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Power management confusion


docj

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Last week when I was away on a business trip my spouse called to let me know that the power was repeatedly going off for short periods of time. With her help I was able to limit the diagnosis to theSurgeGuard power management device or the transfer switch. It didn't take long, after I arrived home to conclusively determine that the culprit was the SurgeGuard. It was switching off and then the "power off" was due to the ~3 minute time delay that is built in

 

So I purchased a new, hardwired Progressive EMS-HW50C on Amazon and, in the meantime, used the terminal block on the SurgeGuard to bypass the "defective" device.

 

Today I installed the Progressive. Contorted in the basement of my DP this was not a fun job. The power cables on a 50A RV are thick and don't bend easily. But I did get it done.

 

However, within a couple of hours we experienced a power "blip" with the power going out for a few seconds; such a short blip that the microwave clock didn't reset but the Breville countertop oven beeped. When it re-occurred an hour or two later I went out to look at the Progressive's remote readout. It informed me that line 2 had been overvoltage so it had shut-off the power briefly. The Progressive has a 15-second delay for a connection so it's not as inconvenient.

 

So, it appears that the SurgeGuard probably wasn't defective at all. It was most likely reacting to the overvoltage by turning off and the 3 minute delay made it pretty obvious. But it had no way of telling me why it was cutting off the power. The Progressive resets in 15 seconds and, since almost all the lights are wired through the inverter, we'd never even know we had an outage if it wasn't for the beeping of the Breville.

 

When I reported it to the power company they agreed that the flickering LED's that we've been experiencing recently are probably due to the fluctuating voltage. If there's an occasional overvoltage issue, the chances are that the voltage is varying a lot even when it is less than the cutoff of 132V.

 

So now I have a perfectly good, but 6 year old SurgeGuard that is probably 100% functional. Anyone interested in paying $50 plus $15 shipping?

 

Joel

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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I had the power company over today. They said they've seen this sort of thing before at other RV parks. RVers are the only ones with sensitive enough equipment to notice things of this sort. His supposition was that the neutral may have been floating slightly due to one or more loose connections. He tightened everything from the underground distribution transformer up to the connection to the breakers on my pedestal. When he started there was a small difference between the voltage on the two legs of the circuit even ahead of the meter. When he finished there was practically the same voltage on each leg.

 

We'll see if that has any effect. AFAIK the PMS hasn't alerted since early this morning. Strangely this time when it happened it reported "L2 frequency high" which is really weird when your connected to the grid. This is the second time I've seen a PE 07 (frequency) error. Anyone have any ideas what might cause that?

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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I've received one inquiry on the SurgeGuard. I had failed to note that it is the hardwired, 50A Model 34560 which retails for ~$250.

 

So far so good, with respect to the "fix". The lights have stopped flickering!

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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