Portable electric heaters March 06, 2022, 11:42:12 pm We use a small electrical heater to keep warm when on shore power. I believe it's at 750 watts when on half power.Anyone know what the max wattage is for the Lazy Daze circuits?2021 27' MB.
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #1 – March 06, 2022, 11:55:20 pm All the outlets are on a single 15 amp circuit, so 15 x 115=1725 watts, Should be fine on low heat. I have used high heat, at 1400 watts and had no problems.......yet... 1 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #2 – March 07, 2022, 10:33:14 am Quote from: airbusguy - March 06, 2022, 11:55:20 pmAll the outlets are on a single 15 amp circuit, so 15 x 115=1725 watts, Should be fine on low heat. I have used high heat, at 1400 watts and had no problems.......yet...<smile> AC is not that simple. There is a small factor that needs to be added but I think you'd be safe at 750 watts AC. The real issue is you can get away with overheated things but with time the flash point (degree at which stuff catches on fire) drops. glenFor a more in depth look at difference between AC and DCPower Formulas in DC and AC 1-Phase & 3-Phase Circuits 2 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #3 – March 07, 2022, 01:43:52 pm For a 27' Lazy Daze, I've found that two heaters on low do a much better job of evenly heating it than one heater on high. (That's especially true of the midbath, whose narrow center waist restricts airflow.) The problem is that two 750 watt heaters on the same circuit will put you perilously close to tripping a breaker. There are two things you can do to get around this.First, as mentioned elsewhere, you can plug one heater into the microwave oven's outlet, which in a midbath is way at the back of the cabinet to the left of the microwave. That outlet is on a separate circuit from all the other household outlets (although it is shared with the air conditioner), so don't try to run a heater plugged in there at the same time as the microwave.The other thing you can do, and this was my preference, is to find a heater with three heat settings. Many of the cheapest Holmes/Pelonis/etc. heaters have this feature. These settings typically use 600, 900, and 1,500 watts. You can run two of these heaters on the 600 W setting with little chance of overloading your other household outlets and tripping a breaker. Put one in front and one in back, and you can be quite cozy. 2 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #4 – March 07, 2022, 03:06:15 pm Quote from: Andy Baird - March 07, 2022, 01:43:52 pmFirst, as mentioned elsewhere, you can plug one heater into the microwave oven's outlet, which in a midbath is way at the back of the cabinet to the left of the microwave. That outlet is on a separate circuit from all the other household outlets (although it is shared with the air conditioner), so don't try to run a heater plugged in there at the same time as the microwave. If I remember correctly, Ken Kears researched this observation and determined that there isn’t a separate circuit for the AC and microwave. Ken told me there’s only one (1) busbar on his 2008 LD and our 2009 LD which in his opinion was the standard Factory installation. When I have time, I may have to search for his post.
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #5 – March 07, 2022, 05:39:45 pm Quote from: Ed & Margee - March 07, 2022, 03:06:15 pmIf I remember correctly, Ken Kears researched this observation and determined that there isn’t a separate circuit for the AC and microwave. Ken told me there’s only one (1) busbar on his 2008 LD and our 2009 LD which in his opinion was the standard Factory installation. When I have time, I may have to search for his post. Does the ID chart on the circuit breaker panel show separate circuits/breakers for the Micro and A/c?Chris
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #6 – March 07, 2022, 06:06:37 pm Chris … separate breakers but one (1) one busbar. The 30A power goes to this single busbar. That’s basically what Ken told me.
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #7 – March 07, 2022, 06:25:35 pm Right. It doesn't matter how many busbars, and I'm not sure why Ken focused on that. The household outlets are on one 20 amp circuit and breaker, while the air conditioner and microwave oven are on a separate 20 A circuit/breaker.You can verify this by looking at the labels in your breaker panel. Turn off the air conditioner/microwave breaker and the household outlets will stay on, and vice versa. Separate circuits.
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #8 – March 07, 2022, 10:34:20 pm I can check tomorrow but I believe that the AC circuit is on 20 amp circuit breaker? Karen~Liam 98 ~ MB NinA
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #9 – March 08, 2022, 12:13:43 am The 26th edition manual that came with my 2003 TK confirms 20 amp for the AC, Microwave and coffee maker in the 30’.Steve 1 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #10 – March 08, 2022, 01:21:40 am Thanks for the correction, folks. Guess I was still thinking about older equipment. I'm guessing they used a 20 A breaker to prevent tripping due to the air conditioner's hefty startup surge. However, I can't resist pointing out that 20 + 15 = 35 amps, and if used to the fullest, that's probably going to cause problems with a 30 A shore power connection. (Especially given how old and flaky a lot of campground circuit breakers are.) So my personal feeling is that it's best to assume you have 15 amps per circuit, plus a small safety margin. 2 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #11 – March 08, 2022, 12:52:18 pm As I understand household wiring (same for LD house wiring) Circuit breakers are installed to protect the wiring from out let or equipment connection to load center with breakers at load center. Thus a 15 amp circuit can only have 14-Gauge wire or better, 20 amp circuit 12-Gauge or better etc. The main bus in the panel is protected by the main breaker. The wire from the panel to the source(shore power) is protected by the main breaker in the LD and at the pedistal. So you can have breakers that add up to greater then the main breaker in your loade center panel. So there fore any power usage greater then the the main breaker will trip it. Thus the wiring is protected. Karen~Liam 98 ~ MB NinA
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #12 – March 09, 2022, 12:27:16 pm Exactly. As you said, you may have more than 30 A total in sub-circuit breakers, but you can never draw more than 30 A altogether, or the main breaker will trip. That was the point I was trying to make, but I think you said it better. 3 Likes
Re: Portable electric heaters Reply #13 – March 09, 2022, 04:23:19 pm Kids - "Dad can we use the microwave?"Me - "Yep, but turn the air conditioner off first"A common conversation in our LD. Rich 1 Likes
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