I've done some fairly extensive mods to my house on wheels and along the way I've wondered about how we got to 50 amp shore power. That question comes back up every time I drag out the huge heavy power cord to plug in. Why do we carry that beast around?

First, let's compare 30 and 50 amp service in terms of power. With 30 amp service, there is theoretically 3600 watts available and with 50 amp service there is 12000 watts available. How is it that almost overnight, the RV industry decided that we need more than three times the power to run the house. 12 kw is a lot of power! In my rig, 2 AC's, microwaveable coffee maker add up to less than 8 kw. And that's assuming no soft starts and all appliances start at the same time!

Yes, it's nice to have pretty much unlimited power available, but how much do we really need? And how much weight are we willing to carry to support that habit? Personally, my back and shoulders can't handle wrestling the 50 pound power cord in and out of its home, so I don't.

I haven't found my ideal setup yet, but most of the time I use a 10 gauge power cord that weighs about a quarter of what the beast weighs.

It seems to me, a little bit of thought in the industry would go a long way toward making things simpler and lighter.

Just my Sunday morning ramblings... I hope you enjoyed.