AC Keeps Tripping Breaker

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

Not a bad idea, but given the subsequent response that they were using the A/C, water heater and a hair dryer all at the same time it's probably fairly likely that's just more than 30 amps.

These small RV circuit breaker systems are considerably different than home systems where the main breaker would typically be between 100 and 200 amps, with the smaller systems typically having more gas appliances. It would be very difficult with a home system to be running so many things inside the house that you would trip the main breaker. Most people could probably simultaneously run every electrical device they have and not trip the main.

In contrast, 30 amps is not that much power. Keep in mind that a 30 amp generator is what many consider necessary to run just an A/C on a generator due to the surge when starting up the generator. If you added even 600 watts for hot water and 1,200 watts for a hair dryer you'd probably exceed the 30 amp breaker while running the A/C. (That's just in my head, I haven't done the math).

It still could be bad and trip prematurely.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by BobC

It still could be bad and trip prematurely.

Yes, that's why I said it wasn't a bad idea!

Another similar idea would be to get a device that tracks usage and provides alerts when certain thresholds are reached. I believe this device will do that. That sort of thing is more expensive that a simple breaker, but does provide other protections.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

BTW, in the back of my head I remember that you're really not supposed to have a draw on a breaker for long periods of time greater than 90% of its rated power. Assuming my recollection is correct, then your total draw should only be about 27 amps, or about 3,200 watts.

[seredni]

The breaker trips when we run the ac, hot water heater, and fridge—after the first time it tripped I stopped using blow dryer and ac at same time. So again it trips when we are not using blow dryer. I don’t use curling iron or any other hair tools and nothing is plugged in. We removed tv and don’t use electric coffee pot.

[creativepart]

I think it’s been mentioned a few times already but the water heater and a/c and fridge together are enough to pop a breaker. All three items have periodic high amp usage and if they all demand high amps at the same time they can easily momentarily overload a breaker.

At least put the water heater on propane and see if you’re still popping a breaker when the a/c runs.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by creativepart

I think it’s been mentioned a few times already but the water heater and a/c and fridge together are enough to pop a breaker. All three items have periodic high amp usage and if they all demand high amps at the same time they can easily momentarily overload a breaker.

At least put the water heater on propane and see if you’re still popping a breaker when the a/c runs.

I would agree with that advice. In a post above I used a rather conservative 600 watts for the water heater, but I suspect it's a lot more.

I never use the electric side of my water heater, preferring to save it for the time the gas won't light. The gas heats up the water very quickly and works well.

[Morich]

It gets down to how we each want to do things. There appears to be a problem, so we can just go with flipping the breaker and that tends to get more frequent as the breaker ages and then at some point it will get to a level when we want to do something, either change the breaker to see if it is a weak breaker or test the AC to see if it is using excess power, either to start or run.
Or we can do the testing first to sort out if the breaker is the problem or the amount of power from some item is too much.
Whether one wants to do preemptive work or wait is often just a personal mindset thing. How much it bothers us currently versus how much we want to do to prevent it, is just part of the question.
Always a good idea to collect more information to try to judge those areas, though.
My personal choice would be to get a meter to test the power used as that is going to be more definite info than the forum can provide.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

My personal choice would be to get a meter to test the power used as that is going to be more definite info than the forum can provide.

That would certainly work, but you would also use the rated wattage of the major components. I just checked and this RV water heater uses 1,400 watts, not the 600 I used in my example above. If you have that and an AC running it would be close to problematic without any other demand.

https://flairdistribution.com/produc...RoCwikQAvD_BwE

Again I would point out that tripping a main breaker on an RV is far more likely than doing such in a home system. 30 amps is not that much power.

[lenore]

One thing to consider is make sure the lugs are tight on the breakers to the wiring. A loose connection can cause excessive resistance and higher current on start up. Also a compressor saver on the A/C unit can help on compressor startup for currant draw.