RV Ports

30 or 50 amps

Smaller RVs have a 30-amp plug and larger ones a 50-amp plug. Unless you know you’ll only ever own a 30-amp RV, we usually recommend a 50-amp receptacle. It doesn’t cost much more, and a 30-amp RV can plug into it with an adapter. In Nathan’s words, “it’s definitely less expensive to install a 50 now than install a 30 now and then come back and install a 50 later.”

An adapter will also let you run an RV from an ordinary outlet, but only the basics. Most people who start out that way soon want the full power.

Keep it plugged in while it sits

Nathan has owned RVs for many years. One that sits closed up gets damp inside, and damp speeds up the decay. Running the air conditioner or a dehumidifier keeps the humidity down (an air conditioner pulls moisture out of the air as it cools), and that makes a real difference to how long the RV lasts. That’s what a proper receptacle is for.

It rarely needs a panel upgrade

Because of the way the load is calculated for an RV receptacle at a house, adding one rarely means upgrading the panel. That’s different from an EV charger, which often does in an older house.

How long it takes

When the panel is outside and the receptacle can go right next to it, the job usually takes 2 to 4 hours. If the panel is inside, we have to run the circuit through a wall and around the house to where you park, which takes longer.

Two jobs

One customer lived in a mobile home and had just bought a motor home. The power came from a panel on a pole behind the house, not on the house itself. There was room on the pole, so we mounted the RV receptacle just below the panel.

On another, the RV receptacle was one part of a bigger job: a service upgrade from 150 to 200 amps and an input for a portable generator, all at once. That one is on the panel upgrades page.

RV parks

Laying out power for a whole RV park is a separate design job. We can take that on too.