# Another A/c Issue



## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

This weekend the A/C breaker kept popping during the day. It was fine at night. It was unusually hot here, around 105, and the campground was full. We ran the A/C for 3 days straight in 100 degree weather when we were in Palm Springs a few months ago with no problems. My guess is it was either low voltage or a power surges. The town a few miles from the campground lost all power for several hours one day. We came home early Sunday because the dog's and kid's had had enough of the heat. We don't have A/C at home so when we got home Sunday I pulled out the Hondas and the A/C ran for about 6 hours with no problems. 
My questions. Can the A/C be damaged if the breaker keeps blowing? I've heard about the A/C shutting down and having to be reset, should the unit itself have shut down instead of the breaker blowing if there was a power issue? Is there something else I should check and not just assume it was a power issue at the campground?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

In a nut shell your breaker did what it should have done. You should be fine but you can damage your AC compressor due to low voltage.

Buy a volt meter and check it regularly, if voltage drops to 108. Turn off the AC and get the generators out. Better to use them then damage the AC unit.


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## tripphammer (Oct 3, 2006)

x2 what Andy said.









Take Care,
Tripp


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Just to cover the obvious, we will blow the breaker everytime when running the A/C and microwave while the converter is running, or the electric water heater element is on, etc... Heck, I will still trip the breaker with just the micro and A/C. Seems like I have a twitchy 30amp breaker.

Anyway, total power consumption adds up alot faster than you would expect.


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## WACOUGAR (Dec 20, 2006)

Just wondering? What's it like to run the air conditioner? We've never done that!!! We went out last weekend and ran the HEATER!! That's just wrong!!


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## map guy (Jan 11, 2007)

WACOUGAR said:


> Just wondering? What's it like to run the air conditioner? We've never done that!!! We went out last weekend and ran the HEATER!! That's just wrong!!


A marvel of western washington and it's fickle weather patterns!

Map Guy


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## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

WACOUGAR said:


> Just wondering? What's it like to run the air conditioner? We've never done that!!! We went out last weekend and ran the HEATER!! That's just wrong!!


Wish we could have sent our heat north for you so you could try it out. I can't remmember the last time we had 90+ heat for more than two day's in a row. 
Seriously even if you don't need it you should run the A/C a couple of times a year otherwise if you every need it it may not work.


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Low voltage is a real problem when running the AC, the circuit breaker for the AC unit is a 20 amp circuit breaker sense it is stuffed in a panel sandwiched between 2 other circuit breakers you can figure that the true rating is about 80% so anything above 16 amps for a extended period of time will trip it. At 120 volts the AC unit will pull about 14 amps so that only leaves 2 amps too play with and as the voltage drops past 110v you will exceed the current the circuit breaker hold.

BTW we have been having 100+ temps all last week and the beginning of this week yesterday was the first cool day at 89 degrees. Come on winter!


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## Scrib (Jun 28, 2005)

If you toggle your fridge and water heater to gas-only, you should be fine


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## Larry M (Sep 26, 2006)

ED_RN said:


> This weekend the A/C breaker kept popping during the day. It was fine at night. It was unusually hot here, around 105, and the campground was full. We ran the A/C for 3 days straight in 100 degree weather when we were in Palm Springs a few months ago with no problems. My guess is it was either low voltage or a power surges. The town a few miles from the campground lost all power for several hours one day. We came home early Sunday because the dog's and kid's had had enough of the heat. We don't have A/C at home so when we got home Sunday I pulled out the Hondas and the A/C ran for about 6 hours with no problems.
> My questions. Can the A/C be damaged if the breaker keeps blowing? I've heard about the A/C shutting down and having to be reset, should the unit itself have shut down instead of the breaker blowing if there was a power issue? Is there something else I should check and not just assume it was a power issue at the campground?


OK, I know it's almost winter now and you may well have solved the problem, but. . . You mentioned that the outside temp was over 100. Were you running the A/C fan on high or low? The reason I ask is the fan does double duty. Not only is it moving air inside, but it also moves outside air over the condenser. At temperatures above 100 there's not much "cooling" of the refridgerant in the condenser with the fan on low. When this happens the highside pressure increases and puts additional load on the compressor. Tripping the breaker has happened to me while camped in Las Vegas in August - outside temps well over 100 during the day. When the A/C fan was run on high during periods of high outside temperatures the "problem" went away. This could be a "Carrier" thing as I never had this problem with previous RV A/C units.
Larry M.


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## klindsay (Oct 22, 2004)

CamperAndy said:


> In a nut shell your breaker did what it should have done. You should be fine but you can damage your AC compressor due to low voltage.
> 
> Buy a volt meter and check it regularly, if voltage drops to 108. Turn off the AC and get the generators out. Better to use them then damage the AC unit.


Where did you get the 108 volt number? I have been trying to find a low voltage spec for my Carrier 15000 BTU unit.


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## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

N7OQ said:


> Low voltage is a real problem when running the AC, the circuit breaker for the AC unit is a 20 amp circuit breaker sense it is stuffed in a panel sandwiched between 2 other circuit breakers you can figure that the true rating is about 80% so anything above 16 amps for a extended period of time will trip it. At 120 volts the AC unit will pull about 14 amps so that only leaves 2 amps too play with and as the voltage drops past 110v you will exceed the current the circuit breaker hold.
> 
> BTW we have been having 100+ temps all last week and the beginning of this week yesterday was the first cool day at 89 degrees. Come on winter!


I realize this is an old thread but I started having the same problem a couple of weeks ago with my AC unit. During the hottest part of the day with the sun shining full upon the unit, it started popping the 20 amp breaker. Did check the voltage and was down around ~110 V so figured that this might be part of the problem. A couple of those hot days when it was kicking out, the sun went behind a cloud. Didn't have a problem then. I started thinking that I might have to make a sun hat for the AC unit to keep it going. It would not have been as bad, but I had my cat with me and I came back to check on the RV and he was laying there panting, not something that kitties are suppose to do. Any other ideas of how to prevent this besides find a shady spot (none around where I have to park).


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

Lmbevard said:


> Low voltage is a real problem when running the AC, the circuit breaker for the AC unit is a 20 amp circuit breaker sense it is stuffed in a panel sandwiched between 2 other circuit breakers you can figure that the true rating is about 80% so anything above 16 amps for a extended period of time will trip it. At 120 volts the AC unit will pull about 14 amps so that only leaves 2 amps too play with and as the voltage drops past 110v you will exceed the current the circuit breaker hold.
> 
> BTW we have been having 100+ temps all last week and the beginning of this week yesterday was the first cool day at 89 degrees. Come on winter!


I realize this is an old thread but I started having the same problem a couple of weeks ago with my AC unit. During the hottest part of the day with the sun shining full upon the unit, it started popping the 20 amp breaker. Did check the voltage and was down around ~110 V so figured that this might be part of the problem. A couple of those hot days when it was kicking out, the sun went behind a cloud. Didn't have a problem then. I started thinking that I might have to make a sun hat for the AC unit to keep it going. It would not have been as bad, but I had my cat with me and I came back to check on the RV and he was laying there panting, not something that kitties are suppose to do. Any other ideas of how to prevent this besides find a shady spot (none around where I have to park).
[/quote]
Have you looked at a autoformer? Its a step up transformer that will bump up the voltage to use less amperage. From the Hughs website. Autoformers are used in industries to stabilize voltage and lower the operating cost of equipment. The Autoformer has 5 windings: 2 primary and 3 secondary. All models have surge and spike protection. When the unit is in Automatic and the park or input voltage is 116 volts or below, the output is 10% over the input. When the input is over 118 volts, the output is 2% over the input.
The Autoformer DOES NOT take power from the park.
It does not affect the park or input voltage, or make electricity.
What it is doing is changing the voltage - amperage relationship, lowering the amperage and raising the voltage. Since appliances run better on higher voltage, lower amperage, less overall power is used from the park, and better service is enjoyed from your RV
An Autoformer running at full output (50amps) will use 1 amp, but will cause appliances to cycle more often and run cooler. This will use less total power from the park. I hope this helps. James


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