Electric Load Distribution

[flyfishing48]

Question about the distribution of the electrical load in our 5er.
We have a 50 amp service and I have a surge protector that shows the voltage and amperage fir each leg.
It seems that every time I look at this as it scans through that leg one is drawing about 3 amps and leg 2 is much higher depending on what is on and whats not on.

Yesterday when I first plugged in to the pedestal L 1 was 0A and L2 was 25 A, After a bit L2 dropped a little to 23A. It seems like there isn't much of anything on L1 and L2 is carrying the bulk of the load.

Is this typical or is the 5er wired such to cause this bias?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

[dougrainer]

philh wrote:
Interesting... and makes me wonder if why one leg at my primary campground was way low on voltage. If everybody is pulling off of the same leg...

The "legs" are NOT always on the same PHASE. EACH leg is a separate Phase on 50 amp service. So, they could have a Transformer problem or such, and that would cause different readings on the legs. The CG plugs are not in line---site 1 then it daisychains to site 2 and so on. NO. EACH leg wire/s at Sites should go to a main supply breaker panel that is rated for the number of 50 amp sites. If the main panel has 20 sites to it, then there should be 40 wires with 2 wires each going to each 50 amp plug with the required SIZE Neutral supplying each 50 amp site plug. Doug

[CA_Traveler]

philh wrote:
Interesting... and makes me wonder if why one leg at my primary campground was way low on voltage. If everybody is pulling off of the same leg...

RV loads or CG distributions - who knows - perhaps balanced at the utility distribution.

I'd guess wiring - CGs are not designed to carry high loads for many sites at the same time as it's not required by code and would be very expensive.

[flyfishing48]

philh wrote:
Interesting... and makes me wonder if why one leg at my primary campground was way low on voltage. If everybody is pulling off of the same leg...

I have on more than one occasion had our surge protector fault for low voltage on one leg. This would occur with a full campground on hot days and everyone running their air conditioners full blast. I would see voltage dip below 105 volts on one leg. Come Monday and as sites emptied out the voltage would be back up to 118 -120 volts.

[philh]

Interesting... and makes me wonder if why one leg at my primary campground was way low on voltage. If everybody is pulling off of the same leg...

[dougrainer]

flyfishing48 wrote:
Thanks for all of the responses. I guess the take away is I don't need to be concerned about most of the load being on one leg.
I don't worry too much about campground wiring issues because of the surge protector doing diagnostics for a few minutes before it lets power go through to the coach.
I am on metered electric for the next 3 months so I may keep an eye on the usage, 25 amps for what was on seems awful high. I might start flipping breakers off to see what is what.

I think you are worried for the wrong reason. It appears you are concerned about the LOAD on 1 leg. Remember, there is NO REASON to distribute or attempt to distribute loads evenly. EACH leg is capable of 50 amps of load. Now, if your most common appliances in use came close to 45 amps with nothing on the other leg, then yes, I would transfer one of the common use higher amp users to the other leg. Doug

[CA_Traveler]

flyfishing48 wrote:
Thanks for all of the responses. I guess the take away is I don't need to be concerned about most of the load being on one leg.
I don't worry too much about campground wiring issues because of the surge protector doing diagnostics for a few minutes before it lets power go through to the coach.

They only check with no load. Once connected various faults can occur.

They also do not check for excessive amps.

I am on metered electric for the next 3 months so I may keep an eye on the usage, 25 amps for what was on seems awful high. I might start flipping breakers off to see what is what.

Good plan.

[flyfishing48]

Thanks for all of the responses. I guess the take away is I don't need to be concerned about most of the load being on one leg.
I don't worry too much about campground wiring issues because of the surge protector doing diagnostics for a few minutes before it lets power go through to the coach.
I am on metered electric for the next 3 months so I may keep an eye on the usage, 25 amps for what was on seems awful high. I might start flipping breakers off to see what is what.

[time2roll]

Probably water heater and converter. Check again in an hour.

[wa8yxm]

Look at your distribution panel (Breaker box) it should be easy to figure out which breakers coospond to which main breaker (Right or left. or Top/Bottom depending on box) then you an figure out what they did. IF not sure turn off breakers that are busy (Example air conditioners or water heater)

NOTE one AC should be on one leg one on the other. The water heater is on one leg.. (if you have an inverter it should be on the other) and one AC + Water heater---25 amps easy .

[dougrainer]

Chris Bryant wrote:
I’ve run across them with both air conditioners on the same leg. Brand new trailer, I was installing an lp Onan 7kw. Had to balance the loads to run both a/c’s of the genset.

Having BOTH AC on one leg is not a concern until you have a smaller genset as you pointed out. THEN you should split the AC's between the 2 legs, to allow the Genset Breakers to not trip from excess load on 1 leg. This is sometimes a problem on both motorhomes with 7k and smaller Genset units.
BUT, you do not have split the AC Loads on a 50 amp trailer. BUT, it is BETTER to do that if the OEM put both on 1 leg. Makes it better when you do NOT have true 50 amp or on 30 amp service. Doug

[dougrainer]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

flyfishing48 wrote:
The Refig is set to auto and it could kick into electric mode as soon as shore power is on. Also the water heater is on so it can draw to.
There could also be some drain on the batteries from opening slides and leveling while on battery. ( because surge protector hasn't timed out yet.). So the recharging could add to the load, though I suspect it is the 3 A on L1.

Fridge....3.5A
Water heater.....11.5A (but why you would have the electric on before setting up????)
Converter.....could be at full amp rating (45A, 55A etc) if batteries are drawn way down


We always plugged in electric prior to doing any setting up....just n case problem with incoming power
Fridge and minimal converter would be only AC loads when plugging in.

A CONVERTER will NOT draw in excess of 12 amps AC current in full charge mode(A 75 amp Converter may draw up to 17 amps). Same with a LARGE Inverter/Charger. The AMP rating of a Converter is the DC total amp capability. Doug

[Old-Biscuit]

flyfishing48 wrote:
The Refig is set to auto and it could kick into electric mode as soon as shore power is on. Also the water heater is on so it can draw to.
There could also be some drain on the batteries from opening slides and leveling while on battery. ( because surge protector hasn't timed out yet.). So the recharging could add to the load, though I suspect it is the 3 A on L1.

Fridge....3.5A
Water heater.....11.5A (but why you would have the electric on before setting up????)
Converter.....could be at full amp rating (45A, 55A etc) if batteries are drawn way down


We always plugged in electric prior to doing any setting up....just n case problem with incoming power
Fridge and minimal converter would be only AC loads when plugging in.

[Chris_Bryant]

I’ve run across them with both air conditioners on the same leg. Brand new trailer, I was installing an lp Onan 7kw. Had to balance the loads to run both a/c’s of the genset.

[CA_Traveler]

No need for concern as the loads don't have to be balanced. Best not to draw over 40A sustained on one leg.

Do you ever check your home for balanced loads? It's the exact same circuit type but with a 100A, 200A, etc capacity. OK I know you're unlikely to unplug your house very often. :B

Agree with Biscuit - I turn off all loads when plugging/unplugging except charger. It reduces electrical transients, arcing, etc. Ditto for DC loads.