Feedback from a Master Electrician
Campground code violations!
Feedback from a reader…
Hey Mike,
I am a retired master electrician with over 30 years on the job. The saying goes, learn by your mistakes. I can’t count the number of times that one of my master electricians tells me a story about a service call where the home owner has done their own repairs and or installs.
I work-camped at a campground last summer that the code violations were pages long. From 20-amp receptacles in the pedestals with no GFCI protection to locked main panels and no key to unlock them.
I am sure that if a group of electricians got together we could write volumes of books about what we have seen. Happy New Year!
Steve
Dear Steve,
Thanks for your feedback. Oh, the stories I could tell about campground power. I’ve been pitching the idea of teaching pedestal maintenance and testing to campground maintenance crews for the last 10 years, but with zero traction.
This is also why I’ve promoted the need for Advanced/EMS surge protectors on all RV shore power hookups. Even a newly installed pedestal can be accidentally miswired and cause damage to an RV electrical system as well as be a shock hazard to humans and pets.
I’ll keep trying to convince the campground organizations that pedestal maintenance and testing is important. If any you have ideas of any campgrounds that might be interested, please let me know.
Let’s play safe out there - Mike
Mike, I'm an engineer, not an electrician -- so I know volts and amps, but not Code. Quite a while back, I paid a Princely sum for a high-end power protector, like >$600 over 10 years ago. It's almost as big as a football, and a real PITA to use -- especially since I keep it "behind closed doors" in my rig, and not out at the pedestal be be easily stolen.
I've lost count of the number of times that beast has saved my bacon... low-V, high-V, off-frequency, bad-ground, missing ground, swapped neutral/ground, etc. etc. etc. I have NEVER had anything in my rig damaged by power, and have never gotten a shock of any kind. YES, I've had plenty of times when I couldn't get my rig powered up... for damn good reasons.
NEVER, in any of the fault circumstances, was it visually obvious that anything was wrong.
Needless to say, I'm a power-protection evangelist. Keep up YOUR good work.
Good information Mike. I would think that more CGs would try to maintain their pedestals, if nothing else than to prevent lawsuits - which could be severe if some is injured because of a faulty pedestal. Conducting a CG wide check of all pedestals at least once a year would seem a minimal practice.
But to me the ironic thing is that most pedestals are actually very simple to test, repair and maintain. I would think that most CG maintenance people could be easily trained on pedestal electrical repair.