Going from 50 to 30 AMPS
At the start of our RV adventure, we had 50 amps of electricity. Recently, we moved to a site with only 30 amps, so we dug out our dogbone and plugged in. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and to be honest the whole watts to amps to volts stuff completely confuses me. We're still learning, but I wanted to give a brief, easy to understand comparison of 50 and 30 amps (no conversions required).
I'm sure if you've been following our previous posts you've noticed... we use mostly electric appliances. This is because we are used to them and we have free electricity. Now, 20 amps make a pretty significant difference in our day to day, but we've managed to get used to it... or are trying to.
It's spring now, so we aren't running the heaters as much. On 50 amps you can run 2 1500 watt heaters, microwave some broccoli, watch TV, and pretty much anything else you want to do. That's not the case on 30 amps. You can really only run 1 big appliance like at a time.
Our hookups with the dogbone connecting our 50 amp plug to a 30 amp site
Energy Suckers
Our breaker panel, which we have become very familiar with...
So what items take up the most power?
Microwave
Electric Heaters
Crock Pot
Water Heater (if running on electric)
Hair Dryer
Electric Kettle or Keurig
Air Conditioners
These items typically can't be run simultaneously on 30 amps. It takes some planning to cook, shower, make coffee, etc. We still accidently trip our breaker sometimes, because we got spoiled with 50 amps for so long.
Plan Ahead
Here are a few tips that have worked for us so far:
During more extreme weather, we try to get sites with 50 amps, so we can run our heaters and air conditioners without tripping anything. What can I say, we like being comfortable!
We also leave the water heater on while we're out, since we don't have any other appliances running. This way we usually have some warm water, and it doesn't take so long to heat up when we want to shower.
Try to find energy efficient appliances. Our tiny ceramic heaters only take 250 watts. This is enough to keep our bathroom from freezing and our windshield nice and dry. Our dehumidifier doesn't draw much power at all, so it stays on all the time.
Keep a good stock of propane when you know you're going to be running on less power. This way, you can run your furnace or stove while using other electronics.
That's the rundown. What tips do you have for conserving power? Leave a comment below and subscribe for email updates!