TT plugged in at home?

[Xpd77]

I currently have an Arctic Fox truck camper with an 13.5k btu AC unit. When I'm at home I can plug it in to a 110 outlet and still run the AC and some lights and Fridge. It is a 30amp unit.

I'm getting ready to purchase a travel trailer and it may be 50amp and have a 15k btu AC unit. Will I still be able to plug this in at home on 110? At the very lease I want to run the AC.

[Terryallan]

Fact is. IF it pulls too many amps it will trip the breaker. then you know you need more

[RoyB]

You will need these adapters to plug your 50AMP Shore Power Cable into 120VAC 15/20A Receptacle..






Make sure your RV30A to RV50A adapter is wired like this one..


NOTE that the two HOT CONTACTS are shorted together in the RV50A receptacle side of the adapter to power up both 50A ZONES in the RV.

This will power up both front and rear Air Conditioner however the 15/20A service will only operate one of them at a time.

It is also doubtful that a 15A service connection from your house will power up a 15,500 BTU Air Conditioner. You should not have any problems powering up a 15,500 BTU Air conditioner with a 20AMP Service from the house again with only one at a time. Otherwise it will trip your house circuit breaker.

Most house wiring is 14 gauge wire and is for 15AMP receptacles. Sometime the garage will have a special 20AMP Receptacle installed on a separate circuit to run an Air Compressor. This will be a 12 Gauge wire size and have a 20AMPS Circuit breaker.

If you find 20AMP Circuit breakers in your house power panel it could be your house was wired with 12 Gauge wiring if the electrician followed code... My house has all 20AMP breakers for receptacles and has 12 gauge wiring (I double checked to be sure). All of my room receptacles however are the 15AMP size except one in the garage that feeds an air compressor... Go figure haha

Hope this helps some...

Roy Ken

[GordonThree]

Any big box home improvement store will sell an rv pedestal kit. I recall mine costing around $12, for an outdoor enclosure with room for 4 circuits, 2 breakers. It included a single 30 amp breaker, and the 30 amp rv outlet.

Took an afternoon to run wire into the house panel, set a post for the rv electrical box and wire everything up.

[SoundGuy]

kennyd63 wrote:
... he told us whatever you do never use your A/C on a 110 current make sure you have the right 30/50 amp connection.

To repeat, the standard here in N America is 120 vac +/- 5% which is a nominal range of 114 vac to 126 vac. Any previous "standard" such as 110 vac, 115 vac, or 117 vac has long since disappeared in favour of the 120 vac standard across both Canada and the US.

From Mains Electricity ...

"In the United States and Canada, national standards specify that the nominal voltage at the source should be 120 V and allow a range of 114 V to 126 V (RMS) (?5% to +5%). Historically 110 V, 115 V and 117 V have been used at different times and places in North America. Mains power is sometimes spoken of as 110 V; however, 120 V is the nominal voltage."

To suggest that a standard 13,500 BTU roof mount A/C cannot be successfully started and run by a 15 amp breaker protected circuit is simplistic nonsense. As long as the unloaded source voltage is within the nominally stated range, the run to this source isn't excessive, and the cable used is of sufficient gauge a 13.5K A/C is perfectly safe to run provided one ensures that all other loads on that circuit are off. I do it all the time with my own trailer running from a 15 amp drop in my workshop, have done it for years with Coleman, Carrier, and Dometic branded A/C units, and will continue to do it whenever the situation calls for it. However, if the A/C in question was a 15,000 BTU I'd only expect success if the source circuit was rated for minimum 20 amp service.

[nineoaks2004]

I would not recommend using a 15 amp circuit to run the AC the amperage is too close for comfort it is better to get a dedicated 30 amp. circuit ran (or 50amp if needed) with a higher amp. service you can run most things with a 30 amp it is not recommended to run the AC and the microwave at the same time. I am not sure about the 50 amp running them together.

Good luck on the search for your new unit and happy camping..

[coolmom42]

If you get another outlet installed, make sure your electrician understands that it is 30 amp 120 V, NOT 30 amp 240 V.

[kennyd63]

We used to own a 2008 Mallard, and decided to used the A/C on a 110 at home nothing else was on. The A/C was working fine for a while and then stopped working, we made a service call to see what was wrong with the A/C. Because all it was doing was blowing warm air.
He asked me what happened? I told him that I plugged the A/C straight to the 110 to the house, his reply was ok. So he got up on top of the roof and worked on the A/C. Came back down with a small looking Transformer looking part ( I forgot the proper name for it ) it was (FRIED ) he told us whatever you do never use your A/C on a 110 current make sure you have the right 30/50 amp connection. Lesson learned cost $150.00 for about 15 minutes of work.

[SoundGuy]

Dick_B wrote:
On another Forum it was determined that the startup current of a Dometic 15K A/C is 13.6 amps with a 2.8 amps run current. That would imply that you can run the 15K A/C off the 20 amp circuit; but don't push it with other `stuff' on the same circuit.

The OP said nothing about the rated capacity of the source he's using, only that it's "a 110 outlet" which of course isn't the case at all as the nominal unloaded source voltage all across N America these days is considered to be +/- 120 vac. If the circuit in question is rated for 20 amp service protected by a 20 amp breaker then of course his chances of successfully starting and running a 15K A/C will be improved over attempting to run it on a 15 amp protected circuit ... but he hasn't provided this information. :R

[Dick_B]

On another Forum it was determined that the startup current of a Dometic 15K A/C is 13.6 amps with a 2.8 amps run current. That would imply that you can run the 15K A/C off the 20 amp circuit; but don't push it with other `stuff' on the same circuit.

[eHoefler]

If you have a 30 amp RV recepticle at the house, you should not ave any issues using a dog bone to adapt to 50 amp.

[wildtoad]

You should still be able to, however, the smart thing to do is to call an electrician and get at least a 30 amp receptacle installed. Then you can do most anything you want. It will be money well spent.

[SoundGuy]

Xpd77 wrote:
I'm getting ready to purchase a travel trailer and it may be 50amp and have a 15k btu AC unit. Will I still be able to plug this in at home on 110? At the very lease I want to run the AC.

No. Even in your current situation running a single 13,500 BTU A/C on a 15 amp drop you should be running only the A/C and nothing else. Attempting to run a 15,000 BTU A/C will only worsen the situation.

[DutchmenSport]

My camper is a 30 amp with a 15,000 btu air, we run the air 24x7. We did put in a dedicated 30 amp RV line. We never run the air conditioner and microwave at the same time, even in campgrounds, this is the only thing we have to watch when running the air conditioner. Everything else is OK with the air on.

If your camper comes with 50 amp, you can get a step (up) adapter, probably need a couple. A step-up from 20 to 30 plug and then a 30 to 50 amp plug. Then you can plug your camper into the 50 amp adapter plug.

You should be able to run the air conditioner with no problems. But once you reach your household 15 or 20 amp max amount (the breaker) will pop. That's the worst that will happen.

If (when) that happens, then you'll probably need to think about running a dedicated line for the camper with 50 amp service if you want full electric use of your camper.