Plugging power station into motorhome shore socket

[guerdeval]

Can it be done?, is it worth doing and from what I’ve learned on here a ‘reverse polarity’ light will be on the Sargent unit, does it matter and will it stop it working and will it cause any damage?.

 

[r4dent]

Never heard of MoHo Shore socket

Not sure what you mean

a) Plugging power station into site EHU socket to charge power station?
b) Plugging power station into MoHo EHU socket to charge power station ?
c) Plugging power station into MoHo EHU socket to charge MoHo 12v battery ?
d) Something completely different?

 

[wildebus]

Can it be done?, is it worth doing and from what I’ve learned on here a ‘reverse polarity’ light will be on the Sargent unit, does it matter and will it stop it working and will it cause any damage?.

you mean to SUPPLY the Motorhome from the Power Station? (just clarifying as you would actually be plugging it into the EHU PLUG. The Socket is on the end of the EHU Lead).
Probably will work. I found my own Power Station - a VTOMAN - is not liked that much by my Victron Multiplus, but the Sargent unit is dumb and would pass the power through ok.

 

[guerdeval]

I thought “shore power” was the term to use but yes I meant the EHU but I’m no mechanic/electrician, I just thought if I was without hook up could I use the Vtoman to put a bit of charge into the batteries, I have a single 120amp on the roof but I have a 200amp flexible panel for the Vtoman which I have never used, wondered if I could charge the Vtoman and pass through to the leisure batteries but I think I’ll give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen? No don’t tell me

 

[wildebus]

I thought “shore power” was the term to use but yes I meant the EHU but I’m no mechanic/electrician, I just thought if I was without hook up could I use the Vtoman to put a bit of charge into the batteries, I have a single 120amp on the roof but I have a 200amp flexible panel for the Vtoman which I have never used, wondered if I could charge the Vtoman and pass through to the leisure batteries but I think I’ll give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen? No don’t tell me

you can do this and it will work. ( I mentioned about the Victron? I changed a setting to allow the VTOMAN to power the motorhome but that is a step you can ignore).

The 'confusion' is probably about the term Shore SOCKET. Most people call the EHU inlet a 'socket' as you plug a cable into it, like you would plug something into a wall, but it is really a PLUG and the EHU lead is the 'wall'

 

[RichardHelen262]

Ambulances use the same socket to plug into when they are on station to keep the batteries charged as their is a lot of stuff using power even when parked up, they refer to them as shore lines

 

[wildebus]

Ambulances use the same socket to plug into when they are on station to keep the batteries charged as their is a lot of stuff using power even when parked up, they refer to them as shore lines

I've got a "shore" connection in my Motorhome

 

[r4dent]

Ambulances use the same socket to plug into when they are on station to keep the batteries charged as their is a lot of stuff using power even when parked up, they refer to them as shore lines

Emergency services often use a socket / plug to keep low use vehicles topped up.

These often have an extra feature that ejects the socket (on the cable) from the plug (on the vehicle) when the vehicle ignition is switched on.
This prevents drivers with the red mist from driving off with the cable still attached. The cable is hung on a bungee to prevent the socket hitting the floor and being damaged.

Never heard them described as "shore line", so it may be a local term.

 

[colinm]

Maybe I'd not call 'shore line' a common term, but I've heard it used quite a few times for EHU, I would guess it stems from boat users who use shore lines to get power.

 

[Okta]

Maybe I'd not call 'shore line' a common term, but I've heard it used quite a few times for EHU, I would guess it stems from boat users who use shore lines to get power.

Yes it is a boating term. Perhaps with all the rain this year it is catching on with motorhomes too.

 

[r4dent]

Can it be done?, is it worth doing and from what I’ve learned on here a ‘reverse polarity’ light will be on the Sargent unit, does it matter and will it stop it working and will it cause any damage?.

I hope I'm not teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs but......

1) Powerbanks tend to give their capacity (how much electricity the can store) in Watt hours, whereas Leisure batteries quote their capacity in Amp hours.
People have been known to assume these units are the same. i.e. a 240wh power pack will hold over twice as much as a 120ah battery NOT TRUE
To convert wh to ah for a battery divide wh by 12 . i.e. a a 240wh power pack only stores as much electricity as a 20ah battery that is Twenty!

2) If you have an AES fridge make sure it is set to gas before connecting the pack to the MoHo EHP inpu. Otherwise the fridge will auto select 230v and drain the pack in next to no time.

3) If using the Power pack to charge the 12v battery remember any charger (and any inverter as well come to that) is a it like the taxman. It keeps about 10% of everything for it's own use.

 

[wildebus]

I hope I'm not teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs but......

1) Powerbanks tend to give their capacity (how much electricity the can store) in Watt hours, whereas Leisure batteries quote their capacity in Amp hours.
People have been known to assume these units are the same. i.e. a 240wh power pack will hold over twice as much as a 120ah battery NOT TRUE
To convert wh to ah for a battery divide wh by 12 . i.e. a a 240wh power pack only stores as much electricity as a 20ah battery that is Twenty!

to do the Ah to Wh conversion, you might use 12 (V) but that is only true for a 12V Lead Battery. If you are talking about Lithium, you use multiples of 12.8V rather than multiples of 12V.

2) If you have an AES fridge make sure it is set to gas before connecting the pack to the MoHo EHP inpu. Otherwise the fridge will auto select 230v and drain the pack in next to no time.

3) If using the Power pack to charge the 12v battery remember any charger (and any inverter as well come to that) is a it like the taxman. It keeps about 10% of everything for it's own use.

 

[r4dent]

to do the Ah to Wh conversion, you might use 12 (V) but that is only true for a 12V Lead Battery. If you are talking about Lithium, you use multiples of 12.8V rather than multiples of 12V.

Sorry Wildebus you are 100% correct ( and for those with 24v vehicles you divide by 24).

I was not intending to teach the Godfather (as opposed to Grandmother) of all things electrical to suck eggs.


My comments was aimed at helping those who think wh and ah are interchangeable.

There are folks who use 230v supplies (EHU or power pack) to charge their battery and then inverters to power 230v devices.

 

[wildebus]

Sorry Wildebus you are 100% correct ( and for those with 24v vehicles you divide by 24).

I was not intending to teach the Godfather (as opposed to Grandmother) of all things electrical to suck eggs.


My comments was aimed at helping those who think wh and ah are interchangeable.

There are folks who use 230v supplies (EHU or power pack) to charge their battery and then inverters to power 230v devices.

And right now I am contemplating the daft requirement of using a battery power station to power a "mains" battery charger in order to get a DC supply to power a 12V pump!
Yup ... Take a DC battery and convert the output to AC to let me plug in a device to convert AC back to DC. makes sense huh? All because while these power stations are happy to have many tens of amps drawn when their built-in inverters are running, they generally max out at 10A on the 12V outlet side. Very annoying

 

[mariesnowgoose]

It’s not even 7am and I’m starting to feel my head hurting!

 

[guerdeval]

It’s not even 7am and I’m starting to feel my head hurting!

Me too,and all I wanted to do was to flush the toilet after the batteries had gone flat

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Work of de devil

 

[merl]

And right now I am contemplating the daft requirement of using a battery power station to power a "mains" battery charger in order to get a DC supply to power a 12V pump!
Yup ... Take a DC battery and convert the output to AC to let me plug in a device to convert AC back to DC. makes sense huh? All because while these power stations are happy to have many tens of amps drawn when their built-in inverters are running, they generally max out at 10A on the 12V outlet side. Very annoying

Blimey, that IS an annoying power station quirk . Talk about spoiling the ship for a haperth of tar but I guess they have to draw the line somewhere WRT cost/features.
Probably be the first modification after the guarantee period?

 

[marchie]

It’s not even 7am and I’m starting to feel my head hurting!

Aah, the Sunday morning pleading of the headaches ... Might as well get up now as lie there in quiet, but ever hopeful expectation ...

Steve

 

[wildebus]

Blimey, that IS an annoying power station quirk . Talk about spoiling the ship for a haperth of tar but I guess they have to draw the line somewhere WRT cost/features.
Probably be the first modification after the guarantee period?

After the pump wouldn't work on two different power stations, I connected it directly to a 17Ah 12V alarm battery and that worked (although of course it was a big draw for such a small battery!).
I have a new pump that arrived yesterday (I needed a different one anyway) and if that has the same issue, what I might end up doing is just strapping a pair of 17Ah batteries together to give more power and a lower "C" Drain instead of trying to use the power station? (A pump with internal battery would be best, but decent ones are rather pricey and only need an occasional remote power option).

But it really makes no logical sense to have the power stations be so restrictive?