Easy & Cheap way to determine battery draw

RJsfishin wrote:
Oh, I forgot that the amp draw is adjustable on a television.
So, for 10 bucks, you can mount a digital readout amp meter on top of the tv.
Then if the tv is using a little more amperage than what you mite think is correct, you can control the amperage draw w/ the volume control.
What, you dint know that ?? :)

And it draws a lot less if you turn it off.

Oh, I forgot that the amp draw is adjustable on a television.
So, for 10 bucks, you can mount a digital readout amp meter on top of the tv.
Then if the tv is using a little more amperage than what you mite think is correct, you can control the amperage draw w/ the volume control.
What, you dint know that ?? :)

RLGetman wrote:
I would like to do some boondocking in Oct. How can I determine battery drain when I turn on a device, like a TV, amp, etc... while boondocking? Looking for an easy/cheap method to accomplish. Thanks

Turnigy meter, $23.



Spec.
Operating voltage: 4.8~60V (0V with optional auxiliary battery)
Measures;
0~130A, resolution 0.01A
0~60V, resolution 0.01V
0~6554W, resolution 0.1W
0~65Ah, resolution 0.001Ah
0~6554Wh, resolution 0.1Wh
Screen: 16x2, backlit LCD display
Size: 85x42x25mm
Weight: 82g

Turnigy Meter

Bruce

Trimetric works perfect. I use it to determine all draws on the system.

Ryan

With a pair of GC2 and PD9180 charging at 14.4 volts you will be hard pressed to run out of power.

I'm still tryin to figure out what possible good it would be to know what each item draws.

Without this information there's no way to make an informed decision on what you can and can't run when battery power is limited. You might decide to watch less TV or use lower power lights if it means the furnace could otherwise go out in the middle of the night. You might not realize that the door heater on the fridge is sucking a lot of power. You could determine the power savings by switching to LED lights. You might find out that the fridge draws less DC power on "gas only" than on "auto". There might be phantom loads you can eliminate. My owner's manual requires the engine running when operating the slideout. In reality it draws 10 amps, which the battery can handle just fine on its own. Just a few quick thoughts.

Hi,

I have a E-Meter, it is about $450, so probably way out of your budget for something to buy for the RV. Even I did not want to buy it, would have rather bought a 75 watt solar panel at the time, it would add energy, not measure it.

Anyway the E-meter tells me a lot. It carefully measures the amp hours going into and out of the battery bank. How does this help you? Well I can tell you that the refrigerator, CO meter an propane leak detectors use a total of about 35 amp hours per day, about what one of my 120 watt solar panels will put out in a day. Each light bulb is about 1.1 amps, while I changed to 24 LED panels, that are only 0.1 amps each, and two of the panels are brighter than one of the old light bulbs. I put in 4 of the LED panels in the porch light, it is really bright now, and only 0.4 amps, about 1/3 of the old light.

Your furnace is another large load. It can draw 5 - 8 amps per hour, though you only normally run it about 2 hours per day, unless it is really cold out. I have a Olympic Catalytic heater, no 12 volt power at all, but I need to leave a roof vent and window open all the time (just like while cooking).

Your charger should be putting out about 35 amps per hour to a pair of batteries, in the first hour. The second hour is going to be less, say 25 - 30 AH, depending on how full the battery is getting. 3 and 4th hours, probably less than 20 AH per hour,and it will taper to even less power per hour after that. It is better to run the generator for about 1 hour early morning and later in the day, it gives the most amps per hour that way

Fred.

I'm still tryin to figure out what possible good it would be to know what each item draws. An ammeter is good on the output of a converter, that's all.
If we get into solar, then ammeters have some very usefull purposes.

Big Katuna wrote:
Inverters efficiency runs in the mid 90s above 10% load so decimal point conversion is accurate enough.

DC Stereos use minimal watts and who listens more than a few hours a day?

If OP wants reasonably usable data he needs to measure battery output. Otherwise he may as well just take a guess and move on.

And dude; you use a lot of emoticons. :R

LOL Yea, I was making a point!

I installed an old round analog amp meter I had laying around. Automotive type 30-0-30 scale. My converter is 30A so works fine for me. Shows charging current as well as draw. Resolution is 2 amp per increment scale.
Easy to install? Not really---cheap yes.