newbie battery question

It's not that I don't want to run the AC, it's that the AC simply will not operate on a 15 amp house circuit. Trips the breaker every time.

When getting ready for our current vacation, we had the pod plugged into the house.  One of us must have accidentally bumped the ac switch to on, because I came out of the house a while later, and was surprised to hear the ac running.  We had not even turned the fridge on yet, so that may be why the circuit survived the start up current.

Our pod's AC has a 20A breaker. We have a dedicated 30A outlet at home for the pod, but in a pinch we have run the AC and fridge on a 20A circuit.  A 15A circuit is inadequate for the AC. 

Ratdog wrote: The other poster said his house was on a fused system, not circuit breakers. Maybe fuses are more forgiving than circuit breakers. I don't know.   Nevertheless, regardless of whether the circuit breaker or fuse would do it's job to protect the circuit under an overload, the concern is with the house wiring heating up on an overloaded circuit.

Gentlemen, ladies, let us do some analysis of this problem- using some arithmetic and some facts.

The applicable formula from physics is E=I x R, where E is the power in watts, I is the work in volts and R is the resistance in Amps. This can be rearranged as R = E/I, or amps = watts divided by volts.   

So a 15 amp circuit breaker or fuse is capable of handling a load of 1650 watts at 110 volts. The voltage here is the key, as the lower ther voltage, the lower the wattage the circuit can manage. This means that during peak usage times, such as summer, the voltage can be as low as 95 to 105 V. Most utilities in my experience maintain around 108V as constantly as possible.

Circuit breakers typically have a margin of safety built in to handle transient surges such as motor starts. Probably in the range of 20 to 40 % - but only for milliseconds, before they trip. A typical metal based fuse will instantaneously melt at overload, whereas a "slo-blow" will retain integrity until the greater than capacity load duration finally melts the link.

There are several threads about air conditioners, current draws and generator capabilities on the owners forum, one is currently active. There are several references to the steady state draw of the RPod AC being 1150 watts. At 110 V, this is a current draw of 10.5 A. With a 40% start pulse, it is still less than 15A. Thus a typical house circuit, fused or with a breaker, should be capable of handling the load. One might try plugging in an iron to see if the circuit can handle the load. if the start up does pop the breaker, it could the breaker is weak and needs to be replaced, or there is a load on the circuit that remains unidentified. Same is true for a fuse, although it would be best to use a slo-blow one on the circuit.
For safety, one would want to use a circuit that wasn't already being used for other household uses, such as tv, vacuum, refrigerator, iron, etc. As an 'oh, by the way,' a one horsepower electric motor is rated at approximately 750 watts, or a draw of 6.8 Amps at 110V. A typical modern refrigerator is about 500 watts. The Fantastic fan in the pod is 25watts at 12 V.

All that being said, the original questions were whether the RPod system actually charges and maintains the battery when plugged into shore power, and, absent a 30 Amp outlet can the pod be plugged in to typical household outlet of 15Amps to keep the battery charged. The answer to both questions is "Yes". One needs an adaptor for the power cord, to fit a grounded 15 A outlet. However, as has been pointed out, it is best to keep the total use of electricity in the pod to a minimum when a 15A outlet is used.

Thanks!
Walt