Cougar 359BMI 50A vs 30A

[Mic]

HI all

Where can I fond out what will run on 30A and what will not versus everything on the 50A shore power.

TIA

[JRTJH]

Assuming that you're talking about conventional 50 amp wiring in a modern trailer, everything that will "run on 50 amps" will "run on 30 amps". It's just that you can't run as many of them or as much of the available equipment at the same time. With 50 amps you have two legs of 50 amp power (100 amps total) which at 120 volts is 12,000 watts of available power. On 30 amps you have one leg of 30 amp power which at 120 volts is 3,600 watts of power. That means, generally speaking, that you have a little less than 1/3 the available power potential.

Since power is available to operate everything while on 30 amp service, as you turn items on, you'll use a part of that 3,600 watts of available power. Once you get to the "limit" then the next item you turn on will probably trip the circuit breaker at the power pole. Essentially, you can pick and choose what to operate within that 3,600 watt availability. Depending on what you're doing, you may elect to use the air conditioner and water heater with some "left over" power for the TV or a fan, etc. On other days you may wish to turn off the water heater and use the part of the 3,600 watts it was using to power a hair dryer or a sewing machine or ????

So, there isn't any "list of what won't run" when using 30 amp service, it's more "what limits you can't exceed with any of the available equipment. You can use the equipment manuals to determine their wattage requirement and use that as a rough estimate of power, then add up those items to determine when you're approaching the 3,600 watt limit.