Power audit results?

[Jfreeburg]

My wife and I are looking to add solar and lithium batteries to our 2012 25' Int'l. To figure out what sort of capacity we might need, I've read that a power audit is a good way to go. Can folks share the results of their energy audits if they've done them? I'd be interested in not just the power draws, but also a little background on your typical style of camping (little or lots of time in the Airstream, hot weather or not...) and any useful hints when conducting an audit.

I don't plan on going to the extent of using a battery monitor - just figuring out the average load of all our electronics one by one. Not sure if this is actually possible or not - but seems feasible. Curious how folks account for parasites, etc.

I don't think we will go camping soon so I'm unable to do a real audit with a battery monitor. I'd like to get the solar/new batteries in place by mid-August for a long trip so hoping to figure out the math soon.

I've seen some results on DoItYourselfRV - would love to see a few more to make sure I get realistic results. Haven't found anything on these forums with a search.

[wulfraat]

Idol with nothing on my trailer draws 3amps DC.

We run full residential power 24/7 via our 600ah battery bank. We do use propane for the fridge since it draws 400w when running on AC but we do have an ice maker going all the time, coffee machine, hot water kettle, microwave, TV, computers, phone chargers, music, etc.

We use about 225ah per day thereabouts on average. If we didn’t have the Vicron Multi on 24/7 and we were 12v only campers we’d use probably 75-100ah per day.

Our solar puts back 275ish ah per day (800w worth of production).

Here was power usage on a recent trip. 13kwh total usage over 4 days (13,000 / 4 / 13.2 = ~246ah per day). Solar put back most of that over the trip but it was cloudy and raining so not full recovery.

Solar show and tell thread has lots of good data points in it:

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f44...ll-181608.html