Friday, October 28, 2016

Shore Power

I've spent the last couple of days installing a 50 amp shore power station for the motorhome. As with all things electrical what should be a 4 or 5 hour tops job ends up taking all of two days and an additional couple of hours this AM.

The only logical source for power was the shop load center but there was just a small problem, there were not enough lugs for an additional 50 amp CB. So first order was installing a new load center, which of course required removing most of the storage shelfs, tools and clamps near the old load center.  Add in the required six trips to Home Depot for any project and the necessary doggie butt scratching and ball throwing for any day at Casa Chaos and a four hour job turns into a two day slog.

Anyway here is the 50 amp shore power service center, exciting isn't it:


I must have been working in "imperial" as the conduit ended up about 40mm too long, love flex hose. I know a real craftsman would have taken the conduit apart and cut off the offending 40mm. As I said I love flex hose.   

I figure there are another couple of days work before I can go back to making things in the shop because the new load center is larger than the old one and none of the old shelfs fit. Oh well I needed to work on the west wall storage anyway.

ken
 

6 comments:

  1. A question. When they plug in your 747 at the gate, do they call that shore power? I have always been intrigued by how this boat term ended up applying to RVs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You must have done this before because you only had to do 6 trips to HD.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not quite as fun as your story but ..... one Christmas I got my dad one of those new Stanley anti vibration hammers (he likes tools and I knew he didn't have one). Well, it didn't fit on the pegboard where the other hammers were and caused a massive reorganization. Of course, this made both my dad and I smile. God forbid he just put it in a drawer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andy,

    The carts they plug airplanes into are called GPU's (Ground Power Units) or just ground power. GPU's usually come in three different flavors: DC power carts, AC power carts, or "Huffer Carts"....air carts for operation of the air drive starter. Most of the time on larger aircraft like airliners and large corporate jets the GPU will be an AC unit. Smaller aircraft normally use DC power carts.

    Larger aircraft will also have a on board APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) which will supply the aircraft with AC power and bleed air for air conditioning and starting.

    There are many reasons for using an external cart but most aircraft are self contained and can function without the use of external power.

    Why eternal power is called "shore" power on RV's I haven't a clue but also the RV's APU is called the "Gen Set"....go figure.

    ken

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ralph,

    You noticed :-). I hate pulling wires with a passion.

    MsBubba took note of how quickly I got around to doing the electrical work for the RV compared to how I've put off the re-wire of her studio. You can guess what is the next project and it better start today.

    ken

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe,

    You have a nice blog and I wish you luck and enjoyment of your woodworking.

    I've had a blog for years and it is difficult to keep going with regular posts. BTW, Ralph is an animal, posting every day as he does is hard work. Not only is posting every day hard but Ralph also does woodworking every day so he has content to post. What I'm trying to say is find a rhythm that works for you. The best part of blogging is it makes a wonderful journal and years from now you can re-read and track your progress with woodworking or where ever life takes you.

    Thanks for the comment,

    ken

    ReplyDelete