Power Sag/Current Issues at Seasonal Site
We are in our first year at a seasonal site we think we will be staying at long term. Everything is great, but the power. We only have a small Jayco 16XRB but even its 8K Btu AC and fridge prove cha...
Forum Discussion
Well I have some results from the weekend.
I found our sub panel, which is in my spot has (4) 20A breakers. There is 10AWG household wire direct buried feeding each trailer. Mine is about 15' from that box to the pole. That panel is fed from a single 40A breaker in a panel about 250' away on 8AWG.
I sort of operated the trailer normally. I put the fridge on electricity, had the A/C on Econo and lived normally. When I heard the compressor straining I would check the voltage.
On average, with nothing really running its about 117V. With the A/C running its fan only and things like the TV and lights on it hovers around 110V. When the A/C kicks in it drops to 100V.
As an experiment (which we don't normally do) I ran the toaster with the A/C compressor going and it drops all the way to 94.5V. I normally turn off the A/C for running the toaster, microwave or coffee maker.
We have yet to ever pop a breaker, while my neighbor's all have but have significantly bigger trailers with rooftop 13.5K units, and one guy has a traditional bar sized fridge on his deck.
So far the only downside for me is the Norcold fridge has flaked twice while on A/C. Once it showed the error on the display and the reboot fixed it. The second time (this weekend) overnight it just stopped cooling on A/C despite the display thinking it was. Switching to propane solved the issue and overall the trailer seemed much happier in that config.
So, is the Autoformer the way to go? I think my max amp draw would be 12-13A, so I assume its boosting would mean I would be drawing 15-16A to the pole so I should be OK still not popping the breaker. It wouldn't be a magic fix since I did see as low as 94.5V which means with help the voltage low would be 103-104V and normally the trailer would run at worst 110V with the booster.
I am leaning that way but want input.
Here is a pic of the mess at the local box, and one of our spot.
I found our sub panel, which is in my spot has (4) 20A breakers. There is 10AWG household wire direct buried feeding each trailer. Mine is about 15' from that box to the pole. That panel is fed from a single 40A breaker in a panel about 250' away on 8AWG.
I sort of operated the trailer normally. I put the fridge on electricity, had the A/C on Econo and lived normally. When I heard the compressor straining I would check the voltage.
On average, with nothing really running its about 117V. With the A/C running its fan only and things like the TV and lights on it hovers around 110V. When the A/C kicks in it drops to 100V.
As an experiment (which we don't normally do) I ran the toaster with the A/C compressor going and it drops all the way to 94.5V. I normally turn off the A/C for running the toaster, microwave or coffee maker.
We have yet to ever pop a breaker, while my neighbor's all have but have significantly bigger trailers with rooftop 13.5K units, and one guy has a traditional bar sized fridge on his deck.
So far the only downside for me is the Norcold fridge has flaked twice while on A/C. Once it showed the error on the display and the reboot fixed it. The second time (this weekend) overnight it just stopped cooling on A/C despite the display thinking it was. Switching to propane solved the issue and overall the trailer seemed much happier in that config.
So, is the Autoformer the way to go? I think my max amp draw would be 12-13A, so I assume its boosting would mean I would be drawing 15-16A to the pole so I should be OK still not popping the breaker. It wouldn't be a magic fix since I did see as low as 94.5V which means with help the voltage low would be 103-104V and normally the trailer would run at worst 110V with the booster.
I am leaning that way but want input.
Here is a pic of the mess at the local box, and one of our spot.
