Bad line voltage on one leg at my storage facility

[jondrew55]

Got back from a weekend trip and went to plug in my Flying Cloud to the 50 amp power at my storage facility. Plugged in my progressive industries surge detector, then my power cord and went inside to turn the AC on. The Progressive takes about 3 minutes to switch the power on so at first I did not realize nothing was going on. After a while, I went outside and looked at the display on the surge protector and it indicated an error (I forgot to write the error code down) and 120 volts on one leg and 108 volts on the other. There were electrical contractors on site adding power outlets to other storage units, so they must have screwed something up. I had to leave, so I just disconnected from the outlet and turned the Coach power off.

If this had happened when I was away, could this have damaged something (other than spoiled food if I’d had any in the fridge)? I wonder if any of my neighbors got a bad surprise when they come back to their campers?

[Wazbro]

The same thing should have happened your surge suppressor/EMS should have just shut down power, well instead of not letting power through in the first place.
A reason why some people prefer internal ones so they don't get lazy and not use it in a place they "think" is safe for power.

[richard5933]

Were the contractors using any equipment with heavy electrical loads? Could have drawn down the power on the leg they were plugged into if it's overtaxed.

Regardless, you should probably report this to the property management.

[jondrew55]

Nah, not that I could see. It looked like they were just stringing new service lines to other units that did not already have power. I called the manager while I was there and told her what as going on. She said "oh yea, they should be done by the end of the week". I told her it didn't matter to me, but there are other people who have their rigs plugged in and this could cause them a problem. I don't think she did anything about it because normally they'd send out an email to all customers informing them of an issue.

Originally Posted by richard5933

Were the contractors using any equipment with heavy electrical loads? Could have drawn down the power on the leg they were plugged into if it's overtaxed.

Regardless, you should probably report this to the property management.

[jondrew55]

Originally Posted by Wazbro

The same thing should have happened your surge suppressor/EMS should have just shut down power, well instead of not letting power through in the first place.
A reason why some people prefer internal ones so they don't get lazy and not use it in a place they "think" is safe for power.

You're right. I've thought several times "I'm just plugging in here at the storage place. Nothing is going to happen here". But I use the box anyway. Glad I got in that habit.

I like this place. It's bit pricy, but I keep my Airstream and Travato van under cover there and it's very convenient to load up and do minor work under cover. I think they just need to do a better job of warning people when there are power issues. the place is only a year or so old.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

There are a *lot* of ways power at your storage location can "go away". I would never / ever trust it to keep a fridge or freezer running. I also would not run an A/C unit or any other "big load" off of their power.

The 108 volt point is sort of right at the limit. It's not likely to damage anything. I would not like running an A/C unit off of that. Since you have no true 240V loads, the balance between legs is not an issue.

Fun !!

Bob

[emelaich01]

There's probably a splice or terminal connection in the supply to your unit that's building up resistance. I'd encourage the owner/manager of the facility to have a competent electrician check it out.

Not too far from us in Central Texas was a fire yesterday at a storage facility, damaging or destroying nearly 30 units. Cause isn't yet determined, but...letting your owners know there's a fault somewhere may well be cheap insurance.
BTW--if you have a hard-wired Progressive unit, check your supply voltage from the source with a known accurate VOM, voltmeter or other tester to be sure both legs are the same voltage. If your EMS display reads otherwise, pop the cover off and you'll see two potentiometers* on the circuit board. Adjust each one so that the EMS display reads the same as your test instrument and you'll be good to go!

*Two on the 50A, one on the 30A

[GammaDog]

I’ve seen that with a failing breaker.