30A panel on large trailer... too small?
My father-in-law just purchased a slightly used 26 feet long travel trailer, with as well, a 30A electrical panel. He have a 13.5K roof AC and a electric/DSI water heater, just like most of travel tra...
Forum Discussion
Hi vlopddap,
The water heater may be 1400 watts. They do not run continuously. Mine is a ten gallon. It takes 90 minutes before the first cycle, and there after, if no water is drawn, it will cycle on for about 15 minutes every four hours. My "guesstimate" for a 6 gallon would be 54 minutes to first cycle, and 9 minutes every four hours.
My fridge, on electric, is 325 watts.
My roof air starts at 1200 watts--but as the day heats up, I've seen it draw 1900 watts.
The microwave draws 1591 watts (what the heck were they thinking???).
Is the 30 amp breaker tripping when water heater and roof air are used together?
What is the voltage inside the RV just before the "trip"?
I do have a fancy dancy inverter/charger that does do load support--so I can run more than 30 amps for some time.
The complicated solution is to rewire for 50 amps (50 per leg) but with RV's designed to be "hard to service" that may not be as easy as pie. It exposes the RV to greater risks from a bad neutral, so an EMS surge device becomes fairly necessary.
What I have done is to "break out" the water heater, and converter so that I have two auxiliary shore power cords. I did this with a system of male and female plugs so I can switch back to OEM configuration in about ten seconds. The reason I chose the converter to be isolated, is, before I had the load support inverter/charger, when there was limited shore power I'd run just the converter--and plug the rest of the RV into a 2500 watt inverter. Of course, double conversion is wasteful, but it sure beat having an inaccessible shore power breaker blowing in the middle of the night.
What is of most concern to me, is voltage drop. Air conditioners DO NOT like it and there may be a slow accumulation of damage. I won't run my roof air below 107 volts. I solve low voltage with the use of an autoformer.
I do also have a portable tiny breaker box. When I have access to a 50 amp service, I have 30 amps on one leg and twin 20 amp outlets on the other.
The water heater may be 1400 watts. They do not run continuously. Mine is a ten gallon. It takes 90 minutes before the first cycle, and there after, if no water is drawn, it will cycle on for about 15 minutes every four hours. My "guesstimate" for a 6 gallon would be 54 minutes to first cycle, and 9 minutes every four hours.
My fridge, on electric, is 325 watts.
My roof air starts at 1200 watts--but as the day heats up, I've seen it draw 1900 watts.
The microwave draws 1591 watts (what the heck were they thinking???).
Is the 30 amp breaker tripping when water heater and roof air are used together?
What is the voltage inside the RV just before the "trip"?
I do have a fancy dancy inverter/charger that does do load support--so I can run more than 30 amps for some time.
The complicated solution is to rewire for 50 amps (50 per leg) but with RV's designed to be "hard to service" that may not be as easy as pie. It exposes the RV to greater risks from a bad neutral, so an EMS surge device becomes fairly necessary.
What I have done is to "break out" the water heater, and converter so that I have two auxiliary shore power cords. I did this with a system of male and female plugs so I can switch back to OEM configuration in about ten seconds. The reason I chose the converter to be isolated, is, before I had the load support inverter/charger, when there was limited shore power I'd run just the converter--and plug the rest of the RV into a 2500 watt inverter. Of course, double conversion is wasteful, but it sure beat having an inaccessible shore power breaker blowing in the middle of the night.
What is of most concern to me, is voltage drop. Air conditioners DO NOT like it and there may be a slow accumulation of damage. I won't run my roof air below 107 volts. I solve low voltage with the use of an autoformer.
I do also have a portable tiny breaker box. When I have access to a 50 amp service, I have 30 amps on one leg and twin 20 amp outlets on the other.
