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Guest wbottomley

Well... since I'm banned from Planet Christmas, I will only share this here.

It's my new portable power panel. It has 50 amps @ 240 volts or 100 @ 120 volts.

I used a Square D 3R outdoor 100 amp panel, 50 amp rv cord, treated 2x4's and 6 GFCI's, 20 amp.

Now, to connect this monster, I will mount a 50 amp RV outlet on my house, run #6 to my panel and put it on a 50 amp breaker.

During the off season, you'll only see the RV outlet on the house which is a 5x5 box.

Below are pictures of this thing...

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bill, thats a really nice setup. how are you plugging it into your house. I see the plug your using, but thats used for a dryer or stove. or did you forget to tell your wife she not cooking for a whole month.

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Most sub-panels are supposed to have the grounds & neutrals on a separate buss
And the Neutral should not be bonded to the case
I also notice you are sharing the Neutral to each set of outlets
Make sure the breakers are on opposite phases (seems like they are)
I think 2008 code requires a multi-branch circuit like this to be on a double pole breaker

Not sure what issues this could cause

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Guest wbottomley

Dave... I know when I was a commercial electrician years ago, all neutrals and grounds were not bonded until it reached the switch gear. Have wired a few 3,000 amp ones.

With residential and commercial being so different, I can't remember much anymore.

I know the local inspector (next door neighbor) loves them bonded.

Their's two more code violations in the pictures above. Anyone know what they are?



EDIT: Brain fart hit me and the neutral/ground problem has been corrected.

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I like the conduit bends. I should have done that on some of my runs instead of buying the curves. Did you stuff them with sand before heating?
Looks like clear PVC cement instead of grey ;)

So far I haven't needed a portable sub
But when I ran my pool sub the 1st thing the Inspector saw that I missed was that the ground was not bonded to the case. I had removed the green screw & bar between neutral & ground buss. But didn't realize (and should have) this also removed the bond to the case. Easy fix

Nice 6 circuit setup
I've been running buried circuits to where I need them. Ad adding circuits on each side of the house

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It looks nice to me. nice work!

It seems like this should be as safe as any RV panel ... right?

So with a 50A cable, you actually able to get 100A at 120 ?

So you can safely do 15A per breaker, and maybe a little more as needed?

Thats a pretty sweet setup, IMHO ... and the cost of a 50A cable will save you plenty by getting things a lot closer to the action, it seems.

I was always thinking that a 50A RV cable was 50A @ 120 ...

So do you connect to a double pole 50A breaker?

I'd love to see you 50A outlet panel connections in more detail.

Thx,
Scott

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Guest wbottomley

Dave... you caught me on that one. Forgot about that.

I didn't put sand in the pvc before heating, but the burn marks are a NO, NO.

It's funny how each inspector has their own little peave.

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I actually used clear cement at one point, nopt thinking just hurrying
I thne went back & ran a little bit of grey around it to cover up
Yes, results can vary from one guy to the next
When I started telling them what I ws doing they started to tell me I couldn't do it exactly the way I wanted. I then started to Quote the NEC 2005 sections I was going by & asked for clarification on what I was doing wrong
They said they'd have to look it up & get back to me ;)
We ended up meeting in the middle on what to do :cool:

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Guest wbottomley

The neutral/ground problem has been corrected.

Jeff & Dave have brought a potential problem to my attention. Instead of frying my lights, I would be frying my buns. :D

Anyway, I haven't worked in electricity since 1995 and forgotten a lot of stuff.

Jeff & Dave... thank you for keeping my buns raw and the lights burning. :P

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I'm wondering if neutral & ground are bonded on a sub if it could cause a GFCI to kickout?

I've spent the past 10 years working on 2 houses upgrading electric systems
Last house who-ever did it was a hack
Live wires all over, one behind a baseboard covered!!
This house not bad, just updating & wiring for the display

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  • 9 months later...

Bill, so it is ok to use the 50a cable from the sub to a 50a outlet even though it's a 100a? Is this 100a @ 240 right?

I think I am going to go this route as well a do something similar. I wonder if I could use a 50a twist lock outlet with 50a cord to plug in and power the sub?

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Ah gotcha, that makes more since now. I think I was getting confused because I was going to use 100a double pole to feed my sub to give me 200a @ 120v. So the plug and cable you are using is rated for 50a @ 240v correct?

Really all I need though is 100a sub but I need to find a panel that can accommodate 8-10 circuits. I really only need 5, but would like the extra for expansion. I was thinking of using a twist lock outlet though instead of of a 3 prong RV connection.

So if I went this route I could use 50a @ 240v and that would give me 100a @ 120v. Then I could use a 50a twist lock receptacle to feed the sub panel at 100a @ 120?

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william,

looks good... I do something similar except I use a 30 amp rv circuit since it is available already (that is where we plug our rv in) allows me 60 more amps on a dedicated circuit.

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Guest wbottomley
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MMM More plugs is always a good thing. That setup looks pretty good to me. The only thing I'd be worried with is Copper thieves. With something like that the thieves around here might be a little more interested in it...

-Evan

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Jeff Millard wrote:

My opinion FWIW... Sticky this! Change the name to "Portable Power Panel..." "...that we all worked together to make safe!" so it can be viewed for a long time!


Seconded.
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Mountainwxman wrote:


I used a 30 amp, we have a smaller rv that is set up for 30 amps
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