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Old 12-16-2018, 07:48 PM   #1
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Resting Current of 0.51 Amps?

We picked up our new Escape 19’er on December 6th and have been working our way down the Oregon coast “breaking in” our new trailer.

Within a couple of days I installed a Victron BMV 712 Smart Battery Monitor (a sophisticated volt/amp/watt meter) right to the battery. Its shunt is between the “house” and the battery negative capturing all current going to and from the battery.

We’ve been hooked up to 120v overnight(s) in RV parks so we haven’t been stressing our battery at all.

This morning, after we’d turn everything off and just before closing the door and heading out, I decided to take a look at what the cabin “shut down” current is...

Whoa! 0.51 amps! What’s that?

When I set the Battery Disconnect switch to “off” the current goes to 0.0 indicating the drain is in the cabin. The only things running appear to be:

... RV Propane Gas Detector
... 4 x 12v/USB device charge ports (with nothing connected to them).
... The refrigerator on Gas (not DC)

Does this sound reasonable? Half an amp base current drain?

If this is the case, while boondocking (dispersed camping) would it make sense to turn off the Battery Disconnect switch during the day when we’re not in the trailer and save some capacity?

We have the 170 watt solar panels, and I understand they’re on the battery side of the Battery Disconnect switch so the panels would still be topping up the batteries even with the switch off.)

Thank you, in advance for your thougths.
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Old 12-16-2018, 08:00 PM   #2
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The refrigerator requires 12v anytime it’s operating. Even on propane or shore power.



Enjoy your trip home, neighbor.

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Old 12-16-2018, 09:13 PM   #3
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Sounds about right to me.
You can experiment by pulling different fuses.
And yes the fridge needs 12volts all the time so don’t hit the kill switch if you have food in it.
4 x USB chargers...does each one have an led on?
The CO2 detector alone in my last trailer would kill the battery in 4 or 5 weeks.
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Old 12-16-2018, 09:23 PM   #4
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The CO2 detector alone in my last trailer would kill the battery in 4 or 5 weeks.

I presume you meant the propane gas detector. CO2 is carbon dioxide, which you exhale. I have a CO ( carbon monoxide ) detector, but it runs on its own AA batteries. Smoke detector has its own 9V battery.
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Old 12-16-2018, 09:29 PM   #5
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Have no idea how accurate your Victron is, but here is a test.

Turn off everything using the battery disconnect.

Take a reading of amps being used. Should be zero.

Turn 12v power back on. Take a reading.

Turn the fridge on using propane. verify that the flame is burning by listening at the outside cover.
Take a reading of the amps being used. That’s the 12v draw of the operating fridge less your first baseline reading without the fridge.

Now wait until the flame goes out because the fridge is at operating temperature.
Take another reading.
It’s going to be lower than the ‘flame’ reading because 12v is necessary to keep the valve opened to allow the propane to flow to feed the flame.

Now you have three baseline readings.
Fridge off
Fridge on but not actively cooling.
Fridge on and cooling.

The propane detector is always on but draws very little but some. And there may be some other very small draws as previously discussed.
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Old 12-16-2018, 10:03 PM   #6
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Refrigerator
Don’t know what model you have, but some models have a climate control switch which, in effect, is a heat strip that uses a lot of current.
See if your does. If so, turn it off and you will use less power.
It’s usually a brown toggle switch mounted on the bottom of the upper door frame just below the controls.
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Old 12-16-2018, 10:08 PM   #7
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Refrigerator
Don’t know what model you have, but some models have a climate control switch which, in effect, is a heat strip that uses a lot of current.
See if your does. If so, turn it off and you will use less power.
It’s usually a brown toggle switch mounted on the bottom of the upper door frame just below the controls.
Thank you for the hint. No climate control switch on our frig, which I believe is the 5 cu' or 6cu' model. One door, not frig and freezer doors separate. So we have room for the microwave above it.
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Old 12-16-2018, 10:12 PM   #8
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There is a label inside the fridge with model and serial number.
Attached Thumbnails
fridge label.jpg  
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Old 12-16-2018, 10:40 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by EscapeBoulder View Post
Whoa! 0.51 amps! What’s that?
That's about 6 1/2 watts. The fridge, CO Detector, and USB ports could easily be pulling that much - that is not a lot of power.

Unless you are consuming right at the edge of your solar panels power, you won't notice it. A 170 watt solar panel takes very little time to put that much power back in the battery.
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Old 12-17-2018, 12:46 AM   #10
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if you have the dual golf cart batteries, you have about 220AH total battery capacity, of which I consider 50% usable, or 110 AH. at 0.5 amps, it would take 220 hours to discharge to that 50% mark, that's about 9 days.

I should see what my fridge draws on propane. I have the big dual door fridge in my E21... which, btw, we love compared with the dinky dinky fridge in our old Casita 16... Not going out there to test it tonight, its raining out
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Old 12-17-2018, 04:47 AM   #11
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Your solar will have your system at full before noon, everyday.
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