results. This means your RV breakers will not trip during a short.

23 Replies

  • FoehnLeigh wrote:
    Second-guess your RV Park and check their power pole for any hot neutrals before you plug in your RV. Hot neutrals can be dangerous since the breakers in your RV only work when connected on the hot side. When power-pole outlets are wired backwards, a hot neutral results. This means your RV breakers will not trip during a short.


    Breakers may or may not trip with a reverse polarity (hot neutral) short, depending on where the short is. A short from "neutral" to ground—what would normally be a ground fault—will not cause the breaker to trip because the fault current is not flowing through the breaker. A short from "neutral" to hot will trip the breaker, same as before, because the fault current does flow through the breaker.

    Breakers are not polarity sensitive, nor indeed is there really any polarity at all on an AC circuit when viewed in isolation. They will respond to any overcurrent situation where the current flows through them.

    A reversed polarity receptacle is indeed a dangerous and potentially disastrous problem; I don't want to suggest otherwise.
  • FoehnLeigh wrote:
    Second-guess your RV Park and check their power pole for any hot neutrals before you plug in your RV.


    No need to check anything manually if using an EMS which will do this for you, automatically ... highly recommended for every RV owner. ;)
  • Which is why I have a Progressive Industries EMS 30A (30 amp) device.

    I always plug it in 1st, and it run a diagnostics check of the CG electrical system. When it tells me everything is good, I plus in my shore plug into the PI EMS 30A. The PI device will delay sending electricity down line to the RV until it has declared the CG power system to be safe.

    FoehnLeigh wrote:
    Second-guess your RV Park and check their power pole for any hot neutrals before you plug in your RV. Hot neutrals can be dangerous since the breakers in your RV only work when connected on the hot side. When power-pole outlets are wired backwards, a hot neutral results. This means your RV breakers will not trip during a short.

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