High Voltage at pedestal

[D2Reid]

Not having a good understanding of electricity can be frustrating at times. I replaced my pedestal electronic management system with a better one that shuts off when the electricity is bad. But today was the first time I had it shut off because the Voltage was too high, 134v. The book says max allowable is 132v.

So I am hoping my electrically smarter friends will chime in an explain some things to my ignorant self.

Why is 134 bad and 132 ok? What causes high voltage like that? Will it harm my sensitive electrical appliances? Could it be the reason my little "coffee is ready" light will no longer work on the coffee pot? Will my fan run faster?

An inquiring mind wishes to know, hopefully a knowing mind will share.

[Coheeba]

What EMS system do you have. I have the Progessive EMS-HW50C and have had high voltage errors.

[Coheeba]

This is a thread where it explains how to calibrate. https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...Voltage-Cutoff

[JCR GD]

Dallas, I believe it's a percentage thing. 120v +/- 10%

The local stepdown transformer may be malfunctioning. I would report it. And yes, too much voltage can damage sensitive electronics.

[jh.xsnrg]

Not having a good understanding of electricity can be frustrating at times. I replaced my pedestal electronic management system with a better one that shuts off when the electricity is bad. But today was the first time I had it shut off because the Voltage was too high, 134v. The book says max allowable is 132v.

So I am hoping my electrically smarter friends will chime in an explain some things to my ignorant self.

Why is 134 bad and 132 ok? What causes high voltage like that? Will it harm my sensitive electrical appliances? Could it be the reason my little "coffee is ready" light will no longer work on the coffee pot? Will my fan run faster?

An inquiring mind wishes to know, hopefully a knowing mind will share.

Voltage is simply the potential for electrons (electricity) to migrate from one place to another. The higher the voltage, the more potential exists for the electron to move. If you think about two wires next to each other, when the voltage exceeds the amount of resistance caused by the gap, then the electron can jump from one wire to the other. This is how too high of a voltage can cause a problem. Electrical things are designed with a tolerance as voltages will vary from place to place but 134 is higher than it should be.

[D2Reid]

What EMS system do you have. I have the Progessive EMS-HW50C and have had high voltage errors.

That's the one I have, pretty cool to be able to see what amps I am drawing. A little annoying on the timed turn off function, but probably wise.

Thanks for the link to the other discussion, I will have to drag out the multi-meter and see if my EMS is reading correctly. Always something fun to do around an RV.

The local stepdown transformer may be malfunctioning. I would report it.

It's reported, but unfortunately the manager of the park does not have any greater education in electricity than I do.

What's fun is that on busy weekends when there are lot of people on the grid the V's are more normal.

[Richter]

Sounds, to me, like they don’t have big enough “pipes” (wiring) to handle the high load that is occurring on weekends. Is this an older campground, built when electrical usage was much less than it is today?

They somehow had the voltage turned up to counter that issue, but it is too high during periods of lower usage. The optimal solution would be to put in bigger pipes, but that may be a huge expense that they are not willing to incur. Higher voltage is a “fix” with other consequences, but not nearly as expensive as rewiring the campground.

[D2Reid]

Is this an older campground, built when electrical usage was much less than it is today?

Yes it is. Detroit Lake State Park, Detroit, Or. I don't know the exact dates of installation. The pedestal at our site has been replaced within the last year or two. The regular park manager is out on extended sick leave, (C). But in his previous career he was an electrician, I wish I could talk with him, current staff doesn't have much experience with electricity.

It is interesting to make comparisons about "camping" and how people define it. As we travel throughout the United States and visit everything from fancy RV resorts to boondocking next to a wilderness area we pretty much get to see all facets of RV life. All state park staff that we have talked with have a positive attitude about upgrading their campgrounds to fit the new big rigs into, they view glampers as campers just like folks that have tents. Unfortunately they all have to operate within the budget's allocated to them by their state government. Some states view their state parks as a priority, some do not. Here in Oregon this summer all the state parks we have visited have seen maximum usage.

That being said upgrading electric, water, and sewer is a HUGE project for the parks, even after they get the funding they have to schedule shutdowns to get the work done. Not to mention all the environmental stuff that has to checked off, heaven forbid you should disturb some nests to upgrade a camping site.

[jkwilson]

When you see high voltage on a 120V circuit, you should always suspect and check for neutral problems.



A 50A RV circuit uses both of the 120V circuits in the drawing above. A 30A RV circuit uses one of them. Even if the park doesn’t have 50A circuits, both sides of the 120V are still there. Normal practice would be to put half the sites on one side and half the sites on the other to balance the load. All is good until there is a connection problem from a neutral to something using power. If everything is balanced and all the campsites on one side of the transformer are using the same amount of power as those using the other side, nothing will happen. If the load on one side is higher, the voltage on that side will drop and the voltage on the other side will go up. The heavier loaded side can go low enough to damage motors, and the lighter loaded side can go high enough to damage many things.

If there is 50A at the pedestal, measure both sides of it. If they are equal, it’s a supply issue. If they are different, there is a neutral issue. Don’t plug anything you like having into a system with a neutral issue.

[jh.xsnrg]

When you see high voltage on a 120V circuit, you should always suspect and check for neutral problems. <...> Don’t plug anything you like having into a system with a neutral issue.

that is worth quoting again. It WILL let the smoke out.