Sunday, February 27, 2011

CIRCUIT

When our various jobs provide full hook ups, and most of them do,  we tend to go total electric. It saves on propane cost and the associated time and labor to go get it. For example our 100 pound propane tank cost $67 to fill in Campbellsville Kentucky, along with an hour’s time and the expense of a 18 mile drive.

Our Coleman is a 30 amp service fifth wheel. Which is a plenty, until we try to save a bit on propane.

If we put the refrigerator, hot water heater and the interior heat on electricity, using after market heaters, we get an occasional breaker trip. And then, something will have to be turned off in order to run high current draw appliances such as the microwave, electric skillet or toaster oven.

This much appliance use is right up there at maximum capacity. Should we be in a Winter work situation like we are for Amazon’s CHRISTmas rush season in Campbellsville, and turn off one heater, the interior temperature drops while we are cooking with the hot plate.

We needed a simple fix, a way to add electrical capacity, inexpensively.

Many campground electrical services look like this:

20-50amp-2 or this:  50AMP1-2 so, we decided to simply add a extra 20 amp circuit that could just plug into the service with a drop cord.

We ran the cord through the regular power port’s compartment, then through the basement and permanently mounted it by the stairs that go to the sleeping loft. Here is a look:

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For safety this extra circuit is in a metal box and well grounded. Betty says that now she doesn’t have to worry about turning something off before using the electric skillet.

Even after a year in SPF-60, we are still finding small ways to make things more comfortable.

1 comment:

Pete said...

Golly gee wizz, Larry! 30AMP + 20AMP + 500WATTS solar power! What's next? Ya gonna teach Gordo's itty bitty cousins to run on exercise wheels for back up, back up at Trujillo Meadows?