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Old 06-09-2018, 02:06 PM   #1
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on-board Surge Protector: EMS

Hey, I have the on-board surge protector on our 21, the EMS model. We took delivery in January this year and we've made 3 trips, about 700 total miles. We've stayed in 3 parks, hooking up to 30amp power in each.
The last park, (icicle creek RV in Leavenworth) was the best with very modern equipment. On the second morning we had the microwave going along with a toaster. The space heater cycled on and all power went out. After turning everything off I was trying to check circuit breakers when the power came back on. After checking several things I saw a fault code on the EMS. It was code E4 which is "Line 1 Low Voltage". So what does this mean? Was I pulling to much power? Everything works fine now and the error code went away once we disconnected power to drive home.
In addition I've begun to experience the disco light effect in the central overhead LED light and the range hood light is dead. I'll call Escape about these but I'm wondering how many of you are experiencing the same thing.
Thanks. Tom Gose
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Old 06-09-2018, 02:13 PM   #2
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Yup, the total wattage shot up when the space heater went on and pulled down the line voltage, causing the EMS to disconnect power to the trailer.


You're better off with replacing the dim hood light with an LED array. There are some that just plug in directly, some come with a short adapter cord that plugs into the socket.
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Old 06-09-2018, 02:14 PM   #3
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Line voltage refers to the incoming voltage. Load is the other (user) side. I would suspect it sensed the line voltage drop to below where the parameters are set at to protect your equipment. This would be a campground issue.

Could it be that the draw pulled the line voltage down? I would certainly hope not as that is not much load you describe. Maybe the line voltage was already quite low?
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Old 06-09-2018, 03:38 PM   #4
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so the demand from the other vehicles in the park was already reducing the available line voltage? If I'm drawing say 3000 watts, that's not an excessive amount?
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Old 06-09-2018, 04:00 PM   #5
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30A at 115VAC is about 3300 watts... IMHO, 3000 watts is a safe maximum.
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Old 06-09-2018, 04:02 PM   #6
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toasters are often 1500 watts, many microwaves are 1200 or so. space heaters are typically 1500 watts too, so all 3 at once, thats 4200 watts, well over 30A total.
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Old 06-09-2018, 04:51 PM   #7
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Brownout

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Originally Posted by Zoltan View Post
so the demand from the other vehicles in the park was already reducing the available line voltage? If I'm drawing say 3000 watts, that's not an excessive amount?
High demand by multiple users or excessive demand from even a limited number of users can cause a drop in line voltage delivered to individual services. This is commonly termed a brown out. It is common in cities where service upgrades have not kept up with increased demands. Probably most common where old neighborhoods are all running air conditioning on a hot day. That’s an over simplification but has widely occurred.
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Old 06-09-2018, 05:28 PM   #8
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otherwise known back east as a "Brownout" not to be confused with a complete power down or "blackout" which happens occasionally...
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Old 06-09-2018, 05:34 PM   #9
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Out, out I say

Not to be confused with a snow event in the upper Midwest and parts west where the snow comes down sideways and you cannot see 25 feet. A “white out”. Which can cause a blackout.
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Old 06-09-2018, 05:55 PM   #10
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Not to be confused with a snow event in the upper Midwest and parts west where the snow comes down sideways and you cannot see 25 feet. A “white out”. Which can cause a blackout.
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Old 06-09-2018, 06:10 PM   #11
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Back when I worked underground we would go into some of these parks.
In most from the TX to the first meter was ours and they would run theirs after that. In one case we figured a place down in Ft Myers had over 30 50 amp sites tied in to a 75 KVA padmount. They were complaining the power kept going out and they were having to wait until the company sent someone to refuse the TX.

And that RVers were complaining about brownouts and low voltage.

Trying to explain they were overloaded was useless.
So we noted the account and they stayed out of power for awhile next time it blew
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Old 06-09-2018, 10:02 PM   #12
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Witty!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa Dave View Post
Not to be confused with a snow event in the upper Midwest and parts west where the snow comes down sideways and you cannot see 25 feet. A “white out”. Which can cause a blackout.
This thread drift is starting to make me see red!
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Old 06-10-2018, 10:28 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoltan View Post
Hey, I have the on-board surge protector on our 21, the EMS model. We took delivery in January this year and we've made 3 trips, about 700 total miles. We've stayed in 3 parks, hooking up to 30amp power in each.
The last park, (icicle creek RV in Leavenworth) was the best with very modern equipment. On the second morning we had the microwave going along with a toaster. The space heater cycled on and all power went out. After turning everything off I was trying to check circuit breakers when the power came back on. After checking several things I saw a fault code on the EMS. It was code E4 which is "Line 1 Low Voltage". So what does this mean? Was I pulling to much power? Everything works fine now and the error code went away once we disconnected power to drive home.
In addition I've begun to experience the disco light effect in the central overhead LED light and the range hood light is dead. I'll call Escape about these but I'm wondering how many of you are experiencing the same thing.
Thanks. Tom Gose
Lots have commented on the EMS, as far as the lighting issue goes, I know that Reace has been struggling with the LED's, its not a light bulb but a circuit board with the LEDs right on it. Contact Escape and they will send you a new one, ours went recently. As to the dim light fixture in the range hood, when the blue went, we picked up an LED bulb with the right end from a local RV store. Much brighter. New fixtures now have an LED in them, but not very bright.
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