Line 1 and Line 2 - 30 Amp Power

[rfournelle]

I have a question regarding 30 amp connections. It may have been answered before but can't find it.

I am connected to a 30 amp connection with two separate breakers for it. One of the breaker tripped a couple of times yesterday but only the one. I have a remote display for a 50 amp surge protector and it indicated over 30 amps on line 2 but only 2 amps on line 1.

My question is: Can I operate with less than 30 amps on both line, even though the total is more than 30 amps, without tripping any of the breakers?

Thanks so much for any details you can provide.

Bob

 

[justafordguy]

A 30 AMP RV service should only have one line and 1 single pole 30amp breaker.

 

[danemayer]

Bob,

I'm not clear on what you have. Is the RV cord a 50 amp cord plugged into a 50-->30 adapter, plugged into a single 30 amp receptacle? And for some reason there are 2 circuit breakers controlling the 30 amp receptacle (two 15 amp breakers?)

Or is your 50 amp cord plugged into some type of Y adapter with two 30 amp plugs going to separate 30 amp receptacles; each 30 amp receptacle on its own 30 amp breaker?

Could you describe it in a bit more detail.

 

[brianharrison]

Campground pedestal has two breaker for two plug ins? One 30A and the other 20 or 15A? You are plugged into the one 30A?

Your remote display shows amperage for L1 and L2 on your 50 A service; obviously you are drawing more than 30A because the loads you were running were all on the L2 buss in your AC distribution panel.

When plugged into a single 30A service, the sum of both L1 and L2 has to be below 30A.

If you have one of those special two 30A males to 1 50 female dogbone, and the pedestal has two separate 30A services that are wired with separate hots/neutrals/grounds from the main service, then you should be able to run up to 30A on each leg, L1 and L2. I have not been in a campground that has been wired this way.

Brian

EDIT - sorry Dan, started this note an hour ago and just posted; a bit duplicate to your post.

 

[scottyb]

Is this one of those places that has 50A plugs with only 30A breakers? I read about these somewhere recently.

 

[rfournelle]

Bob,

I'm not clear on what you have. Is the RV cord a 50 amp cord plugged into a 50-->30 adapter, plugged into a single 30 amp receptacle? And for some reason there are 2 circuit breakers controlling the 30 amp receptacle (two 15 amp breakers?)

Or is your 50 amp cord plugged into some type of Y adapter with two 30 amp plugs going to separate 30 amp receptacles; each 30 amp receptacle on its own 30 amp breaker?

Could you describe it in a bit more detail.

I have a 50 amp cord plugged into a 50-->30 adapter, plugged into a single 30 amp receptacle. I now understand from comments received that both L1 and L2 cannot exceed 30 amps.

But, the electrical post has 5 connections: 2 - 15 amps and 3 -30 amps. What I find confusing is that the breakers are 3 - 30 amps and 2 - 15 amps that are attached. That is both are tripped at the same time. I don't understand why 2 separate 15 amps connections do not have individual breakers.

Bob

 

[jmgratz]

Sounds to me like the park had the two 30 amp breaker wired together. Screwy...

 

[brianharrison]

I have a 50 amp cord plugged into a 50-->30 adapter, plugged into a single 30 amp receptacle. I now understand from comments received that both L1 and L2 cannot exceed 30 amps.

But, the electrical post has 5 connections: 2 - 15 amps and 3 -30 amps. What I find confusing is that the breakers are 3 - 30 amps and 2 - 15 amps that are attached. That is both are tripped at the same time. I don't understand why 2 separate 15 amps connections do not have individual breakers.

Bob

The two "ganged" 15 amp breakers (if one trips the other will be pulled into the tripped position at the same time) are probably because the campground has wired the two 15 amp circuits with a single 4 wire home run, sharing the neutral/common back to the source transformer. Shared (tandem) circuits (with two hots) are usually breakered with ganged switches. The official term is "Multi-Wire Branch circuits", and the two hots are out of phase.

The 4 wire (two hots, one neutral, one ground) cable was probably cheaper than running two separate 3 wire (one hot, one neutral, one ground) cables back to the service/source.

Brian