Air Conditioner Power Question

GooberGuz wrote:

krobbe wrote:
Plugging your camper into a 15amp outlet will trip that circuit breaker if you exceed 15amps.
I plug into a 20Amp circuit at home and run my Air and DCConverter. But that's it. Chances are the 15 Amp circuit will not run your Air for long before it trips.
When turning your air conditioner off or it shuts down on loss of power, wait 3 to 5 minutes to allow the refrigerant pressure to equalize before turning your air conditioner back on. It's hard on your compressor when it tries to start under high pressure and will draw even higher amps to start.
Air Conditioner (Each) 12-18 Amps. Mine draws 14 Amps.
DC Converter Panel 1-8 Amps(depending on DC draw) Mine averages 4amps.
Refrigerator (AC Power Mode) 5-8 Amps
Microwave Oven 8-13 Amps (convection style may be higher)
Electric Water Heater 8-15 Amps
Coffee Pot 10 Amps
Crock Pot 1-4 Amps
Electric Portable Fan 1 Amp
Hair Dryer 5-12 Amps
Space Heater (ceramic) 8-13 Amps
Television (Flat Screen) 1.5-4 Amps
Toaster/Toaster Oven 7-10 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (small handheld style) 2-6 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (large household style) 6-15 Amps
Washer/Dryer Combo 14-16Amps

How did you figure these things out ? What device did you use?

I'm an electrician. I can simply touch a running appliance and feel the electrons coursing through it.
Seriously tho, All appliances have a label on it that list the voltage and wattage or current.
I also installed a Progressive Industries power protection that has a remote display for voltage, current and frequency.

I use one of those cheap Amazon meters like RoyB does and keep a eye on it. I also use one of those "Dog Bone" type adaptors and make sure I don't use the microwave and that very little other load is on the circuit I plug into. By doing this I run my AC at home from a 15 amp circuit quite often with no problems. And, yes, it's that hot in MN at this time of the year. Our temps and been in the 90's all week, and very humid too.

Is it that hot in Minnesota at night this time of year? I'd use a fan and open some windows. Using a generator is another opton. Although the advice given is good, I would not chance runnin my AC underpowered.

krobbe wrote:
Plugging your camper into a 15amp outlet will trip that circuit breaker if you exceed 15amps.
I plug into a 20Amp circuit at home and run my Air and DCConverter. But that's it. Chances are the 15 Amp circuit will not run your Air for long before it trips.
When turning your air conditioner off or it shuts down on loss of power, wait 3 to 5 minutes to allow the refrigerant pressure to equalize before turning your air conditioner back on. It's hard on your compressor when it tries to start under high pressure and will draw even higher amps to start.
Air Conditioner (Each) 12-18 Amps. Mine draws 14 Amps.
DC Converter Panel 1-8 Amps(depending on DC draw) Mine averages 4amps.
Refrigerator (AC Power Mode) 5-8 Amps
Microwave Oven 8-13 Amps (convection style may be higher)
Electric Water Heater 8-15 Amps
Coffee Pot 10 Amps
Crock Pot 1-4 Amps
Electric Portable Fan 1 Amp
Hair Dryer 5-12 Amps
Space Heater (ceramic) 8-13 Amps
Television (Flat Screen) 1.5-4 Amps
Toaster/Toaster Oven 7-10 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (small handheld style) 2-6 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (large household style) 6-15 Amps
Washer/Dryer Combo 14-16Amps

How did you figure these things out ? What device did you use?

If VOLTAGE inside RV with A/C running is 110 VAC or more, no problem. If voltage is lower you risk damaging, or even destroying, your A/C.

According to ANSI C84.1-1995 (R2001) any voltage below 110 volts for long term, or 106 volts for short term, may very well damage things in your RV (most commonly air conditioners, but anything could be damaged).

We have ran our A/C at home on a 15A circuit many times w/o issue as have many others. As others said, do not use a cheap Walmart extension cord. Ideally your 30A cord is long enough to reach the outlet you have access to. Run it for 15 mins or so, unplug the cable, and check to make sure it is not getting hot. This assumes you have the typical 13.5k a/c. If you have the upgraded 15k a/c I do not have experience with that but expect that is more likely to become a problem.

Plugging your camper into a 15amp outlet will trip that circuit breaker if you exceed 15amps.
I plug into a 20Amp circuit at home and run my Air and DCConverter. But that's it. Chances are the 15 Amp circuit will not run your Air for long before it trips.
When turning your air conditioner off or it shuts down on loss of power, wait 3 to 5 minutes to allow the refrigerant pressure to equalize before turning your air conditioner back on. It's hard on your compressor when it tries to start under high pressure and will draw even higher amps to start.
Air Conditioner (Each) 12-18 Amps. Mine draws 14 Amps.
DC Converter Panel 1-8 Amps(depending on DC draw) Mine averages 4amps.
Refrigerator (AC Power Mode) 5-8 Amps
Microwave Oven 8-13 Amps (convection style may be higher)
Electric Water Heater 8-15 Amps
Coffee Pot 10 Amps
Crock Pot 1-4 Amps
Electric Portable Fan 1 Amp
Hair Dryer 5-12 Amps
Space Heater (ceramic) 8-13 Amps
Television (Flat Screen) 1.5-4 Amps
Toaster/Toaster Oven 7-10 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (small handheld style) 2-6 Amps
Vacuum Cleaner (large household style) 6-15 Amps
Washer/Dryer Combo 14-16Amps

Hi christopherglenn,

That is incorrect, the breaker won't necessarily trip before damage starts to the air conditioner. It is true that the amp draw goes up--and that is what causes the motor damage. I've seen voltage at 98, and no sign of a "trip".

christopherglenn wrote:
you are likely to trip a 15 amp braker before damaging the ac. As the voltage drops, the amp draw goes up, there is not much headroom on a 15 amp circuit to begin with.

Let me list what I do here and maybe it will trigger what you may want to do on your end connecting up to the house/garage at your parents house. You might want to try this out at home to make sure you have the proper items on hand and know what to look for.

I run two 120VAC drop cords from my garage to power up my 30Amp fifth wheel and 30Amp OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer when parked here at the house.

One receptacle in the garage is a stand alone receptacle that was installed to run an air compressor at one time and this is the only thing on its circuit. I use this to feed my fifth wheel. My OFF-ROAD POPUP uses a 120VAC receptacle that located near the garage door and is on a different circuit breaker then the one I am using for the fifth wheel trailer.

Before hooking up to the Garage 120VAC receptacle I would use a circuit tester from LOWES -WALMART that looks like this

Do not use the garage 120VAC receptacle if it does not check out "CORRECT" by the correct position of the tester lights...

What I do is use two 10-GAUGE (10-3) HD Contractor type 50-foot that run out towards both trailers. I have used a 12-gauge (12-3) long extension cord with out any issues but would never use the 14-16 gauge "RED ORANGE" smaller size extension cords you find at LOWES-WALMART. They are just too small to handle the trailers.


Out in the middle of the yard I use a RV30A-15A DOGBONE STYLE long adapter plugged into the 50-foot extension cords. These come from WALMART and look similar to this...


I could never use the small round black type RV30A-15A adapters as they always tend to get hot me when used just a short time...


What you don't want to happen is for the adapters to heat up your shore power cable which might end up looking like this and will need to be replaced.


Now all I do is plug the 30AMP trailer SHORE POWER CABLE into this RV30A-15A long adapter laying in the middle of the yard.

To insure the 120VAC power source is safe to use I will use one of these RV PLUG IN 120VAC AC voltmeters (AMAZON) plugged into a receptacle inside the trailer that is in a good view spot so you can glance at it when you need to. This will check the 120VAC level coming from the house. The part I like about this meter is it has a safe zone "GREEN" printed on the face and if the AC voltage is within this safe limit then is ok to use the power - even for one roof mounted air conditioner unit.


I will turn a few thing on inside the trailer for 10-minutes or so and then back outside and check all of the connection points to see they are not getting warm to touch. This includes the garage 120VAC receptacle.

This is pretty much what we do here for our two trailer that is hooked up to the 15AMP service from the garage.

We can run just about everything inside the trailer we want to run but have to watch sometimes what is on at the same time. i.e. we can never run the air conditioner and the high wattage microwave at the same time otherwise it will trip the breaker in the garage.

We sleep in both the trailers all the time when sitting in camp back yard and of course this is where I get to do all my mods and fix up things for the every changing OFF-ROAD POPUP configurations for my emergency radio operations I am connected with. Its a great get away just sleeping over in the back yard sometimes. Wifes gets to use the fridge to supplement her kitchen fridge. Good spot for my beers too...

ALot of folks will warn you about about all kinds things that might happen when only connected to a 15/20AMP service but if you follow some good guidelines like I have listed here you should be ok. Has worked good for me over the past few years.

We use the extension cord and RV30A-15A long adapter when on the road alot. You never know when we may need some power sometimes. Works great when visiting family - I just hookup outside their house and we sleep in the trailer.

Hope this helps

just my thoughts
Roy Ken

you are likely to trip a 15 amp braker before damaging the ac. As the voltage drops, the amp draw goes up, there is not much headroom on a 15 amp circuit to begin with. The battery charger (converter) will be running as well, and drawing 2 or 3 amps to keep the batteries topped off, run the 12 volt on the fridge, propane detector, and lights.