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Which method of heating coach draws less power ?
I have a fantasitc semi-permanent dry camping spot on the beach and just got access to a 15 amp outlet today. Using the cheater box but only one leg of it. With the water heater off and the remotes set to a shore power cord size of 10 amps and the max charge rate set to 5amps, I am pleasantly surprised that the 15 amp 100 feet of cord is not even the slightest bit warm.
What is going to put the least amount of strain on my shore power to get a pinch of heat into the coach on rare occasion (Florida). Is it the Aquat Hot radiators inside the coach, a single space heater or a singel roof heat strip. I’m pretty sure the space heater is the biggest power hog and is the last choice. I sort of gravitate toward the Aquat Hot system since iI think the water that get’s pumped through the system runs on `12 volt and the fans do also. This puts the strain on the single 15 amp shore cord indirecly so to speak since the charger’s will amp up to replace the power taken from the battery bank to run the 12 volt Aquat Hot heater system (not including the water heater itself which is shore power or generator power only. The roof heater is going to ride off shore power directly and not pay any mind ot the shore power limitation I’ve set.. Therefore tripping the breaker inside the buidling becomes less manageable. If I have my remotes set for 10amp shore power I do not belive that setting has any effect or bearing in governance over the large applicances that run on shore or gen power only. I’m not very well practiced at using the meter that shows the load on the shore cord and I’m also not sure if that reading would reflect any heavy applicnces that are running on direct 110 shore power and not inverter power.
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10 Replies
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No matter what source of power is used for a device, whether it is 120V like appliances, or 12V like lighting you are drawing from your 15 amp plug.
You can charge your batteries, maybe run your refrigerator, but the bottom line is you cannot do much more if anything else. No matter what heat sources you have available on the coach it is probable if you want any heat at all something has to get turned off.
Right now for lack of a better description you are living in a tin tent unless you get more power or choose to run the generator.
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I dry camped lots in my Royale with little 15 amp plug in I used aqua hot to heat water or inside coach one or two lights only don’t use the electric to heat the water it will blow breaker use the Diesal to heat water if I need more power I just started the gen for awhile if you do it that way the shore power will keep batteries charged and you won’t have to run gen to charge them but I don’t think you will be able to turn on air conditioning it will blow breaker
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The remotes should be set to 7.5 each, not 10.
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Thanks for the input.
Tom, I think you mean to say that 7.5 on each remote equals 15 amps total, not 7.5 amps total. To clarify, I only have power going into 1 of the legs of the cheater box, so only one of the 10amp settings is having any effect. Right ? I sert it to 10amps instead of 15 amps to further reduce the chance of blowing the shore breaker.
A question: What have others experienced is the effect of governing the draw with a limitation set on the size of the shore power cord ? If this limits the draw like it’s supposed to, then shouldn’t stuff in the coach cease to work properly when you start turning too much stuff on ? I do not think anything stops working properly as a result of the 10amp setting. The building is locked with no access to the breaker so I can’t do a lot of testing or I’ll loose power but I think if I start exceeding the power the shore breaker still trips despite whatever you set the shore power at. I’m certain it does from experience. Is the shore power cord size REALLY working to limit / govern the power that the coach requests from the shore cord ?
Or does it “sort of” work ?
Also, a concern. The Leviton surge protector, which is converter installed, is beeping, presumably becuase only one leg of power is hot. Is this of any concern other than possibly wearing out the audiable alarm ? Is it just letting me know that my shore power isn’t ideal / right and gonig to both legs ? Or is it sniffing another problem with the one leg that is going in ?
Further, I get one Inverter / charger to work but not the other one when I try to switch the single 15amp shore power cord between legs on the cheater box. I seem to notice this happening hit and miss depending on the health of the various 15 amp shore power (I think) but I have to do some more observing when I try other 15 amp shore power sources to confirm how consistantly this is happening and if recall correclty. Has anyone else experienced this ? Makes me wonder if the Leviton is the thing that may be allowing power to pass through on one leg but not the other. Power does not work at all on one leg, but works (with the audible alarm and the red light on the Leviton) on the other side. I have a new 50amp male shore power end on it’s way to replace the one now which is hurt from one blade overheating (from a poor connection Jon ponited out in a prior post) so that seems like it could be it………..yet that hurt 50amp plug is not stopping power when power goes to both legs at the same time.
But that easliy could be the problem nevertheless I think.Finally. Jon wrote: “No matter what source of power is used for a device,
whether it is 120V like appliances, or 12V like lighting you are drawing
from your 15 amp plug.“Question: Then why does my battery bank voltage drop when I plug the toaster in ? The 110 outlets are on the inverter going through the battery bank, not direcly to the 15amp plug. I refered to this as “indirect” power” in my post and what I feel is a somewhat “safer” power (when heating the coach with the Aqua Hot) for not blowing the breaker since the battery bank acts as a buffer to cushion the draw. The power has to be put back in with the chargers, yes, but f I have my max charge rate set low then flipping on a toaster, a hair dryer and a other high draw inverter fed (as oppposed to direct fed) gear is in fact somewhat different than the “shore power only” heavey applicances such as the W & D, A/C’s, water heater, etc. You know what I’m saying ? One is direct and the other indirect as respects the draw on the shore power. Correct me if this is not accurate.
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Jeff can you use the extension cord to find another outlet on a different breaker and hook it up to the other leg of the cheater box? That way you would get 15 amps in to each leg.
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If your battery voltage drops when you use a toaster then the way your inverters are set up they are somehow limiting the draw on shore power, and instead are inverting battery power.
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the way my 2000 Royale is set up anything that will operate from the inverters will always be powered thru the inverters. On my coach if I turn off the inverters those inverter powered items will not work even if plugged into share power. Bottom line it is normal for items like hair dyers, toasters or anything using the inverter powered circuits will always use battery power. Just the way Royale wired the coach. The only item this does not hold true is the center AC. That is why there is a switch to bypass all this. My Roayle has 2 AC breaker panels. One is the inverter power items the other is the items that will only operate witty shore or gen power. Bottom line the only way the inverter breaker panel will work is only using battery power thru the inverters. Not a big deal as shore power is on all the time the coach is plugged in while using other items on the inverters is for a short time. The fridge is one of the inverter wired items using inverter power. Our fridge will not run on shore power if the inverters are turned off.
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I’m not sure a device on inverters such as refrigerator, outlets, and other circuits are always using inverter power.
My interpretation of “inverter power” is that the batteries are supplying the power for those devices at all times. But that is not true. When inverters have shore power to them in some cases that shore power is only passing through an internal relay back out to the coach load center. That means as long as some inverters are turned on the incoming shore power is supplying the inverter’s internal battery charger with power, while at the same time is routing that incoming power back to the load center to supply the inverter circuits with power.
Some coaches however invert all loads. I’m thinking Vantare for example.
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If you’re plugged in or running the gen, the inverter circuit is passing AC through as Jon pointed out. The inverters are then acting only as battery chargers.
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Larry summed up the configuration of my coach better than I had done previously including the separate breaker panels for direct-to-shore vs. Inverter powered items such as the fridge. Perhaps Royale is unique in the way they have wired this but I’m convinced that the outlet’s, the fridge the other 4 breakers that are on the inverter breaker panel are drawing power “indirectly” or through the battery bank. Even when I have healthy batteries and am pluged into 50amps with normal charge settings, the tale tale sign of the battery voltage taking a dip is what makes me conclude that the power from say the toaster (as a high draw example) is in fact coming from the batteriies. All the stuff on the 2nd breaker box that Larry describes is 110 volt, not 12 volt breakers. There’s another breaker panel for the 12 volt stuff. Royale set these coaches up to have certain things use inverter / battery power at all times whether were plugged in or not.
This is why my punny 15 amp shore power is not tripping my shore breaker when I use a toaster. The battery bank is acting as a buffer/capacitor to cushion the blow to the shore power. The charger may amp up to put back what the toaster is taking but if my max charge rate is turned down then I’m not going to trip the shore breaker.
Still curious for the part of my prior post that asks about how effective the shore cord size setting is but that is probably a curiosity that is going to be converter specific.
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