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Old 09-11-2017, 05:03 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa Dave View Post
The one question I would have is whether or not you are starting with a true full tank of 20
Lbs propane. If you buy the exchange tanks they are "Saving you" from any possible tragedy by not overfilling your tank. Which is double speak for shorting you when you think you have a full tank. Full tank shuld weight about 37 lbs. on the bathroom scale.
Dave
I think it was pretty full. The guy at Camping World showed me how they fill the tanks south of the border - open the bleed valve and fill to liquid propane starts to leak out.

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Old 09-11-2017, 05:06 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by Dave Walter View Post
While staying primarily at sites without electrical services, we rely quite heavily on propane (fridge, oven, hot water heater, furnace, BBQ, and fire bowl). With three of us in the 19', I will typically use up one 20 lb tank of propane per week.
Ok, that sounds like what we might use if I also added the furnace. I forgot to mention that we also used the hot water heater.

I run the BBQ off the second tank that I remove and carry to the table since I don't have the low pressure propane quick connect yet.

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Old 09-11-2017, 05:08 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by canyonrider View Post
That amount of propane usage seems fairly consistent with our experiences (one tank every 8-14 nights, depending on temps). I imagine your fridge was firing pretty consistently during the warmer days, 35 C outside is very hot when it comes to keeping these fridges cool.
The upper exterior vent on the fridge was pumping out a lot of heat! It probably didn't help that warm beer was constantly being added!

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Old 09-11-2017, 06:32 PM   #24
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A 20 lb propane tank will last us about a week when it is cold outside and we are running the furnace through the night along with using it for the fridge and water heater. Just got back from camping in the mountains with over night temps of 6 deg C and snow at high elevations and the furnace was the big user of propane. In warm temps a tank may last us three weeks.
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Old 09-11-2017, 07:34 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by msweet View Post
I think it was pretty full. The guy at Camping World showed me how they fill the tanks south of the border - open the bleed valve and fill to liquid propane starts to leak out.
That gets you the full tank capacity, which is liquid to the level corresponding to 80% of the total tank volume - 20 pounds of propane for the common size. So does filling by weight.

As Dave mentioned, many exchange services deliberately underfill the tanks. Blue Rhino is well known and may be the worst - the put in only 15 pounds (less than 7 kg instead of the full 9 kg). While Blue Rhino has fraudulently claimed that this was due to the Overfill Prevention Device, they now admit that it is just to save them money. Not all exchange services do this: I have seen exchange tanks clearly marked as filled with 9 kg, and I thinked I checked one that I bought and it was properly filled (several years ago).
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Old 09-17-2017, 08:38 PM   #26
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The trickiest part about limiting power draw is going to be the charger part of the converter/charger. If it decides the battery's low enough to bulk charge, it could pull something like 5-7 amps by itself. If you want to be 100% sure, you need an inverter/charger like the Victron Multiplus (I think Magnum makes a similar one as well) that can monitor total incoming current and decrease charge rate or even discharge the battery to supplement the "shore" power and keep it below a certain threshold.

If you're careful, you can probably still get away with it. Chances are you and the tiny house won't be using 8+ amps at a time, and even if you are a 15A breaker isn't going to trip immediately unless you go well over 15A. On the other side of it, you'll want to make sure you keep long-term (1hr+) current draw below 80% of the nameplate value or it will still trip. For example, putting 14A through a 15A breaker for 6+ hours straight will almost certainly trip it.
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Old 10-04-2017, 01:35 AM   #27
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Originally Posted by LJY View Post
This is the one I have additional question about.. can we turn off the converter at the circuit breaker and have other 120V items run? and if so, will the solar panel still be able to charge the batteries?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpaharley2008 View Post
Yes and yes to both
Jim,
I finally got to check this yesterday.. flipped the converter breaker, and all power went offline... what am I doing wrong?
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Old 10-04-2017, 01:56 AM   #28
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... flipped the converter breaker, and all power went offline... what am I doing wrong?
You must have flipped the wrong breaker. The first (top) breaker in the panel is the main breaker, controlling all power going into the panel, with a 30-amp rating; the converter's breaker will be one of the other ones (usually the second one down), possibly combined with the refrigerator, and likely with a 15-amp rating.
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Old 10-06-2017, 11:52 PM   #29
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Originally Posted by Brian B-P View Post
You must have flipped the wrong breaker. The first (top) breaker in the panel is the main breaker, controlling all power going into the panel, with a 30-amp rating; the converter's breaker will be one of the other ones (usually the second one down), possibly combined with the refrigerator, and likely with a 15-amp rating.
it looks like the top breaker says both main and converter.. so i guess I can't turn off the converter by itself?
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Old 10-07-2017, 01:55 AM   #30
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Originally Posted by LJY View Post
it looks like the top breaker says both main and converter.. so i guess I can't turn off the converter by itself?
That's not possible, because the "Main" breaker controls power coming into the panel, and the "Converter" breaker controls power going out to one of the branch circuits. So I think you're reading the first two labels as one. Breakers to fit this panel come in two widths, and the narrower ones are quite narrow. Also, the narrow ones come as two breakers in one housing, so the Main and Converter breakers could look like they are the same breaker... but they function completely separately.

This is an image from Cathy's tour of the electrical system in her 21' (21' electrical photos):

In this example it looks like there are only three wide breakers, but it works as five separate breakers (one 30 amp in, and four out from 15 amps to 30 amps). Your panel may not be arranged or labelled in exactly the same way, but it should be close.

At the end of this post there's a version of Cathy's photo but with each breaker and its label shown by a separate box. If this doesn't resolve the question, could you post a photo? We can interpret the labeling and mark up the image to show what's going on.
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Old 10-07-2017, 04:55 AM   #31
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Yes, Brian is correct, you must be misreading the labels. Main and converter are 2 separate switches.
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Old 10-07-2017, 10:09 AM   #32
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LOL, you guys are right.
The converter and fridge are on the same breaker.
Now wondering if fridge will work in propane mode if I turned off the the 2nd breaker?
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Old 10-07-2017, 11:50 AM   #33
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Originally Posted by LJY View Post
LOL, you guys are right.
The converter and fridge are on the same breaker.
Now wondering if fridge will work in propane mode if I turned off the the 2nd breaker?
Try it and let us know.....
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Old 10-07-2017, 12:10 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by LJY View Post
LOL, you guys are right.
The converter and fridge are on the same breaker.
Now wondering if fridge will work in propane mode if I turned off the the 2nd breaker?
It should since the controls and ignition are typically 12V. I’m quite sure our older RM2510 does. Curious what you find with your model.
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Old 10-07-2017, 01:12 PM   #35
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Originally Posted by LJY View Post
The converter and fridge are on the same breaker.
Now wondering if fridge will work in propane mode if I turned off the the 2nd breaker?
Yes. There would be no point in having propane and 12-volt operating modes of an RV refrigerator if it required AC power all the time to operate. It will work fine on propane when that breaker is turned off.

Depending on the refrigerator model and how you have the controls set, it may even automatically switch from AC power to propane when you turn the breaker off, and back to AC power when you turn the breaker on (while the trailer is plugged in).

Most modern RV refrigerator models do require a bit of 12 volt DC power all the time for the controls. That's not a problem since there is always a battery to power them.
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