Where did my 50+ amps disappear to?

Talbot

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How many days should the LB last on a modern mh?

I know this is not a straight forward question and therefore can't expect a straight forward answer as there are so many variables, but at this time of year in the south of France and not using TV, hardly any lights on until 10pm, no heating requirements how many days should I get stationary and with no solar panel. My amps were at 100% and after 2 days is showing 47% amps remaining On a 105 amp battery after just 2 days. The 3 way fridge will take some and the Sargent EC500 electrical system will also. So where did the 50 + amps go in just 2 days and is this normal?
 
Fridge can take a lot...

Are you using the fridge on gas or 12v. If it is 12v then you can expect it to use up to 8amps/hr. It is a lot and will take your battery down quickly. It still uses some on gas but no where near your 50amp loss. The other thing is lights, if you are using halogen lights they are 2amps each as opposed to LEDs which are 0.2amps each.
 
same sort of use than you and we managed 3 days on a 100Ah battery and there was probably another day of juice left before the Voltage dropped to 12.5V
But the voltage doesn't really show how much is left. I found with the type ofBanner battery I have fitted, it seems to recover a little over night when all leccy is switched off. It likes to stay on 12.5V for ages.
 
If you remove the fuse from the battery power take off and connect your digital multimeter across the fuse, set on the 10A range (changing the connector if necessary) you can see what current you are drawing.

If it's high, switch off items until the high current drops, then you can decide if that's an acceptable load!!

Are there any parasitic loads, chargers left connected but not charging?
 
Bigpeetee said:
Are there any parasitic loads, chargers left connected but not charging?
Click to expand...

Yea, you need to be careful about electrons falling out the end of an empty plug.

Lol. Especially on 12v this will be minimal, but you are right about the meter - that's good to show you where it's going.
 
an ordinary battery will only be safe down to 80/85% then it will die very quick.
fridge will eat it and have you got smd led bulbs fitted & tv will use a lot more than lights ,im surprized how you can work without solar panels,i think you are doing well at two days but just run engine for about 15 mins that will pull batt up.
 
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shortcircuit said:
Still uses battery power, small however, but with all other small things they add up
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Only the ignitor uses any 12V power, and then only for lighting up, the rest of the time there is no drain if running on gas.

TV's are quite heavy users of capacity, 4-5a for a smallish TV.

Halogen lights are more juicy than LED, but LED's also take power, just not as much.

Water pumps are heavy current but intermittent.

Water heater uses a fair bit, mainly for the gas solenoid valve and control circuitry.

Peter
 
My fridge has lights, on/off switch, power source selected and power setting. I assume they will be led as its a modern fridge but as mentioned earlier it all adds up.
 
After years of not worrying about battery power, this year I began to get a flat lb after just a couple of days. I got to the point of fitting a solar panel, but went for a new lb first. Having replaced the lb (4 years old) Im now back to the previous state of no problems.
I have an ammeter read out and find that with all lighting (led) on the draw is less than 2 amps, the tv is about 1.4 amps fridge less than .3 amps, as is the heating when blowing (truma 4e).
My main draw is actually charging phones, dongles and i pads, so not actually down to the van!
My new lb was still showing 12.7 v after 3days with no running last week, so a modern mh should certainly last a fair while with a good lb.
 
I find that just having the control panel on it uses power, some functions more than others. Having the lighting switch turned on will use 0.5 to 1 amp without any lights on, the van has a Co2 alarm & that uses about another amp if turned on. On my panel I can see the voltage of the batteries & how much current is going in or out.
 
It's a new mh and this is its first trip out. I have a solar panel but so far 3 regulators have failed. The reason I know what's going on with the battery is the Sargent EC480 control panel shows the volts and the amps data on the panel. The fridge is running on gas, I'm not using the water heater and as far as I know nothing is switched on.

I've reconnected the solar panel to do a recharge but will have to disconnect as soon as it's charged because the regulator has failed. From what people are saying if the Sargent unit is drawing an amp an hour then 2 days is 48 amps which is roughly what I've lost. Does this sound right?
 
Talbot said:
It's a new mh and this is its first trip out. I have a solar panel but so far 3 regulators have failed. The reason I know what's going on with the battery is the Sargent EC480 control panel shows the volts and the amps data on the panel. The fridge is running on gas, I'm not using the water heater and as far as I know nothing is switched on.

I've reconnected the solar panel to do a recharge but will have to disconnect as soon as it's charged because the regulator has failed. From what people are saying if the Sargent unit is drawing an amp an hour then 2 days is 48 amps which is roughly what I've lost. Does this sound right?
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Does your meter actually measure ampere hours in and out or simply the instantaneous current like most. If you are using the Volts to measure battery capacity you will only get a true reading when the battery has been standing disconnected from any load or charge for several hours. Voltage readings taken when there is any current being drawn from the battery are always lower than the no load voltage.
 
Talbot said:
I've reconnected the solar panel to do a recharge but will have to disconnect as soon as it's charged because the regulator has failed.
Click to expand...


I wouldnt recommend direct charge from the solar without Regulator unless its a very small solar ie probably upto 20w, this will innevatebly damage your battery, at most solars will pump out 18v, which in turn will boil your battery..
 
Having looked at the documentation provided by Sargent none of which tells you quite how they estimate capacity there are two sources of error which you should check, first is the battery capacity set correctly. The second thing is was the battery state correctly set. The panel needs to be told what the battery capacity is when it is initialized if this is wrong then all future readings will be incorrect.
 
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