Power question

[bap]

Originally Posted by dalebra

Pman1088,

Consider yourself a very, very lucky person that you have not had a fire.
The only way you have gotten by with this setup is that you have not drawn over 20 amps for any length of time. If you indeed are drawing close to 30 Amps using 12AWG for any good length of time your insulation on your wires have started to melt. After melt will be fire. Any size breaker larger than a 20 Amp defeats the entire purpose of the breaker. You have been lucky and I seriously encourage you to discontinue the use of this circuit as you have it.

Or at least discontinue advising other people to do it.

[jasum]

Originally Posted by ParrishCamper

We have a 30 amp outlet in out garage.
I need to see if there is a certain length you should not exceed on a 30 amp power cord. Problem is our camper is parked on the side of the house and doesn't come close to reaching outlet with camper power cord and 20 ft extention. Can I safely add another 50 ft cord or would that cause issues?
An electrician quoted $700 to move 30 amp outlet to side of house.
Or can I plug the camper into an adapter so I can use a standard outlet already on the side of the house. I would like run AC (1 - 15k BTU on low) and fridge. Or would this cause issues to our AC over time? Would only run AC while packing and making beds. Currently is a sweat box.

I would find another electrician

[Jagiven]

Do you have an attached or detached garage?

Depending on the labor to run the wire, will determine the cost. I do alot of industry project management, electrian's charge between $75- $100 per hour, for labor.

[Seann45]

The electrician you called probably did not want the job so he quoted a ridiculous price.. knowing you would not take it.. either find one that wants the job or do it yourself.. go to the local hardware tell them what you are doing get a 30 amp single pole breaker enough wire of a heavy enough gauge and spend some time doing it... the hardware's will give you enough advice to do it safely.. I did my own....

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by Seann45

The electrician you called probably did not want the job so he quoted a ridiculous price.. knowing you would not take it.. either find one that wants the job or do it yourself.. go to the local hardware tell them what you are doing get a 30 amp single pole breaker enough wire of a heavy enough gauge and spend some time doing it... the hardware's will give you enough advice to do it safely.. I did my own....

I said back near the beginning of this thread that I thought the electrician's quote might be a bit high. But it might not be. Consider that the retail price of the necessary hardware might well be $200, before labor. Circuit breaker, 50' of 10/3 wire, weatherproof outdoor box and outlet, associated hardware. And we don't know anything about the OP's home and what might be involved in actually running the wire, including wall penetrations, pulls, mounting the outside box, etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to do it myself in my home, and I've been thinking about it. But then I think to myself, do I REALLY need to run the A/C in my TT when it's parked in my driveway, or do I just need to be able to turn on the lights or run the pump for winterizing, etc. So far I'm good with the 25' 12 ga. orange extension cord.

Roger

[pman1088]

Thanks for the info! When I got home from camping today I swapped the wire out for some 10/2 romex. It had 12 in it before. The run was less the 3' long, from the top of the breaker box to the outlet installed under it. Maybe that explains why my house has not caught fire.


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