Plugging in at home

ours is plugged in anytime we are home never have had any issues.

Hopefully I can someday keep my RV at home in a garage and have this debate! For now, it's in my driveway no more than 24 hrs before departure.

I'm plugged in to a regular 15Amp outlet 24/7 and can also run the all
electric fridge. Batteries are float charging 24/7 also.Before leaving
I even run an electric heater on 750 watt.
For the engine block heater I run an additional cord direct to the
block heater cord.
Siggy

I've plugged my 50 amp coach into my 30 amp receptacle at home for the last 10 years. We leave for Florida each year on Christmas Eve and I don't want to winterize it for a month, removing all the water filters, drain, pink stuff act….) My inverters keep a balanced charge (make sure your do too). I put the aqua hot on to keep it from freezing and keep the bay heater on and then the day before we leave we crank the heat up, run the engine pre-heat for 6 or so hours and then hit the road in a nice warm coach.

I usually start packing the coach about 3 weeks before we leave so having the heat on makes that a simple process also.

We leave ours plugged in all the time. we have 2 campers one at the lake and one I use for work and we take to the state parks around here. They are both plugged in and have been since we got them. Never had any issues. Once in awhile I will take a space heater out to the 5th wheel and watch a movie or something in the winter it makes for a nice get away!BTW our 5th wheel sits in our shop

Hi reubenray,

Yes, it will keep the battery bank charged. You may wish to check to see if the converter (battery charger) is a 3 stage unit. If it is not, it is possible for it to overcharge the batteries and destroy them.

You may wish to find out if the converter charges the chassis battery. If it doesn't, add a trik-l-start or amp-l-start unit.

Running an absorption fridge uses about 5 kwh per day. Where I live that would be a cost of $18.25 per month. So, in your shoes, I'd turn off the fridge--and start it 24 hours before a trip.

reubenray wrote:
Will having it plugged into only a 15 amp outlet keep the batteries charged up? I am getting ready to get a slab installed at my house.

I used to keep my motorhome plugged in when not in use. However when I installed my home solar system, I noticed something was drawing a constant 7.2 kwh per day. I traced the consumption to the gas/electric refrigerator in the MH, which as it turns out, if very inefficient when operating on AC. There was nothing in the user manual about the electrical demand.
The electrical heating element that essentially produces the same energy as the propane flame consumes a constant 300 watts. Hence, the 7.2 kwh/day or 216 kwh per month. At the Tier 5 electric rate, that translates to $70/mo to keep the frig running in the MH, or after the solar, it effectively reduced my Net Metering production by 216 kwh/mo.
So I now turn the frig off when at home, but still power the MH on a timer that charges both the house and engine battery 1 hour/day. The arrangement keeps the batteries fully charged without boiling off the electrolyte.
BTW, I calculated the size of the solar array to essentially balance out my annual demand, without over producing. I just got my first annual electric bill which was $10 for the entire year. With the federal tax credit, the return on the solar investment is 2.5 years, which I achieved by doing the engineering and installation myself.

PapPappy wrote:

wolfe10 wrote:
Agree.

To which one of the two above? They have completely different answers.

Sorry, you are correct, not much of an answer. I went back and filled in the details. We have "proper" equipment and it is plugged in 24/7.

From start to season to end I am usually plugged in, both the Monaco and now the 5er. End of the season I always unplugged until a week prior to my vacation trip. If you stay plugged in, just make sure you check your batteries monthly as they will boil off. For me its frequency of use, sometimes every weekend or every other. With that it just does not make sense to clear out the fridge and shut it down every single week only to start it back up.

We keep ours plugged in all the time. I don't leave the fridge on but do run it every once and a while overnight. Being down here in FL, I also put the front AC on it's hottest setting to keep the humidity down during the summer.