Unknown power use by my fifth wheel.
We just purchased a Montana 2004. Currently someone is staying in it. My entire electrical is off-grid. I have the 5th Wheel plugged into my inverter. I have discovered that it is using about 160 watt...
Forum Discussion
MrWizard wrote:
I can't think of anything, that could be wired in to the main power buss and not on some other breaker
Except for a transfer switch
Does the FW have a installed generator
Or a while house inverter
160w is only 1.4 amps at 120v
Just about the right draw for the coil in used in the transfer switch relay
You need an electrician to check out the FW 120v circuits
A 120V transfer switch would not need anywhere near 1.4A in the coil for the contactor; if it did, it would become scorchingly hot. (That's basically a 160W heater in an unventilated metal box.)
The best guesses I can come up with are either a large inverter/charger in the RV that is operating in charger mode when AC is present and would have its own transfer switch for its circuits, or else some strange load through a fancy EMS system. In the former case, I would generally expect there to be a separate breaker in the main RV electric panel, but it's possible it could be wired without one and be up to code.
At any rate, it should not be too hard to find in the electric panel where there's something connected to the main bus without a breaker (presumably via power take-off lugs)...or some burnt area where the bus is damaged and partly shorting out. Assuming it's a power take-off, disconnecting it and/or following the wire should lead to the culprit.
