Running house airs on 30 amps

[Mr_D]

Was out trying to work in the MH and it was getting hot. Rig is beside the stick house and on 30 amps. Tried to turn on one of the three heat pumps and none would run, not even on fan. Is that the way they're set up? If so then that means we HAVE to have a 50 amp shore connection to get any cooling at all. Not sure I like that as some parks still only have 30 amps.

[96 Wideglide]

Thats odd !
You don't by chance have a zone set to Aqua hot do you?

[BrianGlenn]

My Allure can run the fans on 15 amps (no heat pump). The controller needs 12V, but I think you know that; house batteries must be on.

The Intellitec 800 power management system in my coach will show 30/20 amp with all circuits powered, until 30/20A are exceeded then cut back circuits staring with electric water heater, then bedroom heat pump, etc.

They all should at least start to run, until load amperage exceeds settings on power management system.

Brian

[BarneyM]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

Was out trying to work in the MH and it was getting hot. Rig is beside the stick house and on 30 amps. Tried to turn on one of the three heat pumps and none would run, not even on fan. Is that the way they're set up? If so then that means we HAVE to have a 50 amp shore connection to get any cooling at all. Not sure I like that as some parks still only have 30 amps.

Mr D,

Your AC units should work fine on 30 amps if the receptacle is wired correctly. If it's wired like a 30 amp dryer, then it is wrong and your protection in the motor home is not letting the voltage through, for good reason. The 30 amp RV receptacle wiring is completely different being it's only 1 leg of 30 amps at 120 volts. If you try to connect 30 amp 240 volts with this connection you will do real serious damage inside the motor home. You will be running 240 volts to everything instead of 120 volts! That's why you protection will not allow it to pass.

If you have a 30 amp 240 volt receptacle beside your home just replace it with a 50 amp receptacle and you will have 2 legs of 30 amp at 120 volts instead of just one if wired as a normal 30 amp RV plug. It would be the same as a 50 amp, but only at 30 amps. Should be able to run 2 AC units this way as opposed to only 1 with the normal 30 amp RV connection. Works great at my place.

Hope this makes sense?

[MT4Runner]

Flip off all your other circuits (breakers) and try only the one heat pump.

Most RV AC's should run on a bit under 20A. If you have two or more, that's obviously over 30A.


50A is almost 4x the wattage (and has capacity to run three), since you're 50A x 220V = 11,000W.
30A is only 110V or 3,300W.

My guess is that your refrigerator or something else is drawing power and causing your sticks house breaker to trip when you run the one heat pump.

[Mr_D]

Setting was on fan on all three zones or off. Didn't change a thing.
The wiring of the 30 amp is correct, it's been in place for almost 30 years now and has run every TT and MH we've ever had. EMS is passing full voltage according to the readout.
It's not throwing the main breaker.
And there should be 3,600 (120 X 30) watts available rather than 12,000 (50 X 120 X 2) like with a true 50 amp RV plug. 3,600 watts is enough to run at least one of the units. In fact with the Dutch Star I could run both 13.5 heat pumps at the same time on 30 amps.

[96 Wideglide]

Fire up the generator to make sure the problem is'nt with the AC's.

[deandec]

My old Magna will run one 15k heat pump/AC on 15A.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Fire up the generator to make sure the problem is'nt with the AC's.

I did that too, then got my infrared temp gauge out and checked the air temps coming in. The front and rear were giving 62° air and the middle one was 72°.

[Mr_D]

Damon says it's probably becaus I set the incoming electrical to less than 30 amps. Which I did do a week or so ago. I'll have to reset it and try again. Didn't even think of that possibility!

[Medico]

With judicious use of other circuits, I can run 2 ACs on 30 A. If I say, start the dryer, or the coffee maker or microwave, then I might trip the pedestal. Using 1 AC, say zone 2, I can get cooling throughout, depending on how hot ambient really is, and run almost anything else as long as I don't run everything at once.

On a side note, the 50 A on my lot was tripping when I ran 2 ACs and the dryer and turned the electric hot water on. I replaced the breaker and the plug, and it has not tripped since, no matter how much I run, 3 ACs, electric hot water, dryer, TV many chargers (phones PCs) coffee maker, residential fridge, etc. all at once. Moral of the story, the breaker and/or plug may be getting weak!

[Mr_D]

I am NOT tripping the breaker anywhere. Someone else mentioned that but I didn't as it doesn't happen
I reset the incoming to 50 amp and could then run zone 2 and 3 heat pumps on fan but zone 1 still won't run.
Damon is telling me that I should leave the incoming setting on 30 even when on a 50 amp shore connection. He says if I leave it on 30 I can draw too many amps. I think he's confused on how a 50 amp RV plug is wired.
If anyone has the option to run the front air on the inverter can you tell me where the switch is? I don't think I have that option but Damon wondered if that would be why the zone 1 won't run on shore power.

[B Bob]

When we are connected to 30 amps we run one heat pump / AC without doing anything. I just make sure no big draws like battery chargers kick on at full tilt and trip the breaker. We connect to 30 amps all the time with no issues unless it is really hot and we need two or three airs.

[spinn]

We're you using the coach power cable or did you have an extension? You can have a significant voltage loss over a long cable