Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

no, this is just a temporary situation where we are waiting out several days over the weekend until the shop opens Monday morning - arrived and found the GFCI outlet and decided to sit and make do with what we have access to. With a possible radiator problem, I don't want to necessary drive around searching for a campground, even if I wanted to.
The GFCI outlet is working just fine. The 13.5kw roof air conditioner is working just fine, and is capable of powering the unit with no problem.

There have been many threads on these and other forums about being able to 'run' two roof a/c units while 'only' on 30amp power, which is certainly possible, as we've done it many times. It's also certainly possible to power a single roof a/c unit while only on an outside GFCI outlet, too.

:roof a/c unit, 4 electric fans, roof fan, residential fridge, computer and device chargers, tv receiver, and a small trickle charge from the Battery Charger...


there are some things to consider/check when you are first 'powering up' the air conditioner: is the fridge's compressor already running, is the battery charger in 'bulk charging' mode, the 'shore power max' setting on the Magnum inverter battery charger, etc.

while it's possible to do what we are doing on a simple GFCI outlet, you do have to 'manage' how you do it. Make sure that most everything is 'off' or 'not running' when you first power on the a/c unit, especially when the compressor first kicks on. When it has a chance to run for a few seconds, it's power draw will be considerably less, leaving room for those 'other' things you want to also power at the same time: especially the fridge's compressor when it kicks on several times each hour.

Once the a/c unit is running/cooling, the fridge's compressor is running, and all your other devices/battery charger are operating, you'll be set, and know that when things cut on or off during the course of time, you have enough power to make it all happen.
Now, as for the a/c unit, we have it's fan set to 'low', for constant fan movement, and the Temp down to it's lowest setting, so that the compressor actually runs constantly. If it gets 'too' cool for us, we just turn the a/c unit off for the time being, rather than letting the unit decide when and if the run, or not run, it's compressor.

We also know, if it's not handled correctly, or we easily 'forget' and someone turns on the microwave, we may trip the GFCI outlet's circuit breaker, and loose ALL power, with no way to have access to reset it. It can seem like a crap shoot at first, but once everything is up and operational, and you have a chance to finally relax a little, it's just fine, and the initial concerns or worries seem to fade quickly with time, especially if you watch a couple of episodes of 'Duck Commander' in the mean time! : )