Overnight battery drain
I'm trying to determine if the overnight drain on my batteries seems reasonable. My 2008 Tiffen Class A coach came with 2 house batteries and an Onan generator. I want to dry camp at times, so I had 2...
Forum Discussion
As stated; after keeping 2 old batteries and adding 2 new, your batteries are now toast based on your charging habits.
If you like to camp on non-electric sites it helps to have a clamp-on meter to read the amp load at various times. Use the clamp-on meter by placing over one of the battery cables at the battery-bank.
Check the reading during the day noting what you have plugged in or turned on while dry-camping. The amp reading should be negative (current going out) and represents amps used on an hourly basis (6.0 amps x 24 = 144 amps in 24 hour day). Depending which cable you use or the direction of the clamp on the cable the sign could be plus or minus. The wrong way would not matter in this case since you know you are taking current from the battery, not charging it. I would also check reading later near night when using furnace, lights, etc., to see what the higher amp reading is then. The number should also be multiplied by the number of hours those items will be run.
Where knowing amp usage helps is that you can learn to turn off unneeded items if you need to conserve batteries. Turn off inverter when not needed. Same with television and dish if you will need more furnace time at night.
The meter will also help when running the generator to recharge the batteries. Until the amp reading drops down to around 2 amps (generator running) you are not even getting close to full charge. At the time you were charging before you needed 2 or 3 times the generator time. Four new batteries would have charged faster. Your capacity on the current 4 batteries could have been less than 50% of new.
If you like to camp on non-electric sites it helps to have a clamp-on meter to read the amp load at various times. Use the clamp-on meter by placing over one of the battery cables at the battery-bank.
Check the reading during the day noting what you have plugged in or turned on while dry-camping. The amp reading should be negative (current going out) and represents amps used on an hourly basis (6.0 amps x 24 = 144 amps in 24 hour day). Depending which cable you use or the direction of the clamp on the cable the sign could be plus or minus. The wrong way would not matter in this case since you know you are taking current from the battery, not charging it. I would also check reading later near night when using furnace, lights, etc., to see what the higher amp reading is then. The number should also be multiplied by the number of hours those items will be run.
Where knowing amp usage helps is that you can learn to turn off unneeded items if you need to conserve batteries. Turn off inverter when not needed. Same with television and dish if you will need more furnace time at night.
The meter will also help when running the generator to recharge the batteries. Until the amp reading drops down to around 2 amps (generator running) you are not even getting close to full charge. At the time you were charging before you needed 2 or 3 times the generator time. Four new batteries would have charged faster. Your capacity on the current 4 batteries could have been less than 50% of new.
