RV Living – Staying Cool! Run 2 A/C’s on 30 Amp Or With Small Generator!

oh my gosh that's amazing did you see that 
did you see that would you like more freedom   when it comes to where you stay with your RV 
this summer we have actually discovered a way   to run our AC off of a standard household hookup 
so while we're here mooch docking in Colorado and   it's getting heated up we're staying cool inside 
in this video we're gonna show you what we did   and how you can do it too we are Charity Ben 
Dakota and Trinity we decided we didn't want to   wait for a life of adventure so in 2017 we bought 
our first RV and set off to live a life of travel   in the USA we've visited over 38 states 
in three years and have many more to go   follow along to learn all the best places 
to see rv and travel tips and much more   before we jump into today's video we just 
want to give a huge thank you to those of you   that have jumped in and have decided to support 
us on patreon your support really helps us to keep   videos like this coming to you plus we've got some 
fun giveaways going on right now for our patreon   supporters so you can check that out at the 
link below now it's getting a little hot here in   Colorado actually which is somewhat surprising the 
temperatures here are about the same as they are   this week in Florida now of course we don't have 
the humidity but needless to say these rigs aren't   insulated very well and if you get some sun 
on them they're definitely going to heat up   on the inside so staying cool in the summer and 
having the ability to run your roof AC units when   you're living RV life is crucial to being able to 
have a good time and avoiding anybody getting too   hot and cranky so traditionally to be able to run 
both AC units on a rig like this or many other   rigs you need a minimum of either 50 amp or 30 amp 
service depending upon how your particular rig is   set up now for us having a big rig we use 50 amp 
service and actually we have a lot of campgrounds   that we're going to be staying at this summer 
that only provide a 30 amp hookup now we had this   happen to us in Zion National Park last summer 
where we only had access to a 30 amp hookup and we   did try to keep both of our ACs going because it 
was a hundred plus degrees during our stay there   and we're pretty sure that strain of trying 
to run both of the ACs on only a 30 amp hookup   took out the compressor in our front AC 
which resulted in us having to replace it   while we were on the road to a very expensive 
repair bill so that just wasn't fun so we've   actually been kind of on the hunt for an option 
or looking at what can we do to be able to run   both of our acs when we need them on less power 
and we were super super excited when we found   out about this particular product so in doing 
some research we found out about this soft start   RV now basically what this does is it allows you 
to run your AC units on less power and how that   works is when the compressors kick in on your AC 
units you see an amperage spike and kind of the   best way that I thought about describing that is 
if I was in the middle of a field and there was a   big rock that I needed to move I could kind 
of approach it one of two ways I could just   run full bore and hit the rock with every single 
ounce of energy that I have to get it to move   or I could gently kind of start rolling the 
rock and get it rolling bit by bit to get out   of the way so obviously one method takes a ton 
of energy and the other method doesn't take that   big burst of energy and that's kind of like how 
the air conditioners work with the compressors   when those kick in so the way they're 
designed to run from the factory is they get a   big jolt of electricity that kicks that compressor 
over to start cooling the air for your AC but   what this does is it kind of gives it that rolling 
start so we're super excited to be able to put   these in today because this is actually going 
to mean that we're going to have better life of   the compressor because it's not getting that big 
jolt up front it's going to be a little bit easier   on that compressor mechanism to be able to give 
it more of an extended life because it's not so   hard on it when it kicks in so probably one of the 
most exciting things that I am excited for is this   is actually going to save us money in the long run 
and i'll get to how that's going to happen here in   just a minute but I want to let you know that we 
did talk to soft star RV because we knew that you   guys were going to want one too and so we have a 
special discount for our viewers so the link below   will give you a savings on purchasing this and if 
you use our link below purchase directly through   them they offer free shipping it's actually 
cheaper than what you can find it on amazon   so make sure that you use that link below so 
that you can get a discount on yours now this   is how this is going to save us money and I'm 
super excited about this most campgrounds and if   you've done some campground reservations this year 
you've probably noticed that a lot of campgrounds   charge more for a 50 amp site versus a 30 amp 
site or they maybe have an extra fee per day   if you want 50 amp service versus 30 amp 
service the other thing is is a lot of the   thousand trails campgrounds will not guarantee a 
50 amp site they only will guarantee a 30 amp site   and so we are going to be able to use 30 amp 
instead of 50 amp when we need to at these   campgrounds which is going to save us in the long 
run the other thing is is this opens up so much   more mooch talking opportunities where we haven't 
traditionally looked for those mooch docking or   even a lot of like boondockers welcome where 
people will have a household plug-in for you   to you know boondock or mooch dock at their 
private property we've not really looked at   those because we've felt like it's not going to 
have enough power to run our ACs and do what we   need to do but now this is going to open up those 
doors so this just means more freedom for us with   RV life this summer and being able to save more 
at the same time so we're super super excited   about the opportunities that this is really going 
to provide for us in moving forward with RV life   this summer we kind of wanted to compare a before 
and after on these electrical spikes with the soft   start versus before so we haven't installed it 
yet it's going to get installed in just a minute   my handy dandy cameraman husband is going to 
be installing them but right now we've got the   generator running and we've got this little power 
display that we have up here so no ACs running   right now we're pulling between seven and eight 
amps with just the refrigerator a few fans running   some lights that are on computer equipment 
plugged in that's what we're pulling right   now so i'm gonna come over here and i'm gonna 
turn the thermostat over to say to kick on the ac there went the spike did you see that huge spike 
so that was a huge spike that happened when that   compressor kicked on and then now it looks 
like we've leveled off to using right around   27 or so amps 26 amps and this is with both 
acs running so front and rear ac is running   generators on so we should be able to run 30 amps 
of both ac should be able to run 30 amps with both   ACs and still have plenty of power to run other 
things so one thing that you will have to remember   is that if you're using like 30 amp service 
like we just saw if we've got both ACs running   we're probably leveling out around that 
27-ish amps now because we work remotely we're   bringing you these videos we do have a 
lot of equipment that we've got plugged in   from time to time so if you are at a 30 amp 
campsite and you've got a 50 amp rig like this   and you're running both acs you'll just need to 
kind of be aware of what your power usage is with   the other components and maybe run just one asc 
if you're going to be running say the microwave   or if you have an onboard washer and dryer like we 
do if you're going to run one of those components   then just run one of the acs we also if we need to 
could you know switch some of our components over   to propane so like we could run the fridge off of 
the propane we can run our hot water heater off   of propane so we do have kind of a little bit 
of wiggle room in what sort of components are   actually using electricity versus what sort of 
components are using another power source so in   that particular situation running both ACs hooked 
up to a 30 amp with the soft start just can maybe   pull power from another source for some of those 
other components to be able to have the power we   need to say charge laptops or run an extra fan 
I think the bathroom fans running right now so   needless to say we're not exactly the best at 
conserving power but we're getting better okay so   I am going to head up there on the roof 
and get these soft starts installed on   both the front and the back ac unit what 
i'm going to do is just take off the shroud   from the ac then underneath the electrical panel 
is the model number of each of the ac units so   I'm going to go up there take a picture of those 
and then look up the wiring diagram for each one   so basically you just put on the connectors onto 
the soft start and plug them into the appropriate   spots match up the colors it's supposed to be a 
pretty easy install so good news is that if you   can see that RV right there I've got charity's 
dad on call to help me out if I get stuck um   I am definitely not a handy guy by any means 
but the RV life has really taught me to become   handy it's really forced me to to really get 
outside my comfort zone and just get stuff done first thing you really want to do is just take 
the cover off on the ac which is pretty simple   there's usually only like four screws then 
on the side you're going to see a little   plate a panel where all the electrical comes 
into right here and then on the back of the   the plate here is a yellow tag and then you'll see 
the numbers 1976 and then followed by the 1976.   like on this mach 15 is e136 you'll go on onto the 
website and i'll put a link right down below that   website will give you the wiring diagram 
for the model unit ac that you have   so we now have the soft start installed on both ac 
units the front and the rear so what I'm going to   do is turn on the front AC and we're at about five 
amps right now and we're gonna see if we get that   you know 40 amp spike when it starts up 
so turning it on and let's uh see what   it looks like okay should kick on any minute 
oh my gosh that's amazing did you see that   did you see that it spiked eight or nine it 
didn't go past 11 this time so that is so   amazing and it's a just a 110 outlet so I'm able 
to kick on that front ac without any huge spike   blowing breaker so we're super super excited with 
these results with soft start so there'll be a   link below if you want to check it out again our 
viewers get a special discount through soft start   RV and now we are so nice and cool we're going 
to really be able to enjoy the rest of our time   here without being sweltering in our RV on 
those work days being able to run that one AC  off of just the household power here super super 
excited about that so if you learned something new   in this video today make sure that you click that 
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valuable in your RV journey if you'd like to see   more videos with RV tips and tricks organization 
perhaps you can check those out right over here   and if you would like to see more videos about 
fun places to go and tips and tricks on how to   book campgrounds in those spots check out right 
over here until next time we'll see on the road

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