My brother, when I was quite young, lived in a condominium. A couple times he couldn't pay his bill so since it was winter the power company was prohibited from shutting people with children off. So they put a device that would limit the amount of current he could draw. It was enough power to run the heat and lights and maybe some cooking apparatus but nothing big power.

When people rent campsites with electric hookup there must be some way of controlling how much power is being used by a camper/RV. I don't know - I've never rented a campsite with electricity. Never even looked into it. Still, I don't think that's the problem. Some are suggesting wire size, which WILL make a difference. Others suggest the plug itself may be a poor connection. While all that is valid, I still don't see how using less power can make the relay chatter as opposed to using more power. That's what I'm hung up on.

Some camping limit the power usage to 15 amp per campsite and other 30 amp per campsite. They put a breaker directly where you plug your RV to limit the power usage. Yes, the heat gun thing is very confusing.

 

Depending on the park I suppose. I've seen some with seperate breakers for 50,30 and 20 amp outlets but I know that will not always be the case. Just a thought, what if you tried a 12 volt dc relay powered by a 12 volt adaptor on the same breaker as the mains.

Yes that's the configuration I will use if I don't fine the solution. I just deeply want to know what went wrong!

 

I just deeply want to know what went wrong!

I'm assuming you are testing this at your house. Have you tried other circuits in the house on different breakers and if so were any of these outlets GFCI?

 

My brother, when I was quite young, lived in a condominium. A couple times he couldn't pay his bill so since it was winter the power company was prohibited from shutting people with children off. So they put a device that would limit the amount of current he could draw. It was enough power to run the heat and lights and maybe some cooking apparatus but nothing big power.

When people rent campsites with electric hookup there must be some way of controlling how much power is being used by a camper/RV. I don't know - I've never rented a campsite with electricity. Never even looked into it. Still, I don't think that's the problem. Some are suggesting wire size, which WILL make a difference. Others suggest the plug itself may be a poor connection. While all that is valid, I still don't see how using less power can make the relay chatter as opposed to using more power. That's what I'm hung up on.

When you rent a campsite with electricity it is a variable amount of power because every campground is different. But the maximum power is always limited by the circuit breaker, usually at 15 amps. Quite often there is a big voltage drop because of low capacity and undersized wire. And that can be coupled with a thin power cord and a corroded line plug and certainly the relay will chatter. So the chatter is caused by an excess voltage drop someplace. My guess is that when the heat gun is run on high heat that the load makes the relay drop out completely and thus there is no chatter. That is when the other side is plugged into another breaker and not the inverter. The fault is excess resistance someplace in the power feed before the relay. Maybe 100 feet of #16 extension cord??

We one time stayed one night at a campground that had a brutalkly enforced rule against electric heaters. They had a set of ammeters and an alrm that notified them if any drew more power. And they had loops on every distribution panel so they could use a clamp on ammeter and see who was drawing more power. It seems that they allowed about 4 amps per unit. We left the next day and never went back.

 

I'm assuming you are testing this at your house. Have you tried other circuits in the house on different breakers and if so were any of these outlets GFCI?

Yes all the outlets I try was GFCI. Would it make any differences?

 

I would not think so. But try it on a branch circuit that is not GFCI protected just to eliminate the possibility