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Old 03-20-2009, 06:36 PM   #1
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New Onan EC-30 Install

When I visited some of the IRV2 friends who were at the FMCA rally this week, I stopped by the Cummins/Onan display. I had heard about the new EC-30W (the new wireless Energy Command product) that is suppost to be a lot easier to install than the EC-30. I bit the bullet and bought it -- as part of the promotion, they had it marked down a little and included the harness to wire into my 7.5 KVA generator.

The wiring at the generator was very easy, unplug the existing wiring harness, put in the adapter harness, plug everything back in, mount the control module, and hook up to the hot side of the generator feed for power to the unit. Took all of about 30 minutes and I was not in a hurry at all.

In my MH, all of the outlet plugs feed through the inverter. This caused a little head scratching as the remote unit needs a shore power source to detect when shore power is working or not. After a lot of thinking and exploring, I took out the pantry in my coach, and the magazine rack in the bathroom which gave me access to the water compartment. I was able to go out of the back of the water compartment and then went into the electrical compartment by drilling a hole in the access plate which gives one access to the rear hydraulic jack. Once in the electrical compartment, I wired into the SurgeGuard that I have hard wired there to get the 110 volts shore power for the outlet that gives the EC-30W the shore power signal. Now this part of the exercise took about 3 hours total -- figuring out how to get out of the coach and then how to get back in and keep it all water proof. I ended up putting the new outlet on the wall in the bathroom right around the corner from the information center in my MH.

Plugged in the remote and it saw the generator without any problem -- synced up almost immediately -- programmed all of the information in about 5 minutes and wa la ---- it worked as described. Now when I have the pets with us I will not worry about losing shore power and the air conditioning on those hot days. This unit also monitors the house batteries and will keep them up automatically if you are dry camping. Will also signal when you need to do the maintance on the generator.

Appears to be a very good product
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Old 03-20-2009, 08:00 PM   #2
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You certainly did not waste any time getting the installation completed.
After listening to the sales engineer explain the unit I was impressed. I was not in the market for a system, had other things in mind, it was put on the list for future purchases.
Sure beats running wires around the coach.
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Old 03-20-2009, 08:25 PM   #3
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I purchased one also. It took the Onan techs, who offered to install it, maybe 10 minutes to do the job. It has been on my want list for a while and am glad I finally have one installed.

Was looking over the manual and the remote today. Very simple to use. Can set for low battery, cool, heat or ventilation. Also like the "look ahead" feature that checks battery levels 2 hours before a quiet time.
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Old 03-21-2009, 06:37 AM   #4
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Olive -- Glad you had the 120v electrical source inside of the MH. All of my outlets were after the inverter which will not work for the remote unit so I had to run a new line -- that is why it took so long to do.

Beau -- just had to get it in to see if it was what it was "built up to be." So far so good. Hope the rest of the stay was good for all of ya'll. The DW and I both really enjoyed the visit with everyone !!!!
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Old 03-21-2009, 03:03 PM   #5
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David, all of my outlets also feed through the inverter but I don't have the inverter on when on shore power. I know some people choose to leave the inverter on all of the time but I only turn it on when I need it. Don't need the extra connection if the inverter is turned off.

The installation is quite easy from what I saw but I'm sure it would have taken me a little longer than the time it took the Onan guys to do it, though not much.

I'm boondocking now so giving it a trial run. The cool feature started the gen and heat pump just as specified. Didn't try the heat setting yet.
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Old 03-24-2009, 02:26 PM   #6
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David,

Another idea for folks is to install a receptacle in the engine block heater line. My switch for the heater is in the one place panel, and I spliced a receptacle into it, which is not on the inverter line.

Good meeting you in Perry.
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Old 04-02-2009, 05:40 AM   #7
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Pusherman,

I looked into your idea of installing an additional plug on the engine block heater circuit, and strangely, Itasca feeds the block heater through the inverter. But I did find that the electric hot water heater circuit is fed from shorepower, so I added a receptacle in the panel over the microwave, and fed it from the romex ahead of the HWH switch.

I am assuming that the autostart will not be confused by the appearance of power on this circuit when the generator starts. We will know soon.
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Old 04-02-2009, 01:14 PM   #8
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If you find it doesn't shut the generator down when you switch from generator power to shore power, you'll need to run the sense line to the transfer switch, use a 110V/12V transformer, and pick up shore line sense at the transfer switch. Per Onan's instructions.
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Old 04-02-2009, 08:30 PM   #9
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Just a thought -- if you are installing a new line to feed the outlet for the shore power sense, make sure that you fuse that line so you don't have an overload problem with the new wire. Where I "jumped off" at the SurgeGuard, I installed a 15 amp in line fuse to protect the new circuit that I ran. This is an inexpensive item to add to the line but, is necessary in my opinion.

Also, in the coach where the duplex plug is located, I put a label on the outlet saying "10 amp MAX" ---- the line I ran is #14 wire and the run is only about 15 foot total which will more than handle the 15 amps that it is fused for but, I tend to be over cautious on some things.
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Old 04-03-2009, 07:17 AM   #10
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Well UPS came through yesterday and even though it was pouring rain I had to try it. Got the display mounted, and mounted the remote box on the chassis electrical box above the generator. Since there was about two inches of water under the MH, I decided to clip the 12V feed to the house battery side of the tie relay just to try everything out. I had to bring the display out to the front of the MH while I held down the Stop button on the generator to synch the two units, but it went well. I did some limited setup and started and stopped the generator from the display.

Will finish connecting over the weekend and test everything further. I noted that Onan says to plug the power transformer for the display into "an outlet not fed by an inverter", and did not require an outlet that was hot only on shore power. I would think that would be a rare configuration in any case. So I am assuming at this point that the appearance of voltage at the supply outlet while on generator will not fool the logic.
We will see. More later.

BTW I did label the new outlet as fed from the hot water heater circuit, and I also used 14ga romex, but since its only about two feet long, it should be good for 15 amps.
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Old 04-03-2009, 07:41 AM   #11
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Where have you folks purchased your EC-30s?
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Old 04-03-2009, 08:53 AM   #12
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I purchased mine from the online Onan store. Was in my hands in three days.
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