R-V There Yet?

So much for amperage, now we need to consider voltage which is the electric potential or force of the current. In the states you can expect a 120 volt system to be roughly 115 to 125 volts. Sometimes we’ll run into a park where the voltage may be on the low side. This is not the case in Mexico. If the RV park is wired and grounded correctly, and we always check, we usually find the voltage to be extremely high. It is typical for voltage to be 125 to 140 volts. Both conditions, either high or low voltage can shorten the life of many electrical components. Low voltage is worse for appliances like the microwave.

Now why am I telling you all this? So you will know what the electricity is like in Mexico. Most all RV parks in Mexico have 15 AMPS ONLY. That means you are not allowed to run your air conditioner. You also can not run your washer/dryer and the microwave at the same time or you might blow a breaker. Using the dryer cycle is usually a no-no. When we were in Mazatlan we did run our air conditioner because the park was not full. If all the sites had been full we would not have been able to do that. Of course, most of the regular people there were used to not running the A/C and so they had their doors open and didn’t run their A/C.

All that being said, about a year ago we had a built in Surge Guard installed to protect our unit against things like reversed polarity, missing ground, high and low voltage, spikes, etc. This was done by Camping World at no small expense. This is all well and good, except it generally prevents us from using the Mexican electric service due to the high voltage. Our Surge Guard has a key that allows us to bypass the unit. Bypassing the unit eliminates all of the protection that we paid for EXCEPT for surges in the electrical service. This is what we have been doing. Three times in the past 24 hours, the unit has cut off to protect from such surges.

I wouldn’t plan to travel to Mexico without one. Surge Guard also has an inline system that attaches to the power cord, but you can not bypass the high without completely removing the device.

Built in Surge Guard

Portable Surge Guard 

The first thing we do at any park, even in the US, is check the voltage and quality of the electrical service before hooking up.  If the tester indicates a problem, we have to analyse the condition.  This may be missing ground, improper wiring such as ground and neutral reversed, or other problems.

Voltage Meter and Electrical Tester

Here is the typical RV electrical hookup that we are used to in the United States.

This is what we generally get in Mexico. Most of the time, if there is a breaker box, it is exposed to the elements and so are the outlets.  It looks like they grounded it to the rebar in the cement.

This is our current hookup. Exposed to the elements and there is no cover on the outlet.

Electricity is very expensive in Mexico and the wiring is expensive. So most of the wires they use here in Mexico are the small size like a regular extension cord, not a thick extention cord. If a RV Park has 30 or 50 AMP it is because they have bought the wires in the states and brought them down. 

Just to give you an idea regarding the expense.  US electric rates are about $.12 per kilowatt hour.  Next month when we move to Lo De Marcos, we will be paying $.27 per kilowat hour.

Anyway we were busy cleaning so did not notice the temperature. About 4 PM we ventured out into the RV park and everyone was complaining about the weather saying it was cold and breezy. After we had cooled off from working we sat outside on the patio and read our books. We had to move indoors because it was chilly to us too. We came inside and closed all our windows which is the first time we have done that since we were in Mexico. Curious about current conditions, we looked up Puerta Vallarta’s weather. The temperature at that time was 69 degrees. We did not notice the humidity but it must have been lower than normal for it to be so cool. We laughed and said no one from home would be sympathetic to our cold condition, but it is all relevant to what you are used to and this feels like a cold front . Even in Paradise we complain!!!!!

By the way, we’re back in the 80’s today.