RV electric outlet in garage

[jacwjames]

I built my own house followed by a 40X50' garage. When I was building the house I added an RV type service panel to the temp pole that had the 50/30/20 amp outlets. Electrical inspector asked what that was for, I told him that at some point I would be moving my RV to the location and wanted to be able to plug in. Worked out great.

As I was doing the electrical I went crazy with 50 amp outlets, put on in the garage (which could be used for EV charging), and one on the outside of the garage, which I used after the temp pole was removed.

I then used the RV panel in a parking area where I eventually built my garage. It has been used for visitors.

After I build the garage I added a 50 amp outlet there.

So I have 4 of the 50 amp outlets. Can never have too many

[Charlesland]

Have you checked the breaker to the garage circuit? Often it is a 20 amp circuit with 15 amp recepticles. But you shouldnt load a circuit to more than 80% of rated capacity if a continuous load. If it is a 20 amp breaker (which should be fed by #12 wire), 16 amps is ok if that is the only load on that circuit. 17 amps may work short term but if you are going to do this regularly get a 30 amp circuit.
I have had bad luck with adapters like you show overheating and melting down. The dog bone adapters are much better.
I agree with other posts. Dont bother having a 20 amp clt installed . Go for 30. If your electrician will look at the 30 amp plug on your rv he will see that it is 120 volt. If he still objects get a real electrician. Ez

[Steve-n-Sue]

If I understand your situation, your coach uses a 50a plug and you're gonna pay an electrician to install a 30a outlet and use a 50 to 30 adapter. If that's the case, why not just install a 50a outlet, and be done with it? The labor should be the same, and the material cost shouldn't be all that much more. You'll need #6/40 instead of #10/3 and a two pole breaker instead of a single pole, and the receptacle will be a little more, but you'll have the outlet you need, without any need for adapters, and you'll be able to run anything that you can run in a campground, right in your driveway.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Steve-n-Sue

If I understand your situation, your coach uses a 50a plug and you're gonna pay an electrician to install a 30a outlet and use a 50 to 30 adapter.

No. The coach is 30 amps. The electrician suggested installing a 50 amp plug and using an adapter to drop that down to 30 amps. He was thinking that we might move up to a 50 amp RV or that some friends with 50 amp rigs might come to visit, but both are very unlikely and the local HOA would not allow camping in the driveway in any case.

[Red Rocker]

A friend & I just did that yesterday, it's so simple even I could do it, but he is a pro at bending conduit. Hard to believe an electrician doesn't know how to wire up a 30 amp plug.

[tgundy]

Originally Posted by Alpine36

Personally I wouldn’t bother with a 20a.
Run the 30a just like this to a 30a dedicated breaker in the garage panel. (Or better yet 50a if your garage circuit is capable)
Many use a simple wall mount conduit drop out of the panel to your desired location. A NEC approved ground rod should be utilized for this circuit.

Agreed. Just did this myself. I mounted on the outside of my garage with a weatherproof cover.

[bigb56]

Originally Posted by Alpine36

Personally I wouldn’t bother with a 20a.
Run the 30a just like this to a 30a dedicated breaker in the garage panel. (Or better yet 50a if your garage circuit is capable)
Many use a simple wall mount conduit drop out of the panel to your desired location. A NEC approved ground rod should be utilized for this circuit.

Why would you think a grounding rod is necessary for this circuit?

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Charlesland

Have you checked the breaker to the garage circuit? Often it is a 20 amp circuit with 15 amp recepticles. But you shouldnt load a circuit to more than 80% of rated capacity if a continuous load.

The garage has a 15 amp circuit breaker and a 15 amp outlet. In the past I had been using that as our previous RV did not draw too much power when running the AC and the 12 volt fridge, but our current RV draws more than 15 amps for the AC and propane fridge when it is hot in the RV. I was surprised that the current draw varied so much, depending upon the temperature differential between the outside air and the inside of the RV, but when we start cooling down the RV the current draw is 16.5-17 amps, and after it has cooled down later at night (this is southern Arizona so the term "cooled down" has to be taken with a grain of salt) the draw drops down to about 12.5-13 amps.

The electrician is going to install a 30 amp RV outlet, probably outside the house under the panel, and I will be plugging into that.

[SkipWatson]

I've seen lots of posts here where people had an electrician wire up a 30 Amp outlet and fried their electronics. Trouble is, is most electricians hear "30 amp" and they immediately think "drier," which is 240 volts, not 120. Just be sure to make them aware you are talking a 30 Amp, 120 volt, NOT 240 volt circuit and they should be able to get it right. (Make sure they know you know what you're talking about, or, even though you specify 120 volt, they may think "no, my friend, 30 Amp circuits are 240, so that's what I'm putting in").

[bigb56]

Originally Posted by SkipWatson

I've seen lots of posts here where people had an electrician wire up a 30 Amp outlet and fried their electronics. Trouble is, is most electricians hear "30 amp" and they immediately think "drier," which is 240 volts, not 120. Just be sure to make them aware you are talking a 30 Amp, 120 volt, NOT 240 volt circuit and they should be able to get it right. (Make sure they know you know what you're talking about, or, even though you specify 120 volt, they may think "no, my friend, 30 Amp circuits are 240, so that's what I'm putting in").

I would hope that there are not any electricians still around who would wire up a 3 wire clothes dryer circuit as it has been illegal to do this since the 1996 NEC adoption.

[Chuckge]

Home Depot has them. Take your phone and show the clerk this email with the pictures. I would pick up the wire and breaker, give to your electrician tell him you are supplying the materials he just supplies the labor

[dannonebr]

Wiring for shore power is pretty straight forward. If your propane/electric refrigerator has problems cooling on warm or hot days maybe the condenser (the cooling fins or coils on the back of fridge) are not getting enough air flow to provide enough heat dissipation. Basically the refrigeration system removes the heat from inside the refer and dissipates it outside to coils on the back of the unit. I've had this problem on most all of my RVs and all I did is place a 12 volt DC fan in back to provide a bit of air flow. After that even on hot days the refer stays cold even when setting in the sun with the AC off. I made my own that is something like this: https://www.beech-lane.com/fridge-vent-fan and have never had to run my AC to keep the fridge cool. I also use a small fan inside the fridge. Here is another article: https://www.mortonsonthemove.com/the...igerator-fans/ and that helped mine a lot.

If you suspect you are having problems with shore power wiring try something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Protector-Briidea-Adapter-Analyzer-Indicator/dp/B08XNL6T2T/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=rv+Surge+Protector+30+amp%2C+W ENYIN+rv+Circuit+Analyzer+with+LED+Indicator+Light &qid=1674430086&sr=8-9

Warm beer just doesn't cut it. I hope this is what you are looking for and helps.

[TucsonTom]

Originally Posted by AJMike

We travel a lot in the summer, trying to get away from the heat here in southern Arizona, and we prep our RV in our driveway. But to do that we need to run the roof AC to get the inside cool enough to allow the fridge to cool down and I don't want to use the generator to do that. In the past (with other RVs) we used to just plug the RV into the 15 amp outlet in our garage and run the AC, but our current RV draw about 16-17 amps just to run the AC so that no longer works for us.

I thought I would have either a 20 amp regular outlet or a 30 amp RV outlet installed in the garage to take care of the issue, but many of the electricians I have spoken with are unfamiliar with the 30 amp RV outlet and all of the normal-outlet-to-RV adapters I have or have seen are 15 amps, so I am a bit stuck. (The adapter type I am talking about is one like this one).

Are there any 20 amp adapters available? If so, where? I have not seen any on Amazon. And are there any special wiring instructions for a normal 30 amp RV outlet?

I am a bit nervous about having an electrician who does not know about RV outlets wire up something that I will plug the RV into. The last one I spoke with said he assumed it was 220 volts and that does not give me much confidence. Also, any other suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks.

Hey AJ! You just need a smarter electrician! It’s not rocket science! We have a 50 amp plug in next to our main electrical panel. I would go full out 30 plug in.

[DRAGN83]

Originally Posted by AJMike

Thank you for the information. I have downloaded the images and will use them if I find an electrician who seems to know what he (or she) is doing.

I live in MN but I didn't have any trouble finding an electrician who knew exactly what I wanted. Turns out by coincidence the guy I used had done work for a campground in the past. You might try asking any local campgroundsnwho does their work. Another thing is that my guy said that doing a 50 amp would hardly cost more than a 30 amp. I was glad I went with the 50 because we upgraded our travel trailer and the new one is 50 amp. So the 50 gave us a bit of future proofing. While you have a 30 amp RV you can just use a 50 to 30 adapter.