Heat Pump

[Charley67]

I had my electric heat on last night, and when I got up this morning it was running, and the control panel was showing it was pulling 30 amps. The refrigerator was on, but pretty much nothing else except the heat. Should it be pulling that much? It was pouring pawn rain outside, and I thought it might throw the breaker outside, so I switched it to gas.

[creativepart]

Does your Heat Pump have auxiliary electric heat strips? If the temp was below 40 degrees and you have heat strips it will use a ton of amps to keep the heat flowing.

[DavidM]

Is this a rooftop unit or a basement unit. Are you sure it is a heat pump. Not all roof top air conditioners are heat pumps and those that are don't draw anywhere near 30 amps.

The Airxcel/Coleman 2 ton basement unit is a heat pump but shouldn't draw that much current, less than 25 amps, but maybe with the fridge it could hit close to 30 amps.

But it sounds like your shore power is 30 amps. I wouldn't expect an Airxcel unit to be installed on a coach with just 30 amps available.

So tell us more about your heat pump.

David

[Morich]

I would expect the specs on the heat pump to be part of the overall specs of the RV, if you have the paperwork, I might look there first as it is sure to vary depending on what year, model and size of RV as well as options at times which may change the sizing.

[Charley67]

It’s a basement unit, 30 amp shore power. I put new bearings in the fans back in the summer. No heat strips. Ac hits about 25 amps on startup, then settles down in the teens. I’m wondering if fan could be binding on heat, but it’s not making any unusual noise.

[DavidM]

Originally Posted by Charley67

It’s a basement unit, 30 amp shore power. I put new bearings in the fans back in the summer. No heat strips. Ac hits about 25 amps on startup, then settles down in the teens. I’m wondering if fan could be binding on heat, but it’s not making any unusual noise.

That is entirely within specs for the two ton basement unit. See data sheet attached. It shows 2,630 watts with two compressors running on heat mode. That is about 23 amps at 115 V. It also says 27.9 amps for all systems running on high. Probably power factor explains the difference. Since breakers operate on amps not watts/volts use the later number.

You don't want to run any more big AC loads while it is in two compressor mode- no microwave for sure, maybe fridge is ok.

David

[Charley67]

Thank you, David, that eases my mind.

[NeilV]

The PowerLine system should detect that you are on a 30 Amp service and automatically shed the second compressor in the Basement Air and then start shedding other loads automatically once you get to 30 amps. That's how it works my 2001 Adventurer with Basement Air.

What does the indicator light on the PowerLine Panel show that it has automatically recognized the service amperage to be?

[Charley67]

I didn’t take notice of that, Neil. It was early morning and pouring rain outside, so I just switched it to gas. I haven’t seen it show that many amps since then. I was afraid the fan might be binding somehow, since I had put new bearings on it, but I’ve about decided it was okay. I will keep an eye on it. I really like the electric heat.