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Country Coach Restoration, Repair & Parts Forums => Country Coach Archive => Topic started by: Smitty on December 26, 2013, 03:06:55 pm

Title: Battery Consumption When Sittlng Idle?
Post by: Smitty on December 26, 2013, 03:06:55 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 93067 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/93067)
I understand that this will vary greatly, but the DW asked me if our House Batter Draw While Idle was good/bad/normal - and I realized I did not know.

So share with me your perceptions of our draw, based upon the following definition of 'Sitting Idle':

-Not plugged in

-Refrigerator running on propane, with small little inside 'blue fan' circulation fan running -Magnum MS2812 Inverter On

-Main 'at the door' house battery switch on

Nothing else. No lights, TV, radio, hydro-hot, etc. Coached parked out front overnight, with no Solar Panel juice flowing. SOC was at 100%, on a 5 month old bank of 800AH Lifeline's.

From 5:00PM, until the next day at 8:00AM (coach roof was still in the shade of our garage, so no direct sun to the Solar Panels). We reflected a SOC of 89%. So approximately an 88-90 AH consumption. So about a 6AH drop per hour.

Using my info, and my definition of Sitting Idle, does this pass the collective CC User Boards Brain Trust on being either good/bad or is that pretty normal?

Again, understand many variables - and that the Sitting Idle drains will be different for different models of CC's:)!

Hope my question makes sense, and TIA! And best to all, Smitty

04 Allure 31017
Title: Re: Battery Consumption When Sittlng Idle?
Post by: CNR on December 26, 2013, 04:19:07 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 93068 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/93068)
One since you are running nothing but fridge why do you have inverter on? Turning it off may drop that usage more than half as the inverter burns power while sitting in standby mode.

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser
Title: Re: Battery Consumption When Sittlng Idle?
Post by: Smitty on December 26, 2013, 05:01:47 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 93069 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/93069)
10-4 Ray - Should have mentioned that I'm not on the road, and have the RV parked in it's storage site next to our garage. Just trying different combinations, as I learn how things shake out after a 're-do':)! In the past 6-9 months we've: -X's 4 Lifeline L16's for 800AH

-Magnum MS2812 PSW, and all of the related components that pug in with it -1200W of new Solar Panels

-Midnight Classic 150 controller

We had a few things not hooked up properly, so the Magnum BMK-Meter was not accurately reflecting consumption. This was during a 5 week trip that I had hopped to learn as I went. Now that we have that sorted out, and everything reset to start the BMK-Meter off again, I'm learning how different usages consume power.

That was why I left the Inverter on overnight.

Earlier that day, we started around 8:30AM with 85%SOC, and spent until 4:00PM in direct sunshine. We had the fridge running, two wall warts for the PC, ran the micro wave about 35 minutes, had the TV, Oppo Blue Ray and Bose 321 playing from about 11:00AM until 4:00PM. After the use of the Microwave, we were down to 81%SOC.

By 4:00PM, as we were getting to head back to where we park it, we were back to 100%SOC, even with the usage mentioned above.

I'm pleased with the performance of the output of the SP's, as well as how well the Midnight Classic 150 charges the medium plus size bank of house batteries.

I'm just trying to learn how different combinations of power draws impact power consumption. Will be playing over the next week or so to see how things go. Will use the combo info from the BMK-Meter, as well as will dump the info from the Classic 150 at the end.

I figured many of you have been down this road ahead of me, and might have a feel if the usage I mentioned in the first post past your filters. Or, if I have some phantom draws that should be searched for. These coaches are complicated, with lots of small things seemingly on all of the time:)!

Thanks again,
Smitty

04 Allure, 31017
Title: Re: Battery Consumption When Sittlng Idle?
Post by: CNR on December 26, 2013, 05:26:56 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 93070 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/93070)
Sounds good Smitty and since you just put in the inverter you should have paperwork that will give all it's consumption numbers, idle and overhead/loss when converting. This will help with your computations and help with a baseline. A lot like watching mpg, not because it really matters but if it takes a sudden turn good or bad that you can't account for you know to start checking things.

Ray O'Connell

They say wine improves with age! As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine! The Born Loser