Originally Posted by
drivesafe
Hi Kelvin and unfortunately there are plenty of BAD installations done all the time.
A few years back I had an electrician contact me with an electrical problem with his mate’s NEW caravan.
I explained to him I was not an electrician and could not give him any form of electrical advice.
The problem his mate had was that when he bought his NEW caravan home, he set it up in his back yard and, luckily for him, he put down a rubber mat at the door so not to dirty his new caravan.
He plugged his van into the mains and then as he went to climb into his van he got a tingling feeling as he touched the side of the caravan.
The manufacturer had wired the active to earth in revers.
Under the law, the electrician was obligated to notify the authorities and he did so.
About a month later, I got a call from the electrician and he told me the Brisbane caravan manufacturer had to recall 4 other new vans they had wired the same way.
As I posted above, being an electrician, even a VERY good one, does not mean they have ever worked with floating power supplies.
I supply some of the largest RV manufacturers and some years back I got into a real knock down argument ( imagine, me arguing with anyone ) with an electrical engineer, employed by one of the largest motor home manufacturers.
They thought they had done the right thing by employing an electrical engineer but this guy was a joke in the most dangerous way.
I use Hager products and over the years have found them to back their products with very helpful technical support.
On this occasion they were instrumental in putting this horses rear of an engineer in his place.
While the incident is not that important it simply demonstrates that even when large companies try to do it right, they can come unstuck, so the average joe in the street is going to have a hell of a job getting it right.
Now as I have stated, I try to keep out of 240vac threads but two devices have come onto the market that has allowed me to prepare a new kit to resolve a major problem confronting RVers.
The problem, which is getting worse, is how to run a 3 way fridge and charge house batteries at the same time.
I have never been a fan of DC/DC devices because of their high set up price for such a small potential gain ( if any ), and they do not address the 3 way fridge problem.
I was told about the proposed introduction of the RVD a year or so back and this device would make a safe use of two other devices in a set up that would address the 3 way fridge/house battery charging in one go but would also have other uses for the devices when not powering the fridge and charging batteries while on the move.
This is the only reason I have made it my business to study and test the RVDs in both inverters and generators.
