A/C electrical Question

[NewRV4me]

Stayed at our first KOA since purchasing our Greyhawk 29MV last fall. While there, our power shut off and our Watchdog said Line 1 over circuit. We think it happened (or at least it makes sense to us) that possibly the park power wasn't truly 30 amp. Both our AC units run at 11amps and we have them set at different temps so they aren't coming on at the same time. Circuit overloaded at 24 amps and shut down. OK. . . that all made sense and we just ran one A/C which was fine. Now we are at a Utah state park (3 days so far) and it is HOT, so we are thankful to be able to run both A/Cs with no issue - that is until last night. Super windy and we lose power. Again the Watchdog confirms line 1 over circuit. We restart system with both A/Cs off and both the Watchdog and our interior Power Control Center say we are still drawing 15 - 17 and everything is off. We unplugged phones, computer that was charging, turned off lights - all of which made a difference of about 1 amp trying to figure out what was still 'on' and pulling those 15amps. Nothing was on, so what was drawing power? Watchdog said 122 volts as well. A/C did come back on and everything went back to normal on our read outs, and no issues since. Can someone enlighten us? We're just trying to understand how it all works.

[Route 66 Traveler]

Was your electric water heater still on??

[RetiredOne]

Was your water heater on "electric", that's 14 amps? If the converter/battery charger cycles, that can pull up to 10 amps. How about the fridge, was that cycling?

[NewRV4me]

Both are possible, though we've been tracking the power and neither one of those show up on the panel as pulling that much power. Maybe we just hadn't looked at the panel or the Watchdog when those were actually clycling though to know. Nothing had changed in our setup over the three days we'd been here and all had been working/cycling/running without an issue until last night.

[RetiredOne]

Is your rig a 30 amp service or a 50 amp service?

If it's a 30 amp.... well.... 11 amps + 11 amps (from both A/C's, not including surge when starting), plus 14 amps from the water heater, plus a few from the converter.. plus a few from the fridge... well, the math says...

Yes, they all cycle independently, but who knows when they will actually kick on at the same time, and exceed the amp load?

[NewRV4me]

I think you're absolutely right, RetiredOne. It is 30 amp, and I think we just hit a time when everything cycled/kicked on at once. Glad it happened at 9:30 at night when we were here instead of on an afternoon when we were out playing and the dog was there alone! That could have been awful! We turned off the hot water heater when we left today. It heats up so quickly, we don't need to leave it on all the time anyway! Thanks for helping us learn!!

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by NewRV4me

I think you're absolutely right, RetiredOne. It is 30 amp, and I think we just hit a time when everything cycled/kicked on at once. Glad it happened at 9:30 at night when we were here instead of on an afternoon when we were out playing and the dog was there alone! That could have been awful! We turned off the hot water heater when we left today. It heats up so quickly, we don't need to leave it on all the time anyway! Thanks for helping us learn!!

Glad that was it...

I started a thread a few weeks ago regarding this same issue of the 30 amp service on some rigs. If we don't pay attention, you can easy exceed 45 amps just running everyday appliances. Why Jayco just doesn't put 50 amp services in, from the get go, is nuts...

Nevermind, I know why..... pinching pennies...

Anyway, I do the same thing with our water heater. Just turn it on before we need hot water, and leave it off the other times. It's actually amazing how long it will stay hot, with the insulation around the tank. I turn it off when I go to sleep, and in the morning, it's still plenty warm enough for the normal morning activities.

[Cavie]

Is this "over circuit" actually shown on the display? or are you typing something different. Master Electrician and have never heard this. Over loaded circuit or circuit overload.? Put WH on gas and lots of problems go away.

[Jagiven]

Another option, keep the water heater off. Turn on the water heater about 30 minutes before you need/want it. I have found our water stays warm for a long time.