As long as it works for you Dutch then that's all that matters. Looks like a great site to be at, I imagine you and your co-pilot enjoy some fine times there. To be redundant, as I mentioned in another post, adding a 25' extension to your power cord decreases the actual amperage from what it already is. At least that's what I've been told by "a few in the know". I doubt you have to run your AC in that site however so it most likely doesn't effect you that much if any. Two weeks from now we'll be up on the Oregon coast sitting in a waterfront site that we will be able to drive right into and hookup on the proper side. The park was built to accommodate drive in Class A's so the views of the bay and ocean are spectacular from the front seats if the weather turns and one is forced to be inside to take it all in, etc. Hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend to the max, Bankshot............(aka Terry)
We've run both A/C's a couple of times since we got here. The voltage dropped from 122 to 121 when both were running. Since the power cord rarely, if ever, gets loaded to its full rating, the drop is rarely an issue unless the power source is marginal to begin with.
We have just the one AC unit in our 30 amp coach but it keeps it cool inside even on the hottest days. I did some checking when we first started our great adventures and found out that on "average" the amperage draw for the below most used appliances are as follows: AC - 12 Microwave - 10 Hair Dryer on high - 12 Fridge - 3 TV - 2 Water Heater - 6 gallon, we have a 10 gallon - 11 From what I've learned the average coa30 amp coach only "inputs" about 24 amps so it doesn't take too many higher draw appliances to trip a breaker. And it happened to us a few times early on when the AC was running, the TV was on, the co-pilot was using her hair dryer, the fridge was running on AC, and I decided to heat up my cold cup of coffee in the microwave. It was lights out pretty quick and we both got a lot smarter pretty quick also.............. BankShot.............(aka Terry)
Fully loading a single 30 amp 120-volt supply is much easier to do than fully loading the essentially two 50 amp 120-volt supplies in a 50 amp 120/240-volt service equipped coach connected to a 50 amp per leg source. We've popped a few 30 amp breakers over the years, but never a 50 amp breaker. Your 30 amp RV has a theoretical 3600 watts available, while our 50 amp RV has a theoretical 12,000 watts available. Circuit breaker and other conditions will cut those totals down a bit usually.
I have a 50-amp coach, so I don't know about 30-amp coaches in particular, but is there a reason why it would have only 24 amps available if it's a 30-amp plug? The specific problem you encountered was because you had three high-draw appliances running, but on 30 amps, it's limited to two. Air conditioner, hair dryer, and microwave are high-draw appliances. The refrigerator and TV and similar appliances don't matter. So you were fine with all the usual stuff plus an air conditioner and a hair dryer, and it was the microwave (the third high-draw appliance) that caused the problem. It would have been the same if you'd turned the water heater on on electric, or maybe a coffee maker (I don't use one, so I don't know how much electricity they use) while the air conditioner and hair dryer were going. I spend an enormous amount of time on "compromised" electricity. One place I stay a lot has a 20-amp plug about 150 feet away from the coach. I have a burly extension cord running all that distance, and I frequently run one air conditioner, along with the usual TV, satellite receiver, computers, washing machine (NOT dryer), etc. If I have access to the breaker, I'll also run my refrigerator on it, but since I have the option to use propane for it, if I'm not sure about the electricity and don't have the luxury of just flipping the breaker back on if I trip it, I play it safe and use propane. I do make sure I'm not bulk charging my batteries while I'm doing it (another possible high-draw "appliance"), but if your batteries are full, two high-draw appliances on a 30-amp plus, along with little stuff, should be very possible.
The "24 amps" is related to the typical breakers used in residential/RV park services that will not maintain a sustained draw much above 80% of its rating without eventually tripping. In the case of a 30 amp breaker, that's 24 amps of course. The high momentary loads from an A/C starting up that exceed the breaker rating will usually not trip the breaker unless other loads already have it too near capacity.
One additional factor that RVers often overlook is the draw from the converter/charger. My Magnum inverter can provide >100A (at 12V) of charging current to the batteries if necessary. That amounts to a ~10A load on the 120V circuit that can be critical if you are trying to run on 30A. Normally, if you are plugged in at a site the charger doesn't draw much, but when you first hook up after a day of driving your batteries may be significantly depleted, depending on what you had connected while driving.
A good point, Joel. That's one of those often forgotten "unpredictable" loads that changes on the fly, unlike the "predictable" loads like firing up the microwave or hair dryer.
