Ghost power consumption

[Tuffkidd]

Sometimes when I connect to shore power 30 Amp, I get up to 17 amps showing on my inside meter. With nothing plugged in or turned on. after a while it goes back to normal, about 5-6 amps. Any help will be welcomed.
Thanks Ray

[WILDEBILL308]

Originally Posted by Tuffkidd

Sometimes when I connect to shore power 30 Amp, I get up to 17 amps showing on my inside meter. With nothing plugged in or turned on. after a while it goes back to normal, about 5-6 amps. Any help will be welcomed.
Thanks Ray

It sounds like the battery charger. Is your refrigerator on electric? That may explain the 5-6.
Bill

[palehorse89]

Originally Posted by Tuffkidd

Sometimes when I connect to shore power 30 Amp, I get up to 17 amps showing on my inside meter. With nothing plugged in or turned on. after a while it goes back to normal, about 5-6 amps. Any help will be welcomed.
Thanks Ray

Guessing what you are seeing is the inverter/charger topping off your battery banks........

[chboone]

As already said probably your inverter/charger or convertr/charger. Some will go into boost mode when first plugged in.

[Tuffkidd]

Originally Posted by chboone

As already said probably your inverter/charger or convertr/charger. Some will go into boost mode when first plugged in.

Thanks, I did just replace all 4 coach batteries

[Tuffkidd]

Originally Posted by WILDEBILL308

It sounds like the battery charger. Is your refrigerator on electric? That may explain the 5-6.
Bill

5-6 amps is normal with things plugged in but not turned on, fridge is electric, micro clock, and such

[billdreamlv]

Originally Posted by Tuffkidd

Sometimes when I connect to shore power 30 Amp, I get up to 17 amps showing on my inside meter. With nothing plugged in or turned on. after a while it goes back to normal, about 5-6 amps. Any help will be welcomed.
Thanks Ray

Let's dig a little deeper here. How long is it before you shut your engine off and plug in your shore power? Is it immediately or do you take your time? What is the voltage on the batteries just before you plug in to shore power?

It sounds to me that your alternator in your coach engine compartment may not producing enough voltage to charge the batteries while you are under way. When you get to the CG the shore power is connected and your battery charger is making up the charge difference your alternator didn't or couldn't. It could mean that your battery charger is set too high. It could also mean that your fluid level in your batteries is low and you could be burning up plates trying to get 13.5 volts out of a battery that doesn't have the capacity because of low fluid. Or your batteries are getting weak and will not hold a charge. All these things could be in question, but having a 17 amp charge on batteries that should have been fully charged when the engine was on for a period of time makes me question some things. The only thing that could be normal is taking your time to hook up to shore power and running an appliance in the meantime. The only way to really know is to check the voltage AND the amperage. Without knowing the voltage it is hard to determine what is going on.

[WILDEBILL308]

Originally Posted by billdreamlv

Let's dig a little deeper here. How long is it before you shut your engine off and plug in your shore power? Is it immediately or do you take your time? What is the voltage on the batteries just before you plug in to shore power?

It sounds to me that your alternator in your coach engine compartment may not producing enough voltage to charge the batteries while you are under way. When you get to the CG the shore power is connected and your battery charger is making up the charge difference your alternator didn't or couldn't. It could mean that your battery charger is set too high. It could also mean that your fluid level in your batteries is low and you could be burning up plates trying to get 13.5 volts out of a battery that doesn't have the capacity because of low fluid. Or your batteries are getting weak and will not hold a charge. All these things could be in question, but having a 17 amp charge on batteries that should have been fully charged when the engine was on for a period of time makes me question some things. The only thing that could be normal is taking your time to hook up to shore power and running an appliance in the meantime. The only way to really know is to check the voltage AND the amperage. Without knowing the voltage it is hard to determine what is going on.

It has been my experience that most chargers will automatically go into charge mode when first plugged in then in a few minutes when it detects the charge is adequate it tapers off.
Bill

[xydial]

Yep, you have a Monaco with a Magnum charger/inverter!

To prove it is the charger you can turn the charger off on the Magnum control panel. This should drop the amperage down to 6 amp. Then switch your Norcold refer to LP and the draw will go to 0-1 amp.

Now you can turn the charger back on and set the refer back to auto.

I presume you have been driving for a while before hooking up. If it takes a while for the charger to top off the batteries after hooking up, you may have a bad Trombretta relay that keeps the engine alternator from charging the house batteries.

Common problem!

[billdreamlv]

Originally Posted by xydial

Yep, you have a Monaco with a Magnum charger/inverter!

To prove it is the charger you can turn the charger off on the Magnum control panel. This should drop the amperage down to 6 amp. Then switch your Norcold refer to LP and the draw will go to 0-1 amp.

Now you can turn the charger back on and set the refer back to auto.

I presume you have been driving for a while before hooking up. If it takes a while for the charger to top off the batteries after hooking up, you may have a bad Trombretta relay that keeps the engine alternator from charging the house batteries.

Common problem!

Yep...

[Fiesta48]

My initial draw is the electric hot water heater and the battery charger.