LAND LINES:
Your 15 amp, 30 amp and 50 amp land line provides 120 volt AC at your RV’s power panel. The 50 amp cord pickup 240 volts at the campground pedestal and split the circuits to 120 volts at the power panel.
If you don’t want to purchase a digital voltmeter, buy any NEON night light. This neon lamp will not light below 105 volts. If the neon light goes out, turn off the power to a large appliance or find the low voltage problem. Possibly a bad connection too much load for the power line you are hooked to.
Keep your electrical connections (plug-ins) dry and clean. Should any prongs or receptacles become HOT, turn off the power and examine the electrical parts. You can clean tarnished prongs, but replace a burned part. Use a conductive paste on the prongs to maintain a better connection. Energy is lost whenever HEAT is present. You must remedy these situations.
Store replacement circuit breakers and fuses, some are hard to find in rural areas. Use an experienced electrician if you are not comfortable changing out any electrical part. 120 volts and ½ and amp can stop your heart.
We use an autotransformer as a voltage booster and surge protector – monitor your voltages and do not use shore power if the voltage is below 107 volts or above 130 volts.
Many new energy saving lamps are available today, LED, Florescent, quartz are a few.
Incandescent lamps do not last long, add heat to the rig, and use more power than other lamps. Look on the web for providers of the newest lamps available. Please try this resource: http://www.lunasealighting.com
Please contact me on the web for any additional information and other ideas you may have.
More FREE tips on many subjects are available on rv101byfred.com. Fred Brandeberry
mr_whit
GM, You are RIGHT!
Glen, stay in your coach, that way you can escape the stupid people.
G.M.
Glenn…
While the RV is a great place to hold up during a disaster…and use its resources to power your house in event of loss of power… (good planning)
Be careful about powering the house from the RV. In some places if you do it yourself.. you will need a permit… as its against the law otherwise. Some people that work for the power company are not expecting your power to be on their line when they are supposed to be dead… Thus
you need some professional licensed contractor to put the right disconnect in your house when you do power it up from the RV.
If you don’t you may find the power from the genset backfeeding the neighbors and a bunch of others without you knowing it .. and damage the genset byond repair.
Even then we have had people we didn’t even know come over un announced or asking… an plug their extension cord into the house plugs outside when we had power and the rest didn’t. their attitude is .. if you have it so should they…
When I saw the genset start to go brown suddenly… (lights dimmed) I went outside to see what was wrong.. upon seeing the extension cord running away from the house plug… I went back inside and got the cutters… went back out and removed their plug… cut it off at 3 foot intervals for about 25 feet… and then left it… boy did they get pissed… but, when confronted they acted like we owed them the power because we had our genset running… They demanded we turn it off for the noise… (what noise you couldn’t hear it running..) Seems that they felt like if they can’t get theirs’ your not going to have yours…
Needless to say we parted company with a warning about tresspassing on our property… Later we did find sugar in the MH gas tank for the engine… and knew who did it… but, how do you prove it…
The reasion I tell you all this is because when your house has lights, heat and stands out like a beacon in the night.. expect others to feel like your special… just because your prepaired and they arn’t.
Heaven help us if we ever had a big natural disaster and would probably have to arm up to protect the family from others who think they have rights to our stores equipment and savings. Some people are like sheep lost in the night… all the time. and never plan for anything.
some people think you owe it to them because you have it and they don’t…
Glenn
I have installed a 50 amp circuit for my RV at home. Can you tell me how I can use the generator on the RV for house voltage should we have no power? I believe the Newmar currently has some sort of circuit protection so as not to sent power out.