Progressive EMS Trouble

Steve, thanks for your information. I'll be checking it out more.

Gail Phillips wrote:
The mobile repairmen focused on the rv instead of the monitoring system. The circuit was the original to the coach and he said it was fried.

Not sure that this makes sense, but we don't have all of the details/background to know. Low voltage in itself should not cause the service to an RV to fry. Doesn't matter what the voltage gets down to, with or without an EMS, amps are amps and the 30 amp (or a 50 amp) pedestal breaker (or the one inside an RV) will limit the current draw to 30 amps regardless of voltage. A loose terminations or (s)connection(s) (not uncommon) could "fry" things though . Without getting into a lot of complex detail, breakers will operate somewhat above their rating, depending on for how long, but they are designed to trip before damage to wire occurs. Simplified graph is below.

Hopefully the RV tech. did not charge you for unnecessary work.

Why low voltage is a widespread problem:

The cause is simply due to the minimum NEC requirements for RV Parks and not a CG owner "cheaping out". The current NEC requires 20% of pedestals to be 50 amps, while the 2002 edition only required 5%. Back in the 60s/70s, no 50 amp pedestals were required. As well, RV parks have a demand factor applied to the total pedestals there are. For the main service, after 35 pedestals, the park demand is calculated at only 41% for all sites above 35 of them. For say a group of 6 pedestals on a sub-feeder, the demand is calculated at 60%. The feeder (wire) sizes to a group of pedestals and for a whole site are based on the calculated demand factors (see here). Every year, more and more RVs come out with 50 amp services. The NEC is woefully behind what is actually happening.

Voltage gets dragged down by not only many ACs running, around mealtimes appliances like coffee makers, toasters, electric griddles, etc. will drag it down further. The heat output of these appliances drops as the square of the voltage. At 108 volts for ex., an appliance (not ACs) will only put out 81% of it's wattage rating. Just finished a stay at one CG where the voltage was often down to 108. Kept getting luke warm coffee out of our coffee maker and had to nuke it. Grrr...

So, if you want to improve your chances of having better voltage at a CG, stay in one that is relatively new and especially stay away from really old ones. As well, choose a CG with just 1 or 2 pedestals. ;) Otherwise, the only thing you can do is get an autoformer.

Old Duck wrote:
Low voltage does happen and did to us last weekend at Silver Falls State Park (Oregon). We were in the old section which is only 30 amp service. The error code gave the low voltage indication, 102 on one leg, 104 on the other. Unseasonal not weather had many using their AC. Brought it to the parks attention only to be told it was an issue with the entire loop. We changes the fridge and hot water to gas only and didn't use the AC the next two days. I was willing to risk the motors in the Two Fantastic Fans we have. Even at 6am the best we got was 110. The reason I'm posting all of this is to let everyone know these devices are important and at least give you an idea of what is going on. We left one day early, once the kids and grand kids left.

In a situation like this a Hughes Autoformer will save the day.

Low voltage does happen and did to us last weekend at Silver Falls State Park (Oregon). We were in the old section which is only 30 amp service. The error code gave the low voltage indication, 102 on one leg, 104 on the other. Unseasonal not weather had many using their AC. Brought it to the parks attention only to be told it was an issue with the entire loop. We changes the fridge and hot water to gas only and didn't use the AC the next two days. I was willing to risk the motors in the Two Fantastic Fans we have. Even at 6am the best we got was 110. The reason I'm posting all of this is to let everyone know these devices are important and at least give you an idea of what is going on. We left one day early, once the kids and grand kids left.

Like accsys said above 'thanks for coming back and tell us what happened.

Thanks.

Gail Phillips wrote:
Thanks everyone for your responses. It was the 30 amp circuit. I talked with Donald at Progressive the next morning. He had me run all the test on the monitoring system and determined the system was working just like it was supposed to which helped a lot. The mobile repairmen focused on the rv instead of the monitoring system. The circuit was the original to the coach and he said it was fried. I had just enough juice in the computer to post my message but couldn't get back on in the morning to see the replies. I tripped the breaker to the on position and thought I had reset it but it hadn't done anything. I had run the coach battery down and didn't even realize it until I noticed the lights were really dim. It was a comedy of errors on my part but I sure wasn't laughing. It is a constant learning experience but at my age I hope I can remember the lessons and not keep making the same mistakes. Thanks again

Thanks for coming back on and letting us know what happened. :B

Thanks everyone for your responses. It was the 30 amp circuit. I talked with Donald at Progressive the next morning. He had me run all the test on the monitoring system and determined the system was working just like it was supposed to which helped a lot. The mobile repairmen focused on the rv instead of the monitoring system. The circuit was the original to the coach and he said it was fried. I had just enough juice in the computer to post my message but couldn't get back on in the morning to see the replies. I tripped the breaker to the on position and thought I had reset it but it hadn't done anything. I had run the coach battery down and didn't even realize it until I noticed the lights were really dim. It was a comedy of errors on my part but I sure wasn't laughing. It is a constant learning experience but at my age I hope I can remember the lessons and not keep making the same mistakes. Thanks again

Gail Phillips wrote:
I need some help. I'm here in Myrtle Beach and it's hot as blazes. About 10:30 last night, our EMS system shut down the air conditioning and the televisions and all the electrical outlets. I went out to the box and everything looked okay. No error readings that I could tell. We unplugged it and then put it back in to the outlet box. We went back in and waited for it to kick back on. When nothing happened, we went out and plugged it into the rv and started the generator. None of the systems that the EMS had shut down came back on. So we plugged it back into the post hoping it would do it's thing. Nothing has happened. I just called Progressive technical support so hopefully they can help. Have any of you had this problem or know of any helpful suggestions.

Another poster who never comes back to say thanks or tell us if their problem was solved!!!!!!!!!!

Probably too embarrassed to say he didn't check his main breaker...:S...Dennis

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