Electric Heater Question
Tomorrow I'm trading my 2013 Apex 268 for a 2014 Arctic Fox 25p. I'm so stoked. Wife and I want to do winter camping. The question is I'm looking at supplementing the regular heat with an electric hea...
Forum Discussion
Oh brother. :S As an EE, very entertaining.... Not really helping the OP.
I don't see where anyone said a house provides a 100 amp circuit.
If all you want to do is know how much load (in KW) you have available, it doesn't matter how you do the math, it ends up the same. In the case of a 100 amp house: 100A x 120V x 2 = 24KW. 200A x 120V = 24KW. (100A x 120V) + (100A x 120V) = 24KW. 100A x 240V = 24KW. People in the electrical biz normally use the latter for a main breaker.
Conceptually, a 100 or 200 amp residential panel is identical to a 50 amp (120/240V) RV panel and only the amperage is different. I've seen a lot of people get confused over this on forums.
If you really want something to get confused over:
Circuit breakers are not supposed to be loaded to 100% of their rating and there should be a 25% safety factor by NEC or CEC (unless breaker is specifically "100% rated"). It is incorrect to calculate a total load (with multiple branch circuits) to be 24KW at 120/240V for example and apply a 2P-100 amp breaker. (There are some exceptions such as in the case of a fixed heating only loads.) However, a breaker is designed and approved to run continuously at it's rating 24/7/365. Houses have very strict load, wire and breaker Code design requirements but RVs are a whole different situation. Rvs simply get loads plugged in until the 30A (120V) or 50A (120/240V) breaker pops and that's just the way it is with RVs. So in this regard, residential house services and RV services are not the same.
I don't see where anyone said a house provides a 100 amp circuit.
If all you want to do is know how much load (in KW) you have available, it doesn't matter how you do the math, it ends up the same. In the case of a 100 amp house: 100A x 120V x 2 = 24KW. 200A x 120V = 24KW. (100A x 120V) + (100A x 120V) = 24KW. 100A x 240V = 24KW. People in the electrical biz normally use the latter for a main breaker.
Conceptually, a 100 or 200 amp residential panel is identical to a 50 amp (120/240V) RV panel and only the amperage is different. I've seen a lot of people get confused over this on forums.
If you really want something to get confused over:
Circuit breakers are not supposed to be loaded to 100% of their rating and there should be a 25% safety factor by NEC or CEC (unless breaker is specifically "100% rated"). It is incorrect to calculate a total load (with multiple branch circuits) to be 24KW at 120/240V for example and apply a 2P-100 amp breaker. (There are some exceptions such as in the case of a fixed heating only loads.) However, a breaker is designed and approved to run continuously at it's rating 24/7/365. Houses have very strict load, wire and breaker Code design requirements but RVs are a whole different situation. Rvs simply get loads plugged in until the 30A (120V) or 50A (120/240V) breaker pops and that's just the way it is with RVs. So in this regard, residential house services and RV services are not the same.
