Electrical Clarification Needed

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AllRetired

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Joined
Aug 8, 2016
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10
Location
Ontario Canada
Hi everyone new to the site but not to Rving,I have a dumb question,What is this Line 1, Line2 and one leg and two legs when you are talking about electricity?I'm not that good on electrical things.Already have learned quite a lot by ready quite a few posts,great site for info.
 
Probably referring to a 50 amp connection, you have 2 50 amp lines (L1 & L2), instead of a 30 amp where you only have 1 30 amp line.
 
On 50 amp Service there are two hot legs and one neutral.. Electrically the source is a center tapped transformer

The center is neutral, and each end is 120 volts AC RMS off neutral, end to end it is 240 VAC RMS.  Hence the 120/240 designation.> This is IDENTICAL to the power coming into your house by the way, save for the amprage.

L-1 and L-2 refer to the two HOT (not neutral) legs, and they are interchangeable in most cases.
That is to say if you "Flip" them and connect L-2 where L-1 normally goes.. nobody will ever notice.
 
All are correct.

For a 30A cord, there are 3 wires - Hot, Neutral and Ground.  It supplies 30 Amp at 120 V.  THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM A DRYER OR WELDER 30A PLUG!!!!!  They deliver 240V!

For 50A service, there are 4 wires - Hot  L1, Hot L2, neutral and Ground.  Measure voltage between L1 and N or L2 and N, you get 120V  Measure from L1 to L2 and you get 240V, just like a home electric stove.

The FIRST thing most RV electrical systems do is to separate L1 to N  and L2 to N  into two separate 120V supply sources.  Thus, you get TWO 50A inputs, or 100A total power available.

The 30A cord only delivers one 30A input.  This is why the 50A service gives so much more available power (3 times) than a 30A service.
 

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