Minimum safe voltage for heat pump

[Hookpilot]

Can anyone tell me what is the lowest voltage to safely run the heat pump? I installed a Progressive Industry EMS HW50C on my RL and yesterday it started kicking the power off. I had been told low voltage could ruin the heat pump. When I looked it was 108 v and 18amps. I shut off both the heat pump and ac. The camp is full so I attributed the drop in power to use.

I don't know anything about electricity so I may be worried over nothing.
Keith

[RV4us2]

As I remember the EMS protects below 104v. I would also check your phasing.

[Hookpilot]

Thank you. Maybe I am not understanding you properly. My concern is the Minimum voltage on the motor for the heat pump. I have no reason to believe my surge protector is not working properly.

[Jim & Mary]

I'm not sure any of us can speak to the technical limitations of the heat pump units themselves or how low the voltage can go before damage occurs. I can tell you this past winter in AZ when our incoming voltage went down to 105-106 volts (not enough to trip the HW-50) our heat pump circuit breaker (20A) tripped. I reset and measured the line current to be 21A. Later, when the voltage returned to normal the line current returned to around 12A. So during the winter months we had to rely on the propane furnace for heating.

[Rick and Mindy]

Originally Posted by Hookpilot

Can anyone tell me what is the lowest voltage to safely run the heat pump? I installed a Progressive Industry EMS HW50C on my RL and yesterday it started kicking the power off. I had been told low voltage could ruin the heat pump. When I looked it was 108 v and 18amps. I shut off both the heat pump and ac. The camp is full so I attributed the drop in power to use.

I don't know anything about electricity so I may be worried over nothing.
Keith

If I remember correctly, as explained by my electrician brother, there is a 10% acceptable variance for most appliances. Some appliances will actually tell you on their label what voltage is required. Too much voltage or too little voltage can cause damage. That would make sense since you stated that your progressive surge protector shut you down at 108volts (120 volts minus 10%). It will also shut you down if the voltage goes up to 132volts (120 plus 10%). They are made to protect everything and have saved me many times at campgrounds. When this happened to me at a State Park in Arkansas, the park technician tried to tell me to disconnect the Surge Protector and everything would be fine. I asked if he would pay for any damages if any occurred and of course he said "NO"!.

[ted 95]

Originally Posted by Rick and Mindy

If I remember correctly, as explained by my electrician brother, there is a 10% acceptable variance for most appliances. Some appliances will actually tell you on their label what voltage is required. Too much voltage or too little voltage can cause damage. That would make sense since you stated that your progressive surge protector shut you down at 108volts (120 volts minus 10%). It will also shut you down if the voltage goes up to 132volts (120 plus 10%). They are made to protect everything and have saved me many times at campgrounds. When this happened to me at a State Park in Arkansas, the park technician tried to tell me to disconnect the Surge Protector and everything would be fine. I asked if he would pay for any damages if any occurred and of course he said "NO"!.

Rick you are 100% correct all items made for U.S.A. or Canada must be approved by some of these standards UL ULC CUL CSA.
All electrical items must have a variance of 10% high or low. And that goes for 120 - 240 - 277 - 347 - 600v.
The bigger problem is (IMO) low voltage. This is worse than over voltage as your equipment then starts pulling the power instead of being fed the power and it over works / heats up.
You can cause your own low voltage situation as follows. At the pedestal you have say 110v (all is good) but you are using a 100' 30a cord to feed your 50a unit. That 100' can cause an adtitional voltage drop caused by a long wire run of too small a gage.

[rob_fla]

Yep, as Voltage goes down, Amps go up to do the same amount of work