Electrician says Motor Homes want 220v

How about a wire wrap :B

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

Been a while since I soldered one of those to a board :b.

Dave

In short, 30 amp RV is 120v outlet, 50 amp RV is 120v/240v outlet. The electrician was half right.

Rick Jay wrote:

myredracer wrote:
So if you had exactly 10 amps flowing on one leg and exactly 10 on the other, there'd be no current flowing on the neutral. See diagram below. So does that mean you could do without the neutral in that case? Nope, don't even think about it.

Actually, in THAT case, where the currents are balanced, you COULD remove the neutral and things would still work. :) Until the loads unbalanced, and then bad things would happen! :)

~Rick

Yea, an open neutral can make for some truly entertaining troubleshooting. Nothing like turning a table lamp on, watch it glow like a fireball, and see the voltage on that leg spike by 40-50 volts. I had a customer who lost a neutral on the underground feed to his house. The voltage on each leg spiked to upwards of 150+ and all the electronics in the house were fried. The screwed up part is that the underground is owned by the utility, they know the entire neighborhood is full of defective underground splices. They knew that each one would eventually fail and potentially cause significant damage to the customer. They not only refused to address the issue, they lied, and claimed that it wasn't happening. Eventually a line crew showed up, repaired the problem, and told the customer that he was lied to, to avoid paying $7K bill for the damage the electric co. caused.

myredracer wrote:
So if you had exactly 10 amps flowing on one leg and exactly 10 on the other, there'd be no current flowing on the neutral. See diagram below. So does that mean you could do without the neutral in that case? Nope, don't even think about it.

Actually, in THAT case, where the currents are balanced, you COULD remove the neutral and things would still work. :) Until the loads unbalanced, and then bad things would happen! :)

~Rick

Isn't design fuuuuuuuuunnnnn?

My last stay at Scripps hospital. Here comes the electrician to approve my BiPAP before it got plugged in and surely to deny permission to connect my USB for power for recharging my ereaders.

Scripps stamp went on the Respironics

Automatic denial of the charger

Automatic complaint. Look at the plug, turn the charger over

"What the hell? It's Green Dot!"

3-port shielded case with green dot 3-prong plug.

Scripps Stamp went on the charger

And a Staff of Life decal - UL and CSA hospital rating

Doctors and nurses wanted to know where I got it.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I haven't used the term "110" or "220" for many decades. Curiosity overwhelms me, are there any licensed electricians here on this forum that do not use 120 - 240 - 480 - 600 volts?

I think one reason you still hear voltages like 110, 115 & 117 or 220 & 230 being mentioned sometimes is because some equip. or appliances can be rated & labeled for operation at lower voltages than the nominal 120 or 240 volts. It's common on motors for ex. because it's takes into account the voltage that will actually be at the motor terminals under load. To add even more confusion, plugs & receptacles have a "125 volt" or "250 volt" rating on them.

Maybe RVs should be rated 110 volts because that's often all you get due to CG wiring. :M

soren wrote:
The saddest part, as an electrician, is that a 30 Amp RV receptacle has "30AMPS 125 VOLTS" molded right into the front of the receptacle.

Yep, imagine if one of those electricians that can't read was working in say a hospital. Oops, so sorry (runs out door never to be seen again)... :E Fortunately, they need a higher level of qualification so not to worry. Never fails to surprise me how a bonafide licensed electrician can wire an RV outlet wrong, but every year there's posts about it happening across the country.

2oldman wrote:
I guess that about covers it.

Um, well, maybe not... :) To make it more interesting, the neutral is there to carry the imbalance between one 240 volt leg and the other. So if you had exactly 10 amps flowing on one leg and exactly 10 on the other, there'd be no current flowing on the neutral. See diagram below. So does that mean you could do without the neutral in that case? Nope, don't even think about it.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I haven't used the term "110" or "220" for many decades. Curiosity overwhelms me, are there any licensed electricians here on this forum that do not use 120 - 240 - 480 - 600 volts?

Personally I have been using the outmoded numbers when spoken to be a warning signal about the speaker's authenticity.

Same down here, only it's 127 and 254. NOM Standards

To many cases of "I am an astronaut"

It's a lot like the 150/1500 series pickups are still referred to as 1/2 ton trucks when most can carry upwards of 1 ton. Technically, they are not but everyone knows what is meant by the term.

I used to work with a group of master electricians and unless specifically questioning the measured voltage, 110 or 120 (and sometimes 115) were used interchangeably.

Questioning the difference when not critical to the discussion is just being pedantic.

All I could afford wrote:
I was in Cuba last week, saw this in a tobacco processing facility. They took the time to label the voltage on the outlet, but a 50 cent outlet box was deemed unnecessary. Not even a couple wraps of tape to cover the screw terminals.

Makes it a lot easier to trouble shoot.