Who uses a 30 amp to 20 amp step down plug and runs the A/C?

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buchanan,

You might want to ask people "How is this possible?" rather than making statements like, "I don't believe or understand how people here say they run their converter,TV,sound system and AC all off a 15 amp circuit and through 100 ft cord there is no way that will work no way(all at same time) ."

It does come across like you are calling us liars.......... you make similar statements in several of your posts and it looks like you think we are all stupid........ If you try, you may just learn a thing or two from some of these guys instead of coming off as a "know-it-all". I don't think that you mean to do that, I just think that you might want to read your own posts from the perspective of others before hitting the "Post" button....  ;D
 
The use of GFCI in the RV has nothing to do with plugging the shore cord into a GFCI outlet. Nada.

If the GFCI trips, its because there is current leakage to the ground wire somewhere in the coach or the connection to the outlet. The common reasons for this in an RV is a corroded heater electrode in the fridge, a miswired load center (neutral bonded to ground), or a "leaky" inverter/charger. Turn off the circuit breakers for fridge and inverter/charger to see if one of them is the culprit

Whether a 100 ft cord can be [successfully] used depends on the total amp load, the cord and its ends, and the outlet. Yeah, we hear a lot of hyperbole here, but it is certianly possible to run off a household circuit. Just how much depends on the RV involved. Mine is a power hog too and it doesn't take much to trip a 15A breaker. 20 is much more reliable.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
The use of GFCI in the RV has nothing to do with plugging the shore cord into a GFCI outlet. Nada.

If the GFCI trips, its because there is current leakage to the ground wire somewhere in the coach or the connection to the outlet. The common reasons for this in an RV is a corroded heater electrode in the fridge, a miswired load center (neutral bonded to ground), or a "leaky" inverter/charger. Turn off the circuit breakers for fridge and inverter/charger to see if one of them is the culprit

Whether a 100 ft cord can be [successfully] used depends on the total amp load, the cord and its ends, and the outlet. Yeah, we hear a lot of hyperbole here, but it is certianly possible to run off a household circuit. Just how much depends on the RV involved. Mine is a power hog too and it doesn't take much to trip a 15A breaker. 20 is much more reliable.
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fridge is not GFI protected in my unit/However like I have posted here more than once. My GFI on the power supply would trip as soon as \I pluged in the MH.
when I isolated the GFI protected circuits in the MH(shut off the breakers) all was well. I then removed the power supply GFI and all was well.I did this because  at least two electrical experts suggested one GFI works against the other and can trip. which they did in my case. whenu say NADA don't be so quick as it did for me in two different Motor homes
Now I must add I do use a 100 ft 10 gauge exstention cord
 
It's no excuse, but have you looked at the cost of a heavy duty extension cord lately? That may be part of the problem. All I know from experience is that we tried to run a air conditioner using a 15 amp adaptor and woke up to a charred extension cord and a burned out power supply. It cost us just south of a thousand dollars to get everything back in order. So we just don't do it anymore.
 
mdbass said:
It's no excuse, but have you looked at the cost of a heavy duty extension cord lately? That may be part of the problem. All I know from experience is that we tried to run a air conditioner using a 15 amp adaptor and woke up to a charred extension cord and a burned out power supply. It cost us just south of a thousand dollars to get everything back in order. So we just don't do it anymore.
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I cant understand that you had any trouble  at all ? everyone here CLAIMS to  runs their AC on 15 amp and several other appliances  at the same time
I have a 10 gauge cord that pretty heavy on a side note
 
buchanan said:
I cant understand that you had any trouble  at all ? everyone here CLAIMS to  runs their AC on 15 amp and several other appliances  at the same time
I have a 10 gauge cord that pretty heavy on a side note
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If running an extension cord is something that might benefit you, you may want to try using a 50', 10G extension cord instead of 100'. You will experience less voltage drop (with higher demand) which will result in higher available amperage.

I use a 50', 10G extension cord to go to my RV parking at home. I have had guests stay in the coach and use all of the appliances with the AC running and never had an issue. One other item that may help........ I have found those 30a/15a hockey puck adapters to get hot under full load. I switched to one of those "Dog bone" adapters and have never had that issue.

Good luck with your problem.  ;D
 
I need to tag along on this thread.  I have tried on several occasions to run the AC in my 2002 Winnebago Adventurer 35U on house current and, while the other 110 items will work fine, the AC will trip the circuit everytime.  It is a GFI circuit in the garage or an outdoor GFI circuit on the exterior wall.  I set the Power Monitor to 20 amp in the coach thinking that this will restrict the AC to using only one compressor and I really don't know if that is working or not.  What is happening is that the extra refrigerator in our garage has a bad habit of kicking on its compressor and being it is on the same circuit as the coach - it's lights out until the breaker is reset.  Going on a long trip next week and would like to run the AC at home while we are loading the coach but doesn't seem possible.  By the way, I am parked too far away for the one 25 ft coach cord to reach so I have a 30 foot heavy duty 30 amp extension in use also.  Still no joy.
 
Bill N said:
I need to tag along on this thread.  I have tried on several occasions to run the AC in my 2002 Winnebago Adventurer 35U on house current and, while the other 110 items will work fine, the AC will trip the circuit everytime.  It is a GFI circuit in the garage or an outdoor GFI circuit on the exterior wall.  I set the Power Monitor to 20 amp in the coach thinking that this will restrict the AC to using only one compressor and I really don't know if that is working or not.  What is happening is that the extra refrigerator in our garage has a bad habit of kicking on its compressor and being it is on the same circuit as the coach - it's lights out until the breaker is reset.  Going on a long trip next week and would like to run the AC at home while we are loading the coach but doesn't seem possible.  By the way, I am parked too far away for the one 25 ft coach cord to reach so I have a 30 foot heavy duty 30 amp extension in use also.  Still no joy.
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Those are the other issues....... if you are using a GFI circuit, you could have a problem. If the outlet that you are using is 50 or 100' from the circuit breaker panel, that could be another issue. If you have load on that same circuit, you have to add that into the total amps, along with what's going on in the RV.

The outlet that I use is a dedicated circuit breaker for my garage (where my breaker panel is) and nothing else is being used on that circuit while people are using the coach.
 
Bill N said:
I need to tag along on this thread.  I have tried on several occasions to run the AC in my 2002 Winnebago Adventurer 35U on house current and, while the other 110 items will work fine, the AC will trip the circuit everytime.  It is a GFI circuit in the garage or an outdoor GFI circuit on the exterior wall.  I set the Power Monitor to 20 amp in the coach thinking that this will restrict the AC to using only one compressor and I really don't know if that is working or not.  What is happening is that the extra refrigerator in our garage has a bad habit of kicking on its compressor and being it is on the same circuit as the coach - it's lights out until the breaker is reset.  Going on a long trip next week and would like to run the AC at home while we are loading the coach but doesn't seem possible.  By the way, I am parked too far away for the one 25 ft coach cord to reach so I have a 30 foot heavy duty 30 amp extension in use also.  Still no joy.
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Bill - A GFI protects against a short to ground and has nothing to do with over current protection. If your set up is tripping the GFI then it is not due to too many amps, it is due to a ground fault on one of you circuits. Fix that ground fault and you could run  the AC. 
 
A friend of mine just arrived today from Lynnwood Washington and its hot as hell here. I said all I have is 15amp through 10 gauge 100 foot cord  and first thing he says hell no that wont work.He parks right by his house in Lynnwood and blows the 15amp breaker just thinking about plugging in.I told him about the arguments iam getting here when I say that  he just laughed and said well good luck cause she wont work in my Motorhome  and now I read Bill N story above and he cant get it to work neither
so how seilerbird gets his to work the way he claims is beyond me
 
Yesterday after getting back from a 5 day trip to New Jersey I plugged the 20amp cord into a 15amp outlet so we could keep the fridge running since we got home late.  I forgot to shut the a/c off and it tripped the breaker.  I went in shut the a/c off then turned the breaker back on. Fridge is running fine with only 1 other light on.

When I want to have the a/c running while we are at home like if the kids want to sleep in the camper at night I run the cord into the house and plug it into a dedicated 20amp outlet.  My father (retired master electrician 40+ years) installed it a few years back with my uncle (also a master electrician).  The outlet is dedicated only to the a/c unit in the house, nothing else gets plugged into it ever, except the camper 20amp cord.  In Sept we don't necessarily need the a/c going at night in the house, but with the camper its been building heat all day so it gets hot.  The only other thing I'll have them run is one or 2 lights.  Thats it.  No problems.
 
handicap18 said:
Yesterday after getting back from a 5 day trip to New Jersey I plugged the 20amp cord into a 15amp outlet so we could keep the fridge running since we got home late.  I forgot to shut the a/c off and it tripped the breaker.  I went in shut the a/c off then turned the breaker back on. Fridge is running fine with only 1 other light on.

When I want to have the a/c running while we are at home like if the kids want to sleep in the camper at night I run the cord into the house and plug it into a dedicated 20amp outlet.  My father (retired master electrician 40+ years) installed it a few years back with my uncle (also a master electrician).  The outlet is dedicated only to the a/c unit in the house, nothing else gets plugged into it ever, except the camper 20amp cord.  In Sept we don't necessarily need the a/c going at night in the house, but with the camper its been building heat all day so it gets hot.  The only other thing I'll have them run is one or 2 lights.  Thats it.  No problems.
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yes that system is proper and will work for sure and makes a lot of sense for sure
 
SeilerBird said:
Bill - A GFI protects against a short to ground and has nothing to do with over current protection. If your set up is tripping the GFI then it is not due to too many amps, it is due to a ground fault on one of you circuits. Fix that ground fault and you could run  the AC.
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Tom, I phrased that rather poorly.  It is the breaker that is tripping not the GFI.  What I was really trying to determine is if, by selecting 20 amp on the power monitor, only one AC compressor will operate.  This coach has the basement type AC with 2 compressors which is supposed to be the equivalent of two roof top models (and it seems to be in practice). I think the big villain is that garage refrigerator (which I would love to get rid of but you-know-who says it stays) so I will have to work around that.  We live in a decent tract house where the developer decided one good way to save costs was to put in 100 amp service.  Never had less than 150 amp in any of our houses since I was a kid when we were screwing in glass fuses constantly.  Never had a problem with the 100 amp service yet but I think putting in a 30 amp outlet for the coach may tend to cause problems in the house when everything with compressors and other amp eaters kick in together.
 
Bill N said:
We live in a decent tract house where the developer decided one good way to save costs was to put in 100 amp service.  Never had less than 150 amp in any of our houses since I was a kid when we were screwing in glass fuses constantly.  Never had a problem with the 100 amp service yet but I think putting in a 30 amp outlet for the coach may tend to cause problems in the house when everything with compressors and other amp eaters kick in together.
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As a career residential wireman (I wire houses for a living), I think I might have installed one 150 amp service. All the other hundreds were 100 amp. It is virtually impossible for the average homeowner to need more than 100 amps. Remember, there are two legs so it really is a 200 amp service. A 150 amp service is completely redundant for a homeowner. And if you were drawing that much power that you really needed a 150, then I doubt you could afford the electricity bill.

We live in a world where anything bigger is perceived as being better but in the case of home service, 100 is more than enough. You can add a 30 amp to your existing service without a care in the world. You won't overload it unless you invite all your friends over for a welding party.
 
You could always put a 'special plug' in for that refer (one with an off-on switch) and turn it off temporarily when using the RV plug. The fridge will stay cold as long you you don't open it too often for the beer ::)
 
As a career residential wireman (I wire houses for a living), I think I might have installed one 150 amp service. All the other hundreds were 100 amp. It is virtually impossible for the average homeowner to need more than 100 amps. Remember, there are two legs so it really is a 200 amp service. A 150 amp service is completely redundant for a homeowner. And if you were drawing that much power that you really needed a 150, then I doubt you could afford the electricity bill.
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I guess you haven't wired a house that has electric heat (yes, the electric bill is high). My a/c and heating system alone has an independent 70A/240v circuit (house is in Florida) and I have a 100A subpanel for the rest of the house. Service entrance is 150A/240v.  My nieces house in Virginia has electric radiant heat in the ceilings and has a 100A feed for the heating system alone and 200A/240v from the service entrance. Larger homes, say 3000+ sq ft, often have a 200A service entrance these days.
 
SeilerBird said:
As a career residential wireman (I wire houses for a living), I think I might have installed one 150 amp service. All the other hundreds were 100 amp. It is virtually impossible for the average homeowner to need more than 100 amps. Remember, there are two legs so it really is a 200 amp service. A 150 amp service is completely redundant for a homeowner. And if you were drawing that much power that you really needed a 150, then I doubt you could afford the electricity bill.

We live in a world where anything bigger is perceived as being better but in the case of home service, 100 is more than enough. You can add a 30 amp to your existing service without a care in the world. You won't overload it unless you invite all your friends over for a welding party.
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In New England most houses are now at least 200AMP service (which is what we have).  Many are going to 400AMP.  Houses are being built bigger and bigger. 100AMP just isn't enough here.  In New England you need both heat and a/c.  Gas (Natural or Propane), Oil and Electric are the options for heat.  We have natural gas.  Even with that our house electric bill is just under $7000 a year.  So we just had solar panels added to help cut that cost down.
 
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