Low Voltage - Heat Wave

My comfort zone is 107 and up, so the current ems units are useless to me.

myredracer wrote:
During peak demands of the summer and high AC use, voltage is just gonna go down. Guaranteed. Reducing voltage drop would be an extremely expensive proposition and will never happen.

That's not entirely true any longer. Here in S Ontario Hydro 1 along with the local hydro operators have been pouring considerable sums into upgrading facilities to help avoid this voltage sag issue. It wasn't all that long ago that even here in suburbia we could see significant voltage sag under conditions like we've been experiencing here in the east for the last week. Today incoming source voltage to the house is ~ 123 vac with minimal load and when I just turned on the trailer A/C my Progressive EMS showed me pulling ~ 14 amps yet incoming voltage to the trailer only dropped to 118 vac. In this heat virtually every house in the neighbourhood, every house & every business in the city will be running A/C so yes, the situation has gotten better in some heavily served areas. :B We travel though with our camper so I still expect to see low voltage situations, ergo the reason I protect the trailer with a Progressive EMS that will disconnect if the voltage drops too low.

Lwiddis wrote:
“they said nothing can be done.”

Yes it can fixed. “They” just don’t want to spend the money. To heck with your RV damage.

Voltage can be as low as 100V and still be within the ANSI, NEMA & NEC min. requirements therefore the poco or a CG won't do anything. Some explanation of voltage tolerance boundary and ANSI C84.1 is here.

Older CGs can be much more susceptible to low voltage due to the way they were wired and due to the min. NEC requirements in effect at the time. An autoformer is a good "tool" to have for CGs but not much you can do at your house. Low voltage can cause expensive damage to RV components (esp. AC units) and cause some appliances to significantly underperform. A permanently mounted LED voltmeter inside and an EMS unit are also good to have so you can monitor voltage and have power automatically cut off below a certain level.

You can't blame CGs for low voltage. The majority of them simply built to the min. requirements of the NEC in effect at the time they were built. Utility co. voltage can drop in high demand situations like heat waves. The NEC allows a certain % of voltage drop between the poco service and point of utilization. During peak demands of the summer and high AC use, voltage is just gonna go down. Guaranteed. Reducing voltage drop would be an extremely expensive proposition and will never happen.

All the 50 amp RVs these days with their higher demands also contribute to low voltage issues.

Knowing that low voltage is a common issue when camping in the summertime is your first line of defense. Things you can do include getting an autoformer, choosing a CG built after 2005 (or one that has upgraded their electrical), choosing a CG that originally built above. min. code requirements, choosing a site closest to a pad-mounted transformer in a CG, use a 50 to 30 amp adapter (if you have a 30 amp RV) and minimizing your load in your RV.

We're currently in a CG in Bend Or, and after being here a week so far, the voltage has been pretty steady at around 115-117. There's still a few nice sites left here, so come on down!!

I've used the Sola Basic at 97 volts. It boosted voltage to 107. The boost points are 110, 100, and 90. Buck is at 135. If I had sufficient knowledge and skill I'd bump the boost points to 114, 104 and 94.

For the 97 volts, the shore power 15 amp breaker did pop after about 30 minutes. I reset it and added the hybrid inverter charger to the mix. That allowed me to cool the RV down, drawing energy from the battery bank and solar panels. I did limit input amps to 12 (post pop).

I wonder how the busy campgrounds near my place are doing this holiday with 103 volts going in, they likely are well under a hundred at the campsites.

Voltage in the middle of the night was 123, this morning 117 and now 111 at 1 PM and steady dropping.

We have 2 coal fired, 4 hydroelectric, 2 nuclear, 1 gas turbine and a diesel generator all within 28 miles of here. This area supplies much of the power to the east coast cities and we are left holding the bag.

TechWriter wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:

Personally I wouldn't recommend a (TRC) Southwire Voltage Regulator. :( I bought a

used

one a few years ago only to discover when it arrived that it was badly burned inside and completely inoperable.

I contacted TRC, asking for spare parts so I could fix this puppy myself but was told they wouldn't sell me the parts even though I knew exactly what I needed . . .

Kudos for Southwire! I don't want to be camped next to a guy with an auto former he cobbled together.

On the contrary Sound Guy could probably build a more robust and better functioning control board from scratch.
I am always amazed what members of this forum are able to do.

It's not just the east coast.

Even if the local grid is in good shape it's not uncommon for the park to have substandard service. Particularly older parks. 40yrs ago, a lot of RV's didn't have air/con or only a single air/con. Now it's rare not to have air/con and 50 amp units using cheater cords to pull from 2 outlets, means the systems are under much more strain when it gets hot out on a busy weekend.

Last week, we dropped below 107v (with the autoformer boosting voltage), so we broke out the genny. The owner came by and had no answer when we told him provide us the 120v-30amp power we contracted for, so he moved on.

Lynnmor wrote:
You might want to check your voltage if you are here in the east. My area dipped to 103 volts, that I observed, and it may have been lower. In a campground, with heavy loads, it is probably lower. I contacted the electric company and they said nothing can be done.

As some of you know, voltage below 104 can damage an air conditioner. And no, there is nothing on the news about the problem.

That's the situation that prompted me to buy an autoformer 10 years ago. We were in an old,crowded CG in New England on a hot day, voltage was way too low. I ended up moving to another CG, but when I got home, I found an autoformer on Craigslist and snapped it up.

azrving wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

time2roll wrote:
https://hughesautoformers.com/

Or a Southwire Voltage Regulator

You can't do that! You're stealing from others. :)

LOL......I was reported for exactly that at a PA state park by a busy body neighbor in a 50 amp class C with two ACs, who could not figure out why they would not run on a 30 amp service.

The Park super, maintenance supervisor, and I all got a good laugh out of it.

TechWriter wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:

Personally I wouldn't recommend a (TRC) Southwire Voltage Regulator. :( I bought a

used

one a few years ago only to discover when it arrived that it was badly burned inside and completely inoperable.

I contacted TRC, asking for spare parts so I could fix this puppy myself but was told they wouldn't sell me the parts even though I knew exactly what I needed . . .

Kudos for Southwire! I don't want to be camped next to a guy with an auto former he cobbled together.

Hard to believe you'll travel the highways with people who do their own brakes and other maintenance.