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‘Watch
The AMPs'
Know before you blow a
breaker! Its worth your time to take an inventory of the
AMPs each of your electrical appliances uses. Take a
minute and see how many AMPs you could be using in your
RV’s 30 or 50 AMP electrical system. It’s surprising
how fast the AMPs add up, which causes your breaker or
the campsite breaker to ‘trip’ or ‘blow’.
Knowing the AMPs of all
of the electrical appliances in your RV can help you.
Some tape or label each appliances AMP requirements.
Manage electrical use and you can prevent the
inconvenience of ‘My electricity went out!’
Following is a list of
typical appliances used and the average AMPs required to
operate them:
- Air Conditioner -
15,000 BTU
12.5 AMPs
- Hand Vacuum
2.0 AMPs
- Refrigerator
2.7
AMPs
- Electric frying
pan
10.0 AMPs
- Electric water
heater - 8 gals.
12.5 AMPs
- Iron
10.0 AMPs
- Microwave oven
12.8 AMPs
- Food processor
6.0
AMPs
- Electric coffee
pot
9.0 AMPs
- Crock Pot
1.5 AMPs
- Toaster
10.0 AMPs
- Heating pad
.5
AMPs
- Hair dryer
10.0 AMPs
- 1100 watt heater
10.0 AMPs
- TV
2.0 AMPs
In the morning - if you
start your air conditioner and the hot water heater
turns on after the shower, then you start your coffee
pot, maybe some toast and watch TV - your consuming or
‘pulling’ 55 AMPs with those appliances operating at
maximum. If you decide to cook some bacon in the
microwave, LOOK OUT! Many RV’s have a switch so you
can only run the microwave OR the water heater at one
time, but many RV’s do not have this feature.
Most electrical products
show how many watts or AMPs it takes to operate the
appliance. If not, here are the simple formulas to
figure it out.
To get AMPs, if it shows
watts, divide the watts by 120 (Volts)
AMPs = Watts /
Volts
To get the watts,
multiply the AMPs by the120 (Volts)
Watts = AMPs x
Volts
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