Shore Power Voltage / Surge Guard Monitor

[John Neff]

I am parked at a site with only 30 Amp service. The power post is showing 118 volts on a power meter. The Surge Guard Monitor shows only 106 volts on each leg. I have switched the refrigerator and hot water to propane. If I turn on one air conditioner the Surge Guard shows low voltage (97-98) and the system switches to inverter. Can anyone help explain the variance in the power post and the Surge Guard?

It is hot and muggy so AC would be useful.

[RJay]

Two questions, when you took the voltage readings at the power post was the power cord plugged in? Are you sure your hooked up to a 30 amp source and not a 50 amp source? The reason I ask the second question is there is only on live leg on a 30 amp connection and you mentioned you get 106 volts on each leg at the surge guard. The reason for my first question is when you take a voltage measurement from the power pedestal receptacle you are reading open circuit voltage and it doesn't tell you if you have a voltage drop problem which it sounds like you do.

Basically, the voltage at the surge guard is correct. When you plugged into the power pedestal you place a load on the power source and the resulting voltage is what is really available to you. My advice would be to run your generator to power you RV and NOT use the pedestal.

[John Neff]

RJay,

Thanks for your reply. The electrical cord was not plugged and it is 30A service.

Since I posted a new situation has occurred. The RS2000 has gone into bypass mode. The voltage at the Surge Guard monitor has increased to 111-112 volts. I have the xantrex owner's guide out trying figure out what is bypass mode.

[Old Scout]

By-pass means the inverter is nolonger charging the bats--how it got there is curious--usually you have to turn off the charger function manually. Beyond the water heater, microwave and the A/Cs, the inverter can pull upwards of 20 amps when first charging the bats. With the inverter charger turned off or turned down on "power share" to say 5-10 amps, you should be able to run one A/C and a few things like TV or lights on 30 amps--unless the park power is really low/overloaded [below 104 volts while under load].

[RJay]

John,
What are the LED's flashing on the RC7 remote? If the battery voltage falls below 10.5 volts the inverter will shut off.

As night time comes the air conditioning load will start to taper off and the voltage should start to increase. The voltage at this point is just too low to risk damaging your appliances.

[EngineerMike]

A crumby park will have low voltage when stuff is running, but fine voltage when nothing is. Plug in your coach and its connected load draw adds to the voltage drop.

The 30A plug takes the single 120V leg that feeds the pedestal plug and "splits" it to each of the legs wired in the coach, so on 30A your Surge Guard will show same volts on each leg. On 50A where you actually get two legs, they will show some difference most days, tho it may be negligible.

[takepride]

This and Thousand Trails is exactly why I bought a buck booster. No problems since.

[John Neff]

Thanks to everyone. The problem is the power grid in the park and everything in the coach operated as it should. Our next location will have 50A.

[Batman_777]

Just a note: More electronics are damaged from low voltage than high. It's like trying to draw too much water from too small of a tap.