So I finally got around to diagnosing my inverter problem, which involved pulling all of the boxes out of our “basement” and crawling inside so that I could get an up-close-and-personal look at the inverter.\u00a0 And there, right on the top of the box, was the label: CONverter.\u00a0 Not INverter.\u00a0 Instead of changing 12V DC to 120V AC it does the opposite – changes 120V AC to 12V DC.\u00a0 As my problem involves the 120V circuits, that box clearly could not be implicated.<\/p>\n
So take a step back, take a deep breath and think.\u00a0 THINK, dammit!<\/p>\n
Well, it seemed like the next thing to do would be to check out the breaker box and make double-darn sure that all of the breakers were functioning.\u00a0 So I got my trusty voltmeter (now over 40 years old, I think) and took the cover off of the breaker box.\u00a0 I made sure that all of the breakers were in the ON positions, then checked the voltage coming out of each one.<\/p>\n
Well, well, well… the two breakers to the right of the main breaker had no voltage at all!\u00a0 So I removed one of the breakers and checked the voltage on the bus (the metal bar that provides the incoming current).\u00a0 Nothing!\u00a0 But the voltage to the other breakers – the ones to the left of the main breaker – was fine.<\/p>\n
Light began to dawn.\u00a0 Seems that the 50A electric supply is provided with 2 120V feeds, just as in any normal 240V setup.\u00a0 And it seemed that we were getting power on just one of the two feeds.<\/p>\n
Next step: check the voltage at the campground box.\u00a0 Both sides of the outlet were fine – 120V each.<\/p>\n
This points the finger at my power cable.\u00a0 Maybe one of the wires is broken or loose.\u00a0 My guess is the male connector – which was held on with electrical tape when we bought the RV – has finally failed.\u00a0 I just got a replacement connector today and will install it soon.\u00a0 I will let you know.<\/p>\n
All of this left me with a couple of questions:<\/p>\n
1. What is on the two circuits on the dead side of the breaker box?\u00a0 Clearly the refrigerator and the hot water heater are both there, though not labeled.\u00a0 When this is all done and everything is functioning again I am going to have to spend some time correcting the labeling in the breaker box.<\/p>\n
2. What is the actual impact of hooking up to a 30A service instead of a 50A service?\u00a0 I had thought that it was just a matter of the peak power available, but as the 30A service is (I think) a single 120V feed, I am wondering if the two breakers that are dead now are also dead in a 30A scenario. Another thing to investigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So I finally got around to diagnosing my inverter problem, which involved pulling all of the boxes out of our “basement” and crawling inside so that I could get an up-close-and-personal look at the inverter.\u00a0 And there, right on the top of the box, was the label: CONverter.\u00a0 Not INverter.\u00a0 Instead of changing 12V DC … Continue reading