Plug my RV into my House

Ability to safely connect your house to your RV

Your RV wiring is very similar to your home's electrical system.  It has the same hot, neutral, and ground wires that your house has.

The hot and neutral are the main power lines.  The ground wire is a safety system to prevent shocks in the event of something going wrong.

When you connect your house to your RV’s electrical system, it's like adding another room to your house.  No special considerations need to be taken from a system level.

You will take into consideration the fact that your RV is outside and subject to rain and other weather elements.  No worries, plenty of outdoor-grade components are available.  That need is incorporated into the sections below.

Assumptions

This article is written with the assumption that you have 120/240v service to your house, with is the standard in North America and some other areas.  Specific plug types and amp ratings may differ in other areas, but the same concepts apply.

Everything is written assuming your RV has either a 15a, 20a, or 30a service.  Some class A motorhomes or very large travel trailers use a 50a service, and this is discussed as an exception to the above.

Sometimes there's confusion about 110v, 115v, 120v, and 125v service.  They're all the same, they're all compatible.  The actual voltage can vary but your RV and electrical devices will work with them.

All of your low voltage 12V RV appliances such as water pump and lights will be running through a power converter.  This means that when your plug into shore power such as your house or campground, your 12V RV batteries automatically charge up.

Permits and inspections

If you are considering adding an outlet specifically for your RV, check with your local government to ensure you are abiding by the necessary rules and regulations.  In almost all cases you can do all of the work yourself, but you will likely need to submit a plan, pay a fee for a permit, and get an inspection.

In most locales, anything permanently installed like an outlet will need a permit.  Temporary installations like cords connecting your house outlet to your travel trailer do not need a permit.  This is not always the case, and you are responsible for determining the needs for permits.

Power options available

You want to make sure there's enough power to do what you're actually looking to do!  There are four typical power options available for consideration:

15a power supply

This is your standard household electrical outlet, with the two straight blades and the circular or D-shaped ground in the middle but a little lower down.

A 15 amp power supply, often called a 15 amp circuit, is capable of delivering 15a X 120V = 1800 watts. This should be enough for any individual high power electronic device.  Your main A/C might have difficulty starting, because that takes a lot of power.

You might find this to be insufficient if you plan on running your air conditioner while having your fridge run and your batteries charging.  Space heaters often max out a 15 amp line, meaning you risk blowing a circuit breaker due to any other usage on that line.

If you're just looking to keep your batteries topped up and turn on the lights to load/unload, then running your RV from a standard home outlet will be totally fine for you.  If you want to run a high-power device from a 15 amp system, make sure everything else possible is turned off.

20a power supply

20 amps at 120 volts is 2400 watts. This is 33% more power than a standard 15a outlet.

A 20 amp power supply looks very similar to the standard 15a outlet, but it allows for a sideways pin. The plug side has one vertical pin and one horizontal, along with the ground in the standard position.

20 amps of power should be sufficient to run an air conditioner and fridge, while maintaining your batteries.  Beyond that, you risk tripping a circuit breaker.

Here's the thing about 20a outlets – I hate them.  It's very difficult to find a power cord that is actually rated to 20 amps.  It's too easy for someone to just plug in a lower grade cord and pull more energy than the cable is rated.

To be faaaaaaaair, this can happen with 15 amp outlets also.  Someone could plug in one of those cheap 16-gauge 100-foot extension cables and try to draw way too much power from it.  

That's actually how I purchased my table saw for only $25 – the previous owner thought it was broken because it didn't work properly.  It was simply an issue with the cable, it runs great on a good line.

It's definitely possible to install a safe 20a system, but I strongly feel you shouldn't do it.  If you need more than 15 amps, jump up to a 30a outlet.

30a power supply

30 amps at 120v is 3600 watts, double the amount from a standard 15a outlet.  This is some serious power that can supply multiple high-power devices at once.

30 amp service is the standard electrical hookups for most campgrounds and RV parks that I've been to.  It's absolutely the most common system out there.

You'll have plenty of power for your air conditioner, fridge, 12v power converter, as well as devices such as a coffee maker and hair dryers.

Another really nice thing about a 30 amp connection is that it uses nice thick wiring.  Very often the wire run to your RV will be very long.  Thick wires prevent voltage drop, which can be a big problem for your electrical system.  Even though you might not be using the full 30 amps very often, you're still benefiting from that big wire.

50a power supply

A 50 amp power supply isn't just a bigger version of a 30 amp hookup.  It's actually two 50 amp lines, 180 degrees out of phase.  This means it can run 120v and 240v electrical devices and appliances.

50 amps at 240 volts is 12000 watts. This is more than six times the amount of power you can get from a standard 15a 120v outlet.

If you have a monster sized travel trailer or large RV such as a class A motorhome, you might have this kind of plug.  It has much thicker pins than the 15 amp household plug.

240v service makes it easier to have an electric stove, clothes dryer, and water heater.  Of course all of these could be propane fueled, but electric service is so convenient.

If you have one of these RVs, you have to decide if you want to run those electrical appliances while hooked up at home.  Just like above, for lesser needs the 30a service will provide quite a bit of power.

There's an adapter for that

The good news is that there are adapters available for every conceivable combination of plugs and outlets.  You are not limited by your RV plug, but you do need to make sure to only use safe systems.

Some small pop-up campers and class B campervans only have a 15a service.  You can plug this into a 30a service outlet safely!  You can even plug it into a 50a service outlet.  Use an adapter and you're good to go.

Why is it safe?  Your RV has its own fuses and safety systems.  It's safe to draw less than the maximum power from an outlet.

Think about small electrical devices, perhaps a clock radio.  It barely takes much power at all, and has thin wires.  You plug it into a standard 15a outlet and it's safe. The radio has its own controls, perhaps a fuse, to protect it from drawing too much power.

The same goes with any combination.  My 30a motorhome can plug into a 15a outlet.  I'll be limited in power. If I turn on my air conditioner and try to brew coffee, the house circuit breaker will pop.

Adapter possibilities

The following table lists the possibilities of adapters.  The outlet side of the adapter is where you'll plug your RV plug.  The plug side of the adapter should match the outlet you wish to use.

It's worth noting that adapters are also available for your generator hookup.  You can hook up a 3- prong generator to your 30a RV plug, a 4-prong generator to your 30a RV plug, or 4-prong generator to your 50a RV plug, for example.  I keep a generator adapter around in case I ever want to bring my larger home generator out for more power than our little generator we keep in the RV.

I carry a 15 amp adapter and a long 15a outdoor extension cord in the RV at all times.  If I arrive at a camp site and the power post is really far, further than my 30a extension cords allow, then I can still connect at 15 amps.  It's cheaper, lighter weight, and takes less room than having additional extension cords.

Unsafe adapter conditions

It is possible to have an unsafe wiring configuration using adapters.  It's more about the cables being unsafe than anything else.  

What you never want to do is use a lesser grade cable between outlet and RV.  I'll give an example.

If I have a 30 amp outlet on my house, I can use an adapter to allow me to plug in my 15a extension cord. Pretty cool, and safe to use for things like my electric lawn mower and such.

What if I installed another adapter on the other end to hook up my RV?  The outlet is rated 30 amps, and the RV plug is rated 30 amps.  Sounds good, right?

No, the cable I'm using is too thin to carry that much current.  It will get extremely hot and could start a fire.  No fuse or circuit breaker will blow because both the house and RV are happily using 30 amps.

Here's the thing, if you have to use an adapter at BOTH ends of a cable, you should probably change something, it could be unsafe.  One adapter is good, two adapters could be bad.

I say could be bad because it's perfectly safe to use a larger cable than is needed.  I could use two adapters to splice in some 50-amp RV cable on my 30a circuit and there would be no problem.  It should still be avoided, it's always a good idea to simply use the correct cable for the job.

Use what you've got, if you can!

Here's the thing, putting in an outlet is a good bit of work and could be expensive if you hire it out. Take a look around and see what you already have available.

It's very common to find a 15a outdoor-grade outlet on your home.  It might not be conveniently located though.  It could be on the other side of the house from where you want your RV.

You'll find that it's the easiest way, and probably cheapest, to use cables to solve this issue.  The key is to size up!

Long wires cause voltage drops and get hot, as I mentioned before.  You can purchase extension cords that have larger-than-needed wires to combat this.

For example, I have a 50 foot extension cable with 12 gauge wire.  You might see it listed as 12 AWG, which is the same thing.

In household wiring 12 gauge wire is rated to 20 amps, but this is a 15 amp extension cord.  The extra wire thickness allows high power to pass though this long cable without significant voltage drop.

These thick cables certainly cost more, but I'd rather spend more on a nice thick wire than deal with the permit office for another outlet.

More power in creative places

You might have a high powered outlet available somewhere else – your garage.  Sometimes people have a high power outlet for things like welders and air compressors.

This is exactly what I do.  I use a 30 amp plug in my garage for my RV.  I have to run a pretty long cable to our motorhome, but this is far easier than trying to install another plug near our motorhome.

If you have a temporary need for high power – perhaps the in-laws are spending the week in your RV, there's yet another option.  That is, if you have an electric stove.

You see, the typical power connection for an electric stove is 50 amp, 240v.  Sound familiar?  It's the exact same plug as the big 50a RV service.

Now couple this tip with the other tips here, and you're good to go.  In my case I would use an adapter to convert the 50a plug to a 30a outlet, then I would use my long 30a extension cord to connect my motorhome.

The only real issue here is how to get the extension cord outside through the wall.  Again, this is for a temporary power supply, so I would recommend a window.  Run the cable through the window, close it as much as possible, use an old towel to fill the gap.

If you're horrified by this solution, then go ahead an allow your in-laws to stay in your house instead. Yeah, that's what I thought, doesn't sound so bad anymore, right?

I do want to note that your dryer outlet might appear to be a good place to get power, but it might not.  If you have a gas dryer you might not even have a high power outlet there.  Even with an electric dryer, it could be a 240-volt outlet with no 120-volt tap.  In other words, you can't get the power you need out of it.

If your dryer outlet is a 120/240 volt outlet, you can certainly use it.  It's likely a 30-amp line.

Installing a new outlet

I'm not going to go into much detail here because your local codes and laws will dictate the details. You're going to install outdoor-grade components to get a nice plug available close to your RV.

Check your circuit breaker panel to make sure you have room.  15A, 20a, and 30a connections will need one slot.  50A connections require two slots next to each other.  If you have two slots open that aren't next to each other, the breakers can most likely be moved around to get what you need.

If your panel is full, you might be able to purchase some tandem breakers to clear up some room.  Again I'm skipping the details because this isn't a wiring guide, just things to keep in mind.

Think about the future

If you're going to install a power outlet outside, think about what might change in the future.

If you think 15a service is good enough for now, do you think you might upgrade in the future?  It won't cost much more to install a 30a outlet instead.

Will you ever get an electric car? Installing upgraded wiring now might mean you could leverage it for charging a car in the future.  Once again, I'm not going to go into detail here, mostly because EV technology is so young and standards are changing rapidly.

The same goes for extension cord purchases.  I use a 50 foot extension cord to connect my class C motorhome to my house.  When I leave for a trip, I coil up the cord and bring it with me.  Boom, two for one.

Safety tip – inverters and generators

Depending on how it's connected to your RV, it's possible for an inverter and/or generator to back-feed into your RV plug.  This absolutely should not happen, it should be wired to prevent this.

Just because it should not happen doesn't mean it won't, especially with a DIY setup.  Don't run an inverter or generator while your RV is plugged into your house.

If you're concerned about this, you can test using a multimeter.  Use caution when handling the plug since you're suspecting there might be power to it!

Run your inverter, measure the voltage at your disconnected RV plug.  It should be zero volts AC (note, it might show a tiny amount of voltage, error of the meter – it should not read more than a few volts).

Do the same with your onboard generator.  Again the voltage should be zero or close to it.

Outdoor plugs and bad weather

No matter what bad weather means to you – extreme heat, downpouring rain, ice and snow, you should be prepared for it.  You want your gear to last a long time, and more importantly you want your system to be safe.

There are a couple of small areas in my driveway where water can pool up.  I guess the cement slabs have shifted a bit.  I don't want my electrical connection right there, there's a possibility of water shorting it out.

These areas get icy in the winter, which is pretty much the same problem with the extra opportunity for the plugs to get frozen in place.  You might not camp in the winter, but you should still have the possibility to move your rig, should you find a reason.

Where my extension cord plugs into the main RV plug, I move underneath the RV.  This shelters it from the rain and snow.

I mentioned extreme heat above, this is another consideration.  Sunlight will degrade the insulation on the wire, eventually making it crack.  The manufacturers do what they can to make these outdoor-grade cords resist sunlight, but you should check your lines periodically for damage.

Where possible, keep your cords out of sunlight (and away from being a tripping hazard!) by running them underneath decks, boats, or other things already in the area.

If you are looking at this as more of a permanent setup, consider covering your cables in something like split loom.  It's a little fussy to install, but should make the cable sheathing last years longer.  Just be aware that it also traps heat, so this is best for an installation that isn't pushing the amount of power to its limits.

Final thoughts on RV plugs at your house

I hope this has given your some ideas and options to plug in your RV to your house.  There certainly are a lot of considerations before investing in new equipment.

Overall I'd say your best bet is to use any outlets that already exist on your home, even if it's not ideal. Buy heavy-duty extension cords to carry this power to your RV.  Keep cords and connections safe, out of the elements as much as possible.

If you're going to install a new outlet for your RV, make sure it's future-proof by getting the largest capacity outlet that you might need.  You can always get an adapter for lesser-power cables.

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