Need electrical advice
We have a 2005 Holiday Rambler Ambassador 40' DP with an outside Progressive Industries surge protector. When we came back from running around we found the power off. The surge protector displayed ...
Forum Discussion
First the explanation of the High Frequency error.. The Power Line Monitor measures the frequency which should be 60Hz. Plus or minus very little.. Now the Standards folks recently increased that "Very little" to a slightly larger number.. It may be the incoming power was over the Unit's preset limit.
IT can also happen that there was a bad connection (Perhaps another RVer connecting or disconnecting without turning off the breaker) and the arcing was picked up by the device and read as high frequency. In fact that is highly likely.
Now the strange voltages.. Normal don't worry about them.
What happens is this: You have 3 wires lying parallel to each other, You have hundresds of feet of this (Romex) cable in the RV Also the power cord and any flexible cords.. Well the way the wires are layed (Neutral/Ground/Hot) they form a capacitive voltage divider. (electronics term)
This means that thee ground wire, in theory is sitting there at 60 volts.. Now if you are plugged into shore power and running on shore power the neutral and ground SHOULD be bonded at either the park box or the park main service panel, but often this is far away..
But from your description I suspect the Power Montor (Surge guard) had you cut off so you were running on your INVERTER and bonding of neutral and ground is either not done or optional (Depending on the inverter) On mine it's optional (And set to bond when inverting).
I notice this when I'm running on Generator.. It too is not bonded.
If you ARE running on shore power... Then it indicates a bad connection to ground on the shore side of the RV (cord, outlet box, or elsewhere in the park). OR.. It can also indicate that you are some distance from two differnet grounds.
(Most parks I see the outlet is grounded at the box, but there is no ground wire running back to the service box.. Where there is a second ground.. You can have quite a difference in potential between those two spots.. the NEUTRAL is bonded at the main Service box (meter) not at your RV and this can cause strange readings).
IT can also happen that there was a bad connection (Perhaps another RVer connecting or disconnecting without turning off the breaker) and the arcing was picked up by the device and read as high frequency. In fact that is highly likely.
Now the strange voltages.. Normal don't worry about them.
What happens is this: You have 3 wires lying parallel to each other, You have hundresds of feet of this (Romex) cable in the RV Also the power cord and any flexible cords.. Well the way the wires are layed (Neutral/Ground/Hot) they form a capacitive voltage divider. (electronics term)
This means that thee ground wire, in theory is sitting there at 60 volts.. Now if you are plugged into shore power and running on shore power the neutral and ground SHOULD be bonded at either the park box or the park main service panel, but often this is far away..
But from your description I suspect the Power Montor (Surge guard) had you cut off so you were running on your INVERTER and bonding of neutral and ground is either not done or optional (Depending on the inverter) On mine it's optional (And set to bond when inverting).
I notice this when I'm running on Generator.. It too is not bonded.
If you ARE running on shore power... Then it indicates a bad connection to ground on the shore side of the RV (cord, outlet box, or elsewhere in the park). OR.. It can also indicate that you are some distance from two differnet grounds.
(Most parks I see the outlet is grounded at the box, but there is no ground wire running back to the service box.. Where there is a second ground.. You can have quite a difference in potential between those two spots.. the NEUTRAL is bonded at the main Service box (meter) not at your RV and this can cause strange readings).
