15 Amp Service

[haste_maker]

We are going to visit family this Christmas & will be parking in their yard & they said we can plug into their house system...but it is only 15 amp...what do we need to NOT turn on with this low amp service?

[larry_cad]

down home wrote:
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[down_home]

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[down_home]

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[howdy35]

How Long are you going to stay? Will you be going back again any time soon. If so, check the breaker box and see if there is room for a 30 amp breaker. If so, pigtail a 30 amp breaker outside the box on the wall of the garage. Not too expensive. Home Depot or Lowes has the stuff. Assuming the control panel is in the garage Easy to do. I have done it three times at my kids houses. That is if you have any electrical knowledge or know of someone who can help. Just a thought. Otherwise all the suggestions before certainly apply. Happy travels. Arnold

[down_home]

We had a 50 amp box installed at our Relaatives for our stay for 120.00 including the box.however there were two 50 amp brekers installed in the breaker box in their garage.
Two breakers should cost about 30-50 dollar, if you have room from them in the service panel wherever it is installed in the home or garage.If not call an Electrician and have him look at it. Might require another smaller service panel.
It is cold at nigher herein the Mohave, and many times the Heat pumps kick out and the furnaces kick in using a lot of propane. Might cost you snd or relative 300.00 but how much would it cost to stay that amount of time in a good RV park. If you sewer access and 50 amp couldn't ask fro more.
No sewer access, gettting a plumber, who knows sewer systems to install an RV fittign aand piece of pie to swer tank or line might cost as little as 200.00 or as much as.....
On 15 amp or 20 amp all yu can run is the refrigerator and lights, and small tv. Whatever you can run on a 15-20 amp single circuit at home,Most kitchens have at least two circuits one per 20 amp breaker such as the kitchen plug ins at home is all you can use in the RV.

[rgatijnet1]

I just thought I would add one more thing to this topic. For about $20 you can buy a Kill-A-Watt meter to plug in to your RV cord as it is plugged into any 120 volt outlet. With the Kill-a-Watt meter you can tell EXACTLY what each appliance uses in terms of watts or amps. It will also tell you what your RV is using at idle, or when you think you have everything turned off. Then you can determine exactly what can and cannot be used when you power input is limited with a 15 amp circuit. Kill-A-Watt

[larry_cad]

hohenwald48 wrote:
15 amp is pretty simple as long as the weather is not very hot or very cold. Just pay attention and you'll be fine. If you have an EMS just manually set it down to 15 amp service and let it regulate the load if not then that task will fall on you. If you trip the breaker just reset it and go on.

Someone suggested using a plastic bag in the toilet. For the life of me I can't figure out how that conserves electricity. :?

:h

[hohenwald48]

15 amp is pretty simple as long as the weather is not very hot or very cold. Just pay attention and you'll be fine. If you have an EMS just manually set it down to 15 amp service and let it regulate the load if not then that task will fall on you. If you trip the breaker just reset it and go on.

Someone suggested using a plastic bag in the toilet. For the life of me I can't figure out how that conserves electricity. :?

[olfarmer]

Just don't run more than one thing at a time that draws a lot of current. My wife's hair dryer and a vacuum cleaner have both kicked a breaker for me. Any thing with a heat element draws a lot of current. Just take it easy and you will be fine, the worst that can happen is to trip a circuit breaker.

[Octaneforce]

I store my rv next to my house on a 15amp circuit. I have an electric heater running non stop, a few lights, the fridge on electric (cold beers at all times) and when im in there tinkering i have the tv on. This is pretty much the exact limit. Sometimes i run the water and the pump trips the breaker. If im tinkering during the summer I’ll start the generator and turn on the ac because i sweat like shaq at the foul line.

If you overdo it you’ll just trip the breaker. Not a big deal. Depending on how long you are there, you’ll learn precisely what you can run without tripping it.

[haste_maker]

Thanks for all the reply's, I have learned some new things to do & seen some things I had in mind to do.

[Oasisbob]

It will be trial and error as you know not what else is on that house circuit you tap into. Run propane where possible and you might be okay

[2oldman]

He's gone.

[DrewE]

cavie wrote:
If you trip the house GFI with very little load, then turn off the GFI circuit in you RV.

This makes little sense to me. The GFCI circuit in the RV would be about the only one there that I would suspect has no ground fault, causing the other to trip. There's generally no problem with chaining GFCIs one after the other; indeed, it happens quite frequently as modern hair dryers have what is basically a GFCI built into the plug, and are very often plugged into GFCI outlets.

The most common reason for an RV to cause a GFCI to trip is that there is some hitherto undiscovered wiring problem, such as a fridge heating element that leaks current or a neutral/ground fault somewhere in the wiring. Finding said problem is not always a simple task.