Lou Schneider
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- Joined
- Mar 14, 2005
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AStravelers said:About the suggestion to add 50amp RV service in a house.
-- True RV 50 amp service is a pair of 50amp circuit breakers. So in reality you are adding an additional 100amp load to the existing load in the house.
-- A house has a certain total amp service built into the load panel(s). That may be 250amp service or maybe more for a very large house. My guess is that most houses could not take the extra 100amps as part of a building code legal install.
-- To have a licensed electrician come in and ask them to add an additional 100amp load, the first thing they are going to look at is to see if the house can take the extra 100amps.
-- Chances are a dedicated 30amp RV outlet could be installed.
The only limits to adding branch circuit breakers to a residential panel is any branch breaker cannot be more than 70% of the main breaker value. House service is 120/240 volts so you have a dual main breaker of the service value, i.e. a dual 100 amp or a dual 200 amp breaker. A dual 50 amp breaker meets this criteria since 50 amps is 50% of a 100 amp service and 25% of a 200 amp service. And, of course, having the physical space in the box to add a dual breaker.
Total up the branch circuits on your house panel, I'll almost guarantee they add up to significantly more than the main breaker value.
The way it works is the main breaker (a dual 100 or 250 amp breaker) protects the buss bars inside the breaker box. Draw too much total current and the main breaker blows. Each branch circuit breaker limits the current on that branch to a safe value for the wire connected to it.
Don't forget the breaker size only determines the maximum current that can flow through that circuit. Each 20 amp breaker isn't pulling 20 amps, your RV likewise won't pull the full 50 amps from each side of it's breaker. If it does, it's OK as long as the rest of the house doesn't draw more than the load rating of the main breaker.
So yes, chances are you'll be fine adding a dual 50 amp RV breaker to a typical house breaker box. As long as you have the free space to access two adjacent breaker positions to match the dual breaker feeding the RV outlet.