Non-electrifying electricity (or, “Power With No Pep”)

Most of our lives, we just plug something in, and forget it.  We know it will work, and we have no fear of creating another Christmas tree scene from the “Christmas Story”.

Not so in northwest Canada and Alaska.  We are “off the grid” at this point in our story.  There is no municipal power supply.  Everything we see lit up, is powered by someone’s generator.

So what does that mean for campers?  Modern motor homes and trailers have juice-guzzling appliances like microwave ovens, big screen TVs, electric water heaters, and hair dryers – to name a few.  When we are in a campground with 30 amp service – no problem, but go to an older 15 amp service campground and all of a sudden “power” doesn’t mean you have power!

The tricky part is the refrigerator.  It senses if you have power and switches to propane if you don’t.  But when there is low power, the circuit board inside doesn’t know what to do and will damage itself.  An electric hair dryer will slow down, but a refrigerator just dies, and out in the boonies of Canada, there aren’t a lot of replacement parts for the electronics of a fridge to be found.

In Mexico, our wagon master taught us how to disconnect the fridge from the coach’s power supply to protect it from low power.  It ran on propane and 12volt battery power all the time, but it ran!  Alaska and Mexico.  You two have something in common.

Bill