Quote:
Originally Posted by oldbird
Maybe I don't get out enough (  ) but where I'm at in Patagonia, AZ there is a Landmark 5er besides me. He has a 50 amp cord hocked up AND a 30 amp cord hocked up. He has three ac's and both him and the owner of this campsite never heard of 100 amps coming off of a 50 amp plug. I'm not arguing with you guys, just wondering. I do just fine with my 50 amp service and autoformer until I get into a state park with only a 30 amp. I also understand how a 240 service can split into two 120's and feed different curcuits 120. I guess I'm just trying to understand why they just don't call it a 100 amp plugin instead of a 50 amp plugin? |
It is called a 50 amp service because it has 50 amps of 240 volt power available. Think of 120 volt power as a two or three wire plug like you normally find in your home. A two wire plug will have a L1 (hot leg) and a N (neutral) wire to carry the current. A three wire 120 volt circuit (like most 3 prong cords in your home) Will have L1 (hot leg), N (neutral) and G (safety ground).
A 240 volt circuit consists of two 120 volt circuits at opposite phases (think of a sine wave). These are L1 and L2. When you connect them together, you get 240 volts, connect one of them to a neutral and you get 120 volts.
For a three wire 240 circuit (like a welding machine) you have L1 (hot leg), L2 (hot leg) and G (safety ground). If you are going to a modern, 240 volt appliance (like a clothes dryer) that requires a 120 volt control circuit, you need 4 wires. Those will be L1 (hot leg), L2 (hot leg), N (neutral) and G (safety ground). That way you can make a 120 volt circuit (L1, N and G) or a 240 volt circuit (L1, L2 and G) from the 4 wires.
Note that in a 120 volt circuit, you can use either of the two hot legs (L1 and L2) as both will give you 120 volts when made into a circuit with a neutral. Like noted above, if you look at your pedestal, there will be a double 50 amp breaker that has each hot leg attached (L1 and L2) running thru each side to give you the 50 amps of 120 volt power on the first breaker and 50 amps of 120 volt power on the second breaker.
I sure hope your campground owner isn't the site electrician as well.
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