740-206-8522 jtesta@teci-rv.com

Electricity 101 – Part 1

 

From the FB group:

So it looks like a few people would like to know a bit more about electricity, so that we will do. For those who are wondering, the answer is 3600 watts, your first formula to know is this:
Volts * Amps = Watts
We will talk about shore power/generator power/inverter power first:
Volts = 120
Amps = 30 Amp (as in the survey)
120 * 30 = 3600
This is a 50 amp shore cord to 30 Amp receptacle adapter, so the 3 prongs looks like your 30 amp shore cord:
That is the max draw before you would trip the breaker in your RV or the campground pedestal (assuming your are plugged into the 3 prong, 30 Amp receptacle.
If you are not comfortable asking your questions about what I talked about in this thread here)on FB), feel free to text me at 740-206-8522 or email me at info@rvmentor.com
Next up will be 50 Amp RV, based on what you know now, will the RV max watts be 6000? <— this is a trick question for those who might not be familiar with a 50 Amp RV.
Watts for 50 Amp RV shore cord, here is the tricky part with a 50A, there are 4 wires coming in, a ground, a neutral and 2 hot wires, so you’d think you got 6000 watts. 50 Amps * 120 Volts = 6000 watts but since there are 2 hot wires, you have to multiply the number of watts by 2, so in reality it is 12,000 watts.
This is a 30 amp shore cord to 50 Amp receptacle adapter, so the 4 prongs looks like your 50 amp shore cord.   
So you can see the math says it is more than 3 times amount of watts as compared to a 30 Amp RV, hence the reason there are 2 air conditioners, and it can run bunches of other stuff at the same time.
As always, questions can be asked here, or to me privately at 740-206-8522 or info@rvmentor.com, have a great weekend.