Keeping warm on a budget

[chris howell]

We will be camping in the North Georgia Mountains Thanksgiving week we try not to use the furnace to save on propane. I use one electric radiant heater in the living room and when I need to one small electric space heater in the bedroom in the nose. It is a 50 amp site but we still trip the breaker when we turn them on. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening. Thanks,

[homeless]

heating your home office for 8 pence a day- Potheadforkandle- www.keepturningleft.co.uk - YouTube

[no3putt]

Don't know if all the outlets are on the same breaker or not, but check your outlets and put the heaters on seperate breakers/outlets if you can.

[Selah]

I'd have the camp ground check the post. It is possible the campground cannot supply sufficient voltage. In cases of brown out, low voltage, systems like heaters and motors will continue to try and use it's rated power. To make up for the lower voltage it draws more amperage until the circuit trips or it melts the wires. A good surge system like progressive will monitor that and shut down you power before anything bad can happen.
Also check to see if both heaters are on the same circuit, even then you should not be pulling 5500+ watts of electricity.

[Enokie]

Originally Posted by homeless

heating your home office for 8 pence a day- Potheadforkandle- www.keepturningleft.co.uk - YouTube

pretty neat to know, an emergency is just that and a good alternative...
I would put it in the bathtub and close the door, it would heat up pretty quickly and then open the door to allow some of the heat out....
other thought is to bed down in the tub, set candles in the sink, sleep
These things always occur at night don'tcha know...

[bdpreece]

You don't say which breaker you are tripping. If it is one of the coach breakers then you most likely need to leave the breaker tripped while you find a another circuit that is live then plug one heater into each circuit. If it is the breaker at the pedestal then I would be looking at finding a good heavy extension cord and if the pedestal has a 20 amp plug hooking one of the heaters to that via the extension cord.

[RedWing Nut]

I always put the heaters on a lower setting if using more than one. Use electric blankets and kick on the furnace in the morning for a cycle or two.

[Steve N Sal]

You aren't clear on which breaker you"re tripping. If it's a breaker in the 5er then as mentioned you must have both heaters on the same circuit. Other is no way the pedestal breaker should be tripping with just 2 space heaters running unless that breaker is weak. I would have the park check that breaker out if it is the pedestal breaker you are talking about. Good luck.

[BFlinn181]

Not only check that the heaters aren't on the same circuit in the RV, but you might also check and see if they are on different 'legs' of the 50 amp service. Remember with 50 amp service, you have two legs of 50 amp, 120 v power. Try to plug in heaters on different legs. Using them on the low setting is also a good tip, it keeps things safer. If your furnace also has a duct in the wet bay to heat plumbing and tanks, not using the furnace might allow things to get too cold in the wet bay.

[Braselton Nomad]

Off topic a bit...not sure where you are staying...if north of Atlanta on I-75 corridor I HIGHLY recommend McKinney COE campground in Acworth!

[jwomack]

Originally Posted by Selah

I In cases of brown out, low voltage, systems like heaters and motors will continue to try and use it's rated power. To make up for the lower voltage it draws more amperage until the circuit trips or it melts the wires.

This is not a correct statement. Just the opposite is true for a purely resistive (i.e. heater) load.

Ohm's Law is: Amps = Volts/Resistance. In the case of a heater, Resistance is constant. Therefore, amperage will DECREASE as voltage DECREASES.

[milasman]

1500 watt heaters draw 12.5 amps on high.

[jwomack]

Originally Posted by milasman

1500 watt heaters draw 12.5 amps on high.

Only at the rated voltage of 120v. Resistance of the 1500w heater is 9.6 ohms (R=V/I or 120/12.5). At 100v the current draw is I=V/R or 100/9.6 = 10.416 amps. Since power output = I*V, the output of a 1500w heater rated at 120v drops to 1041.6w when applied voltage drops to 100v.
In simple terms, the only constant is the resistance of the heater. The output in watts and the current draw in amps vary with the applied voltage.

Note: This relationship applies ONLY to pure resistive loads such as heating elements or incandescent light bulbs NOT motor or other impedance loads.

[milasman]

No kidding, why the electrical lesson and where did 100v come from? Two 1500 watt heaters could trip a coaches 20 amp breaker, but should be fine on a 50 amp power pole.