Shore Power And The Water Heater? Options

[lynnz]

I noticed in the review of a campground we have reservations for, that they say use your gas and not shore power for your water heater. Why? Saw this at a campground when we were newbies which we ignored, with no ill effects. Sorry if this is a stupind question. TIA

[dog bone]

I would say that there electric in the park was low. If you put your hwh on electric you would not be able to run anything else.

[Denali]

I noticed in the review of a campground we have reservations for, that they say use your gas and not shore power for your water heater. Why? Saw this at a campground when we were newbies which we ignored, with no ill effects. Sorry if this is a stupind question. TIA

Either the campground was trying to save money by asking it's customers to use their own propane rather than the park's electricity for their water heaters or (more likely) the wiring in the park was insufficient to support a full load at every pedestal.

We have encountered the latter many times, usually at older parks that were wired back when the typical RV didn't have two air conditioners, a microwave oven, etc. I don't recall a park asking us not to use shore power for our water heater, but I have seen many that ask that we not use space heaters.

[rgatijnet]

I think a lot would depend on if I had to pay a premium for 50 amp service. If I had to pay extra for 50 Amp service, I would assume that it includes what I need for my own use. If I did not pay extra, and all sites had the same power available, then I may consider using propane for my WH. Basically I am saying that the RV park can't have it both ways. Charge me extra for 50 amps and I will use what I have to, which MAY include my WH and AC/heat.
If your wiring cannot handle the load, don't charge me extra for it.

[Lindsay Richards]

We generally use the electric if hooked up to power. If you want to help out the campground's power situation, you can heat the water at off hours. I sometimes turn on the water heater in the middle of the night for an early morning show. Good insulation will retain most of the heat a few hours until we shower.

[geniliawillson]

Hi Lynnz,
I was also thinking same question when I was newbie but that time I search more and found stuff which shows me that, Gas is the fastest way to heat water. It’s the most economical way too and Shorepower provides EPS for Truck Stop Electrification (TSE) as well as electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
So by comparing both I went to know why they always say to use gas. If you want then you can also search and find more stuff on it.

[John Blue]

You will find the older RV parks like KOA's and others have small wire size in the system. This was OK in the tent and popup days but now people have three or four A/C units on the roof. Per most wiring codes you can wire seven RV power post up to one circuit breaker. Most parks use #10 wire to feed the post and that will work on 30 amps only for one post. Newer parks will have the post wired with three #6 aluminum wires and that will drop around 20% in voltage under load (copper is better). The breakers are around 250 amps per leg so that each post could pull 35.71 amps ( 250 / 7 = 35.71) if everyone is using power. County code people say this will take care of the load. The number should be (250 / 3 = 83.33 amps) and would be more inline with today's RV's. Keep in mind most parks have small wire size and you will see voltage lost and the amps will go up, so burn out will happen to your equipment if you see low voltage. This is an old problem. It cost a lot of dollars to rewire a small park.

[pianotuna]

Hi lynnz,

There are no stupid questions.

It is probably a good idea to monitor the voltage when a sign like that is posted. You don't really want to run an air conditioner, nor microwave much below about 109 volts.

The water heater can tolerate much lower voltages, but may cause voltage drop.

I noticed in the review of a campground we have reservations for, that they say use your gas and not shore power for your water heater. Why? Saw this at a campground when we were newbies which we ignored, with no ill effects. Sorry if this is a stupind question. TIA