-
Amp usage
still doing a lot of learning here in Florida. Does anyone have an estimate of how many amps appliances and such draws? AC units, microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker, dryer/washer ect. My coach has 2 digital read outs on the front showing amps and volts for each leg. One leg always seems to carry more amps. I’m working on energy management and when I run all 3 ac units I’m getting close to 50 amps. Even when all 3 units are off I’m still drawing 15.3 on one leg and 2.1 on the other. Volts are 117 and 121.
I assume the air comp for leveling is drawing, the water heater and the fridge as well as lights. Electrical is not my strong suit….LOL
-
17 Replies
-
You could start by making sure the batteries are in float and then turn every breaker off. Turn each breaker on, one at a time and see how much that appliance, AC or whatever pulls. If you are on a good 50amp plug you should be able to pull 40 continuous amps on each side. Since solid 50 amp plugs are sometimes hard to find I try to keep my continuous load lower than that unless I wired the plug myself.
Davy
-
Try this link to a site on the internet to help you.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html (copy link and paste in your browser address bar)
Water Heaters 12 AMPS @
Microwave 12-15 AMPS
Roof AC 12-14 AMPS @
Aux Compressor 10 AMPS
Frig 10 to 15 (on start up)
I think your inverters/charges can be set to draw any range of amperage.
These are all +/- a little bit.
-
Like Davy, I made up a little card for leg 1 and 2, then listed each item with amp draw. The better half now finds it real easy not to overload the leg by using the cheat sheet.
-
lim afraid there is to much “attached” to one leg after talking to Hish. Water heater, 2 ac units and microwave all on one leg. The loads don’t seem balanced. Maybe there is someone in north Florida who could recommend someone to look at it. I’ll also call prevost in Jacksonville for a recommendation or if they do that type of work. They are 30 minutes north.
I’m going to check the inverters tomorrow, one has a smiley face and the other an exclamation point on the silverleaf screen.
-
Try Donnie Myers in Sanford,Florida he is real good at fixing stuff.
-
Two observations…………..Prevost equals bus. Converter or converter repair center equals house. Don’t mix the two. It can be bad for your wallet and satisfaction with the results.
Second………..Royale made a good coach and the folks designing and building them knew their stuff. What you perceive as an imbalance problem is more than likely a power managment problem we all face. We can all put more load on a given shore power circuit than the circuit can handle. I seriously doubt juggling which side of the panel the different devices are is going to solve the problem. You just have to learn what devices you can have on at any given time. After a while it becomes intuitive. If you absolutely, positively have to run 4 ACs, the microwave, the outside Jenn Air, the water heater, and the washer and dryer, start the generator. It will handle everything at once. Shore power will not, and never has.
-
Jim,
All those loads on one leg is a normal setup. It’s all about power management and the give and take we all need to deal with when on shore power.
-
Hi Tom what’s the weather doing down there?? Are you getting a tan??
-
you are right Tom, spoke with royale Phoenix and they sent me a list of appliances on each leg. I was shocked to see 2 AC units, aqua hot electric element, microwave, water pump all on the same leg plus more!
I’m taking it there in May for some interior work and they said they can look into balancing it better then.
Thanks all
Jim
-
I agree with Tom and Jon that the converters knowing much more than I do probably balanced everything very well. They balance the electrical load the best they can with the usage patterns they know. There is one thing that the converter has no idea about. That is how we will personally use our coaches. They can not know how each individual owner will use their coach.
For instance one side of my panel has the fridge, the water heater, the two front electric base board type heaters, the electric heater in the plumbing bay and the electric base board type heater in the bathroom. In addition to lights and recpetacles. Normal usage on a cold night would be one of the front heaters off the other on about 55-60, the bathroom heater on high, the plumbing bay heater on, the water heater on and the fridge kicking on and off.
That would be fine except our daughter sleeps in the front of the bus in a bunk we built where the second table used to be. With 9 windows up there she needs both front heaters on high. That pushes me above 40 amps on that leg and higher if the batteries are not yet in float.
None of this takes in the Aquahot but sometimes circumstances can work against you. Mine was out of commission for inside heat last week and it was way below Zero. Simply moving the water heater and bathroom heater breakers to the other leg solved my balance problem. After nearly 6 years of use I know that will not tip the balance too far the other way at all.
I am sure the people you are taking it to can balance the load according to your usage. As Jon said, shore power can not run everything. Everything becomes fair game when you need the microvave, stove top, blow dryer or curling iron.
Davy
-
“Simply moving the water heater and bathroom heater breakers to the other leg solved my balance problem. After nearly 6 years of use I know that will not tip the balance too far the other way at all.”
Mr. DKO … explain to me how you “move” the electric loan to another leg. Keep in mind I don’t own a coach yet. Is this something unique to how some converters build coaches? Or are all coaches built like that. Thanks! Dick
-
amps X volts = watts you can take any of the known factors and figure out. for example 1200watt microwave Divided by 120 volts= 10 amps
-
Mr. DKO … explain to me how you “move” the electric loan to another leg. Keep in mind I don’t own a coach yet. Is this something unique to how some converters build coaches? Or are all coaches built like that. Thanks! Dick
You can physically move the breaker from one side of the panel to the other side or move the wires to an open breaker on the other side.
DKO
-
Jim
When you are at Lazy Days in April in Tampa make it point to visit Rick May at Parlimant Coach, he will balance your power loads. Rick May and Ben Commins are great at doing these kind of things.
If you think you need this reblancing sooner and don’t want to go all the way to Clearwater, call Danny M. in Sanford or Tradewinds Coach Deland FL. both of these companies are great in working on Prevost Coaches. I think both Deland and Sanford are less than a 100 miles from St. Augustine. Call me if you need more info.
Hish
-
Before moving circuits from one bus bar to another an owner needs to fully understand how the coach is used and what circuits are used at any given time.
Equally important is for the owner to understand some devices are user controlled, and some are not, so provision has to be made for those devices because their intermittent current draw is real even though it is not always visible in the ammeter.
On our coach when we are parked our HW tank, aux air compressor and water pump are mostly idle, but can kick on any time. Those three are also “on” whenever we are living in the coach so our power management never includes turning those circuits off. My target is to not exceed 35 amps per leg and that means we can always have the items listed above on, plus our outlets are always on, the TV circuit is always on, at least two ACs are on as long as they are on separate legs, and we typically have the washer/dryer on along with the coffee maker. It goes without saying the inverters are on, but I have them limited to 10 amps because we don’t dry camp or rely on auto start. My point is with our switches set up to handle the above we are in good shape. If I have to add another one or both remaining ACs or I want to use the outside grille then I have to consider turning something else off. Fortunately our loads are OK as balanced by the converter.
The key to power managment is to recognize the common loads and to make sure there is an equal current draw on each leg.
Log in to reply.