Friday, September 23, 2011

Before You Blow Your BREAKER!

Some great advise from Good Sam...

Take a minute and see how many amps you could be using in your RV or Camper's 30 or 50 amp electrical system. Its surprising how fast the amps add up which causes your breaker or Campsite's breaker to "trip". Knowing the amps of all the electrical appliances in your RV or Camper can help you manage electrical use and prevent the inconvenience of "My Electricity Went Out!" This list is the typical appliances used and the average amps required to operate them:

Air Conditioner: 15 - 17 amps

Refrigerator: 5.7 amps

Electric Water Heater: 12.5 amps

Microwave Oven: 12.8 amps

Electric Coffee Pot: 9 amps

Toaster: 10 amps

Hair Dryer: 10 amps

TV: 2 amps

Dirt Devil Hand Vacuum: 2 amps

Electric Fry Pan: 10 amps

Iron: 10 amps

Food Processor: 6 amps

Crock Pot: 1.5 amps

Heating Pad: 0.5 amps

1,100 Watt Heater: 10 amps

In the morning, if your air conditioning and the electric hot water heater is on, and then you start the coffee pot, make some toast, watch some TV, you ill be pulling 50 amps and LOOK OUT! Most RVs have a switch so you can run only the microwave or the hot water heater at one time - HOWEVER NOT ALL RVS HAVE THIS FEATURE.

Most electrical products show how many watts or amps it takes to operate the appliance printed on the product itself or on the instructions. If it shows the watts, divide the watts by 120 (volts) and that gives you the amps. To get the watts, multiply the amps by 120 (volts).


Its worth your time to take an inventory on the "amps" each of your electrical appliance uses, then you can manage your total usage at one time and this greatly reduces the "My Electricity Went Out!" anxiety.

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