Monday June 15th 2020

Well the calendar says it’s June with less than a week till summer officially gets here, but the temperature remains closer to early spring. With wild swings in temperature last Monday was in the 30’s / 80’s with humidity to lows over the weekend as low as 6 / 44 degrees and throw in a severe weather warning on Wednesday where we seen torrential down pours and tornado warnings. But this weeks forecast has lots of sunshine and temperatures in mid to high 20’s / 70’s, so we may be turning the corner to summer.

This weekend marks the celebration of Fathers Day, which here at the park means the reopening of the pool for the summer, we are pushing in that direction but are still waiting for the local health board to inspect the pool, check our chemical levels, and help us set up an operational plan to know pool and pool area limits because of size and space. All part of the new world thanks to the Covid virus. With our province new Covid case count falling below 200 per day for the first time in months, let’s face it 200 is still to many but at least we are heading in the right direction not like some of our neighbours to the south, that are seeing cases in some States rising in cases again.

I can’t imagine the spikes that will occur from all of the civil unrest in areas and as the presidential rallies start again in earnest. After all most of of the red hat people still think Covid is a hoax created by the democrats, and now the race riots are the next democratic plan to unseat Trump. I know what your thinking, they can’t serious think that, but oh yes many truly believe it to be true. And with only 148 days till the presidential election in November in the States, it should be very entertaining from this side of the boarder … maybe not so entertaining up close and personal but at least it will be interesting as I can already see fear on some faces as this circus gets into full swing … just saying.

Miss Laurie and I have settled into the routine of the park again, while our days are busy, we are not experiencing the craziness of the first weeks at opening time. There was a rash of circuit breakers kicking off because of people are using space heaters instead of their furnace, but as the temperatures rise the next breaker rash will be from everyone turning on the air conditioner. The air conditioner actually draws less power when it’s running than a space heater but spikes on start up which can overload breakers. The difference in seasonal parks in Canada and the States is the electricity, in the States your power is all metered, which make everyone more energy efficient, nothing helps that happen better than a monthly bill … again just saying.

So now as we have adjusted back into the working life, I’m able to find the time to put some verbal diarrhea together and get some blog posts out on a more regular schedule, that could be good or bad, just depending or what is happening in my life at the time … and as usual that pretty much happens unfiltered or at least till Miss Laurie reins me in … 🙂

My breaker keeps kicking off!

Well here is why as simple as I can explain it. A 30 amp connection on a 120 volt line allows you 3600 watts of power. So if your RV was designed to operate on 30 amps, that was why it was built with a propane furnace and water heater, because electric heaters and furnaces just use too many watts!

I fully understand the urge that if your site fees includes electricity you would like to cheap out and use the parks power and not have to buy propane as often, that being the case you are going to need to figure out where your breaker is because you will need to reset it often.

So let’s look quickly at what uses that 3600 watts of energy, so let’s start by trying to be as thrifty as possible so turn the water heater on electric, keep in mind this is a tricky one kicking on and off to maintain the water temperature that it will most likely be the cause of kicking the breaker off at midnight when you think your safe to run that space heater. My research has found that most have a 1500 watt element so when it is heating now you only have 2100 watts left to play with, so now you need to play the Russian roulette game. Because most RV fridges automatically switch to electric power when plugged in there goes another 600 watts to operate the fridge, and that electric space heater your using to save propane another 1500 watts and already you have just maxed out you circuit. So let’s hope that extra bar fridge doesn’t start the same time the water heater does or off goes the breaker … so are you starting to understand? These are trailers not cottages, energy conservation must be practised and were designed to run on propane no just an electric connection period.

These are just examples of draws, I haven’t listed all the small power draws that no one accounts for like your laptop, phone, iPad, recharging, satellite receivers, clock radios, stereo, DVD players. They don’t use much power individually but they still add up to be part of the total energy usage.

Just stop and think for a moment … why would the manufacturer of big park model trailers put in an $800 RV style water heaters as opposed to small $250 electric heaters? It’s not as if you are going to be out camping with no hookups in your park model trailer, no it is to allow them to operate on a 30 amp circuit. And some even have had to design limiting switches so that if it comes with an electric fireplace it won’t operate at the same time as the water heater on electric … because electric heaters draw large wattages … plain and simple.

So to answer the original question why does my breaker keep tripping? Because you are using more energy than you realize, stop being so darn cheap, use the unit as it was designed, and remember the reason the breaker keeps tripping off is because of YOU.