I assume that you are aware that a 50A shore power connection is two legs at 50A each for a total of 100A. It is actually a 220v connection with two 110v legs that are out of phase.
Existing 30 amp main panel upgrade to 50 amp panel
- Thread starter Straycat22296
- Start date
Yes, but for those of us on 110V, we simply don't connect one of the legs. It isn't a 100A service when both legs are used for 220V, or when one is used for 110V. It is still 50A in all cases.
Mark
Mark
As far as I have ever seen, all 50A shore power plugs are 4-pin connectors.
If you are using a standard four pin shore power 50A supply, you have one leg that provides 50A @ 120v from the black wire and a second leg that also provides 50A @ 120v from the red wire. The voltage in the black wire is 180º out of phase from the red wire. If you use only 120v circuits, you will be able to use 50A from the black wire and another 50A from the red wire. On my motorhome, I have a 50A system and two of my air conditioners are on the black wire and one on the red because the three of them consume more than the 50A supplied on each leg. I have a 10kw generator. 10,000w is equal to 10,000w / 120v = 83.3A so I have just a little less power on generator than I do on shore power.
When you measure AC voltage, what is being measured it the max voltage measured from 0v where the voltage inverts to the peak of the sine-wave cycle. If you measure from either the black or red supply wire to the white common wire, it will show 120v [+120v - 0v = 120v]. At the moment in the cycle where the black wire is at +120v, the red wire will be at -120v. If you measure the voltage between the black and red wires, it will read 240v because what you are measuring is +120v - (-120v) = 240v
Here is a good video explaining how it works.
Here is a video from the same guy showing how the wiring works to get 240v from two 120v legs.
No one has suggested measuring the actual AC current with a clamp-on meter. The Power Energy Panel Meter that you have ordered will do this, but a clamp-on is easy and fast. You might find out that the main 30A breaker is tripping at a lower current than the spec. If that were the case, the breaker could be faulty. A simple replacement might just solve you power gobbling problem.
