Surge Guards, to buy or not to buy
Ok how many folks out there have surge guards, and how many wish they had bought one. I got some fathers day money for camping world and I am looking at Surge Guards . In walking around the camp gro...
Forum Discussion
Yesterday evening I moved our TT & truck to the driveway in front of our house to head out today. It's normally off to the side of our property along with a dedicated 30 amp RV recept. that has #8 back to the panel. I installed a hardwired Progressive Industries EMS at the beginning of this season.
We have a built-in vacuum cleaner in our TT (on a 15 amp brkr.) and I tried to clean the floors. Lo and behold, the power kept switching on an off. Checked the EMS display with the vac running and it was getting down to 98 volts! I am very surprised. The 15 amp recept. I plugged into loops around the 2 car garage with #14 ga. wire before it connects to the panel. Open circuit voltage at the recept. was 117 volts. Plugging the 30 amp shore power cord right into the garage recept. (with adapter) made no difference. The vac unit draws 12 amps and nothing else was on.
This clearly demonstrates how much voltage drop there can be when plugging in at home. With a smaller #16 gauge extension cord, it would be even worse. A #12 gauge or larger extension cord would not have helped.
Without an EMS, it would easily be possible to damage anything that is voltage critical like AC units. You could even measure the voltage at your camper and think you are fine, but then damage your AC.
Bottom line - an EMS unit is definitely worth it and there when you need it.
We have a built-in vacuum cleaner in our TT (on a 15 amp brkr.) and I tried to clean the floors. Lo and behold, the power kept switching on an off. Checked the EMS display with the vac running and it was getting down to 98 volts! I am very surprised. The 15 amp recept. I plugged into loops around the 2 car garage with #14 ga. wire before it connects to the panel. Open circuit voltage at the recept. was 117 volts. Plugging the 30 amp shore power cord right into the garage recept. (with adapter) made no difference. The vac unit draws 12 amps and nothing else was on.
This clearly demonstrates how much voltage drop there can be when plugging in at home. With a smaller #16 gauge extension cord, it would be even worse. A #12 gauge or larger extension cord would not have helped.
Without an EMS, it would easily be possible to damage anything that is voltage critical like AC units. You could even measure the voltage at your camper and think you are fine, but then damage your AC.
Bottom line - an EMS unit is definitely worth it and there when you need it.
