Late last night, out on a camping trip in Glacier National Park, I was able to measure the draw of my 20’ FC on the batteries when nothing was on doing anything, and there was no solar charge. It was 2 AM. Yea, I woke up.
The current flowing out of the batteries was 0.2 amps. Over 24 hours, that is 5 amp hours loss.
Where is it going? These are the things which are on taking current all the time in my trailer. No special order.
1. The refrigerator circuit board and indicator light. I know when the refrigerator flame is on the current draw is 0.35 amps, which is low compared to a lot of Dometic refrigerators. Mine is new, and only 4 cu ft in size. The circuit board takes something all the time, the amount increases when the gas valve and flame are on. The flame was not on.
2. The Tri Metric battery monitoring system itself that I use to measure battery state of charge takes power all the time.
3. The Blue Sky MPPT charge controller for the solar system may take some power 24 hours a day. I don’t know for sure.
4. The PD 4645 converter/charger, although not operating as there was no 120 volt power, still has a green flashing Charge Wizard light which takes some tiny amount to operate.
5. The light on the Use/Store switch is always on, taking some power.
6. I have a MorningStar Tru Sine inverter which is on all the time. It goes into a sleep mode when not called on to invert, but it has to send out a pulse every second or so to see if anything has been turned on. That takes something.
On my rig I have put a separate on/off switch on my Radio, so I know it is taking no power. I assume that also turns off the sub woofer, but I am not positive. I have measured the sub woofer when the radio was off and it appears to take no power then.
I also put a separate on/off switch on my propane detector, which otherwise cannot be turned off at all other than disconnecting the main battery. I have measured it and it takes 0.06 amps (6 mA). It was off when the above late night current draw was recorded.
Sneaky little loads like these can eat into battery power when stored (although I assume the refrigerator would be off totally). This is one reason I recommend a complete disconnect of the negative battery cable when you are doing long term storage, as in the off seasons. It does not take much over a long period of time to kill batteries, and when they are left discharged, even by a small amount, they generally will never recover full capacity.
Even the correct use of the Use/Store switch on recent Airstreams will not prevent things like the propane detector from taking battery power. Solar systems are often hard wired into the battery directly, and also bypass the Use/Store switch. If the rig does not see sunshine (mine is in a covered carport) the charge controller itself may use small amounts of battery capacity.
The current flowing out of the batteries was 0.2 amps. Over 24 hours, that is 5 amp hours loss.
Where is it going? These are the things which are on taking current all the time in my trailer. No special order.
1. The refrigerator circuit board and indicator light. I know when the refrigerator flame is on the current draw is 0.35 amps, which is low compared to a lot of Dometic refrigerators. Mine is new, and only 4 cu ft in size. The circuit board takes something all the time, the amount increases when the gas valve and flame are on. The flame was not on.
2. The Tri Metric battery monitoring system itself that I use to measure battery state of charge takes power all the time.
3. The Blue Sky MPPT charge controller for the solar system may take some power 24 hours a day. I don’t know for sure.
4. The PD 4645 converter/charger, although not operating as there was no 120 volt power, still has a green flashing Charge Wizard light which takes some tiny amount to operate.
5. The light on the Use/Store switch is always on, taking some power.
6. I have a MorningStar Tru Sine inverter which is on all the time. It goes into a sleep mode when not called on to invert, but it has to send out a pulse every second or so to see if anything has been turned on. That takes something.
On my rig I have put a separate on/off switch on my Radio, so I know it is taking no power. I assume that also turns off the sub woofer, but I am not positive. I have measured the sub woofer when the radio was off and it appears to take no power then.
I also put a separate on/off switch on my propane detector, which otherwise cannot be turned off at all other than disconnecting the main battery. I have measured it and it takes 0.06 amps (6 mA). It was off when the above late night current draw was recorded.
Sneaky little loads like these can eat into battery power when stored (although I assume the refrigerator would be off totally). This is one reason I recommend a complete disconnect of the negative battery cable when you are doing long term storage, as in the off seasons. It does not take much over a long period of time to kill batteries, and when they are left discharged, even by a small amount, they generally will never recover full capacity.
Even the correct use of the Use/Store switch on recent Airstreams will not prevent things like the propane detector from taking battery power. Solar systems are often hard wired into the battery directly, and also bypass the Use/Store switch. If the rig does not see sunshine (mine is in a covered carport) the charge controller itself may use small amounts of battery capacity.
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