A work around for low voltage.
Hi All,
Due to the campground refusing to reserve a 50 amp site for me (three months in advance), I've been put where there is only a 30 amp outlet and the campground wiring is, shall we say, "challenged"?
The equipment:
Class C RV
Magnum hybrid inverter/charger
PD 40 amp converter with wizard
"patch panel" wiring for the hot water heater
a stand alone inverter plug in the kitchen.
Initial voltage, on a day when the ambient temperature was 27 C (80 f), was 113 with only the fridge running.
One solution was to turn on load support on the Magnum. However to "trick" the Magnum into doing voltage support to 107 (and above) required throttling back the input amperage to 12 amps. That meant I was drawing 54 amps from the battery bank. Of course, I can't sustain that for very long. Perhaps 4 hours and I'd be pushing the magic 50% number.
Last summer I tried doing "double conversion". Unfortunately the Magnum draws so much power that the reverse polarity fuses in the PD converter blow almost instantly. That is less than convenient. It is something I did regularly with the 2500 watt Cobra MSW inverter--I don't understand why the 3000 watt Magnum works so differently.
So I chose to plug the main power feed for the Rv directly into the shore power. That left me able to run the air conditioner and fridge on electric. But, what to do about the water heater and the induction cooker? Fortunately my system allows me to connect the water heater to a secondary 120 volt 15 amp outlet. But the pedestal only has the 30 amp. So I, instead, plugged it into the inverter.
So, I have almost full functionality for the power system. The solar panels should provide enough energy to keep the water hot. I can run the induction cooker, too.
Fortunately, it cools down at night here (tonight will be 8 c (46 f)), so at night I can redo the "patches" (male and female plugs) to allow me to recharge the battery bank with the OEM pd converter, and operate the water heater.
I'm annoyed at the campground--but in the winter they are "the only game in town", so I need must be careful what I say to them.
How I wish I had the Mexican autoformer right now!
Due to the campground refusing to reserve a 50 amp site for me (three months in advance), I've been put where there is only a 30 amp outlet and the campground wiring is, shall we say, "challenged"?
The equipment:
Class C RV
Magnum hybrid inverter/charger
PD 40 amp converter with wizard
"patch panel" wiring for the hot water heater
a stand alone inverter plug in the kitchen.
Initial voltage, on a day when the ambient temperature was 27 C (80 f), was 113 with only the fridge running.
One solution was to turn on load support on the Magnum. However to "trick" the Magnum into doing voltage support to 107 (and above) required throttling back the input amperage to 12 amps. That meant I was drawing 54 amps from the battery bank. Of course, I can't sustain that for very long. Perhaps 4 hours and I'd be pushing the magic 50% number.
Last summer I tried doing "double conversion". Unfortunately the Magnum draws so much power that the reverse polarity fuses in the PD converter blow almost instantly. That is less than convenient. It is something I did regularly with the 2500 watt Cobra MSW inverter--I don't understand why the 3000 watt Magnum works so differently.
So I chose to plug the main power feed for the Rv directly into the shore power. That left me able to run the air conditioner and fridge on electric. But, what to do about the water heater and the induction cooker? Fortunately my system allows me to connect the water heater to a secondary 120 volt 15 amp outlet. But the pedestal only has the 30 amp. So I, instead, plugged it into the inverter.
So, I have almost full functionality for the power system. The solar panels should provide enough energy to keep the water hot. I can run the induction cooker, too.
Fortunately, it cools down at night here (tonight will be 8 c (46 f)), so at night I can redo the "patches" (male and female plugs) to allow me to recharge the battery bank with the OEM pd converter, and operate the water heater.
I'm annoyed at the campground--but in the winter they are "the only game in town", so I need must be careful what I say to them.
How I wish I had the Mexican autoformer right now!
