Quote:
Originally Posted by OldCoot
As long as it uses less than 1500 watts you should be ok.
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As OC pointed out, you will be limited to no more than 15 amps usually, per circuit in your RV.
If this is Greek to you, then it's time to learn a little power management 101, which will make your camping easier. It's not rocket science and is for the most part basic math.
If you will look at the tag on the bottom or side of your hot plate, it will tell you either how many amps the plate uses, or maybe the wattage (or both).
If it states, the amps, then that's easy...you just need to make sure it's below 15 amps (and everything else combined that runs off of 120 volt electricity that's on the same circuit add up to less than 15 amps). Depending on your RV, all the electrical outlets can be on the same circuit or you may have some outlets on one circuit, and some on a second circuit. If you go over the 15 amps on a given circuit for very long, then the circuit breaker that controls the circuit is probably going to trip.
If the tag on the plate just states the wattage, then it's easy math to convert it over to amps. The tag will also state the voltage the appliance was rated at (usually 110, 115, or 120 volts AC). To convert to amps just take the wattage and divide it by the stated voltage to get the amps.
Ex: 1500 watts divided by 120 volts = 12.5 amps
Now if you also have a 30 amp RV, then the total of everything you have running at one time (with all the circuits added together) needs to stay at or below 30 amps to be safe. This includes your Air/Conditioner, microwave, converter, everything plugged into an outlet like a television, hot plate, space heater, hair dryer, etc....as well as your hot water heater when using the electric heating element which uses 12 amps just by itself.
It just takes a little practice and you will learn what you can have on (and what must be turned off) at the same time, so you don't overload the circuits and trip breakers hopefully. If the breaker fails to trip, you can actually burn out things, including wiring......so that's why it is a good idea to know how many amps everything uses...and not just place blind faith into a circuit breaker tripping if you overload the circuit.
Here's a good article to start with for just the 120 volt AC stuff in your RV.
http://rvservices.koa.com/rvinformat...lectricity.asp
Hope all this helps, and doesn't bore you silly.
2011 Flagstaff 831 RLBSS
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