Amp draw reading

[cdcorpe]

I am trying to track down something that is drawing down my battery & I disconected the positive side of the battery & installed an amp meter in between the battery & the meter . My reading is .8 unless I cover my solar panels & then it drops to .3. I have gone thru all the fuses & nothing changes. Does this make sense ? The input charging amp reading on the solar controler reads 1.5 amps.

[bigfootford]

If your radio is 12vdc there will be parasitic drain from it too. I put an external switch for it.

Any inverter that is on but not providing any 120vdc to something will have parasitic draw.
One of mine 700watt will pull about .4

My absolute min parasitic draw fridge on but not cooling is around .3amps..

Jim

[CA_Traveler]

Mine is about 0.4A with everything off. Unfortunately about half of that is the converter/inverter in idle mode that cannot be turned off. I have no idea why Monaco bypassed the inverter with their switch so I added a full battery disconnect.

[RJsfishin]

What makes you thing you have an abnormal discharge ? I would think a 1/2 amp draw would be smaller than normal on most RVs. If you turn off the fridge, WH, P Detector etc etc, you could still have a bit of discharge just from the memories, leds etc etc.

[Gjac]

That sounds quite normal my parasitic draw is .4 Amps.

[12thgenusa]

If you're asking if .34 amps is about right for parasitic drain, that is almost exactly the same as mine. If the fridge burner is on it's an additional .75 amps to power the gas valve solenoid. Likewise for the water heater burner.

[cdcorpe]

Thanks for all the help. Does .34 amp draw sound normal or high? That is the reading I got with everything disconected. I get 0 when I turn off the battery disconect.

[wa8yxm]

Your 0.8 and 0.3 or 5 or whatever you failed to idicate if that is charging or discharging.

Covering the solar cells will reduce the amount of light reaching them (And thus the output current) but depending on what you covered them with it might not fully block the light.. I have done some tests that proved that.

[DrewE]

The meter simply measures the current flowing through it. It may help to think of it as something akin to a water meter in that regard. If you connect it between the battery and everything else, you'll see the current flowing out of or into the battery, just like a water meter connected between a tank and other stuff would record water entering or leaving the tank.

If you have the meter connected between the battery and the coach, but the solar connected to the battery rather than going through the meter, then the current from the solar to the battery won't be shown by the meter. (The water tank has a fill pipe that doesn't go through the water meter in that analogy.) Having the solar charging the battery could make the current to the rest of the coach go up in certain situations--if, for example, you have something like a Trik-l-start unit installed that senses the increased voltage (due to charging by solar) and charges the chassis battery a bit.

[CA_Traveler]

Disconnect the solar so that it is not a factor. It's also not clear if your readings with solar connected represent a drain or charge.

You may have small draws like a smoke detector, radio, etc that cannot be turned off. Placing a disconnect switch on the battery terminal may be a good choice. If you also disconnect your solar then first check your solar controller as some don't tolerate a battery disconnect with the panels connected.

[time2roll]

Turn a single bulb light on and see the effect. Careful as the meter has a limit and internal fuse.

You should see a change from positive to negative amps. Or if the meter is reversed the negative amps will increase.

Otherwise you will need to start disconnecting branch circuits until you get zero.

[2oldman]

cdcorpe wrote:
...I disconected the positive side of the battery & installed an amp meter in between the battery & the meter .

Hard to follow this sentence. What meter? Did you hook the positive back up?

[cdcorpe]

smkettner wrote:
.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.

I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.

Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue.

Yes I have the meter in series & I was just rounding off the amps. I am definitely confused, does the meter show only the amps being used, or a cobination of amps in (from solar) & amps used(Propane dector etc,)Thanks for the help. I have checked the batteries with a hydrometer & they are good. Thanks

[time2roll]

.8 vs .3 is .5 amp so NO that does not reconcile with coving the panels and losing 1.5 amps. And not sure how you have .3 going in with no solar.

I would check if that 1.5 amps is correct. Then disconnect the solar from the battery for the remainder of the tests.

Are you using a multimeter in series? You may need 2 decimal resolution to find this issue.

[aruba5er]

Has it got a shorted cell? That would kill a battery quickly. Take it to a battery place like intrstate or batteries plus they will test it for you free. ( Interstate will want the battery fully charged b 4 they will test it.)