DC Electrical Draw 2020 Classic 33

[ghaynes755]

Took some measurements today with my DC clamp meter to measure electrical draw.


Everything off (BR1/Smart off, Battery Disconnect off) - .04a total

Turn on only the BR1 - .32a total
Turn on Trailer at Battery Disconnect - 1.76 amps


I checked a few other items and the readings I got at the clamp meter were nearly spot on with the readings on the CZone panel (Controls portion).


Without any solar charging going on with the trailer off (battery disconnected) there is about a 8 amp per day draw on the batteries.



With battery disconnect on with power to the trailer without turning any items on the draw increased to 42 amps per day.


With only the two 12v Lifeline GPL-27T AGMs it doesn't take long to draw them down to 50%. Only 100 amps usable in the pair, 2.5 days with battery power to the trailer and 12 days with the BR1 running.

[Al and Missy]

Good measurements. What meter did you use that can read that low on dc with a clamp-on?

A little terminology to clarify. Amps are what you measure. Multiply by time and you get amp-hours. So it is amp-hours per day, and battery capacity is specified in amp-hours, often at a discharge time of 20 hours. With light use, campers work at a much longer discharge time and the actual capacity is somewhat higher than that specified.

Al

[ghaynes755]

Al when I found today that my Mastech from Home Depot had died I got an Ames 1000 from Harbor Freight. Nice AC/DC meter.

Checked the AC side as well today after installing the Micro Air Easy Starts. Also watched the float load of the WFCO battery charger. It pulls 2+ amps just on float so will need to turn that off when running my Honda 2200 propane at higher altitudes out west.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Yup. That’s why the new ones come with solar automatically now. Too many people complaining about trailer dying after one day dry camping. The more electronics that are added, the more draw that we will continue to see.

Thanks for getting the specifics for us!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Just for reference:

A 2017 30' pulls right at 1A in the "use" mode with all DC loads off. The fridge pulls roughly an amp into the control board. The net will be in the 1.8 to 1.9A range most of the time. The panel lights on the control system add about 0.2A if you turn them on.

One point of confusion: If the converter charger is pulling 2A at 120V then it's still charging the batteries. If it's pulling 2A at 12V then it's broken. If it pulls 2 AH over 24 hours then that is about right.

Bob

[ghaynes755]

Bob I think the converter is in float mode and keeping up with the house load when it is at 2 amps. This is with the Czone turned on.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by ghaynes755

Bob I think the converter is in float mode and keeping up with the house load when it is at 2 amps. This is with the Czone turned on.

Hi

If the converter is pulling 2A at 120V then that's 240W or 20A at 12V. The only way that happens is if it is charging the battery.

If it is putting out 2A at 12V (a very different thing) then the current is going somewhere. In a balanced / static / battery charged situation, all the current consumed by the trailer should come from an converter charger (if it's hooked to shore power).

If you are running a generator, charging the batteries via the converter / charger is probably the best way to get that done. You need to run for a lot of hours to get a full charge. Doing that while running the A/C is not a big deal since the fraction of an amp (at 120V) is not a lot of load on the generator.

Bob