What's your parasitic load?

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Back2PA

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Just curious. For those who have either calculated it, or are absolutely certain 100% of their loads are running through their shunt, what kind of parasitic loads are you seeing?

With my Norcold 1200 on LP (I realize the fridge isn't technically "parasitic"), inverter off, LP alarm on, I'm seeing about 5A on the shunt. Normal-ish?
 
I think one could consider it a parasitic in this discussion..  at bedtime with everything odd in crycamp mode I'm pulling 1-1.5a
 
SCVJeff said:
I think one could consider it a parasitic in this discussion..  at bedtime with everything odd in crycamp mode I'm pulling 1-1.5a

When you say "everything" off, you mean EVERYTHING, like fridge and LP detector? From what I recall others saying I think those two equal roughly 2A.
 
With the Norcold fridge on, no lights on, inverter off, my Trimetric monitor shows 0.7 amp. It jumps to 0.8A when the gas valve in the fridge is energized so the fridge will cool on propane.  If I turn off the fridge my draw drops to about 0.4A

Do you have an inverter?  If it is on, but not supplying any 120V appliances many of them will draw a couple of amps or possibly more in idle mode. 

Any lights on in the storage compartments or basement?

Have you tried pulling each 12V fuse one at a time in the house fuse panel?

Looking back at the original posting, I see you have a 800 watts of solar.  Have you tried disconnecting the solar controller?  If it is connected to the battery it will pull something to power its circuity even at night.  I don't mean that the controller is feeding back to the panels.  The controller gets 12V from the battery to operate.  At least my Morningstar controller does.
 
AStravelers, inverter off. Just checked and looks like when it's on it draws about 5A "idling" with microwave clock and coffee pot clock plus an iPhone charger so obviously that shouldn't be on unless needed. No lights anywhere.

Yes I have solar w Morningstar controller so will have to investigate your point. I don't think the 5A number I gave is correct - think it's closer to 2. My Xantrex is setup to read net after solar and I was surprised with shade on the rig the solar monitor was still showing an amp.

Gradually converting to LED for most used lights plus planning on adding a Trimetric. Need to do a more precise audit, just haven't taken the time to load check everything. The Xantrex only reports to the nearest amp so we'll see after the Trimetric.

Watched load as furnace kicked on: +10A! I knew it was lots but yikes.
 
Sun2Retire said:
............ My Xantrex is setup to read net after solar and I was surprised with shade on the rig the solar monitor was still showing an amp............
It is always interesting to see the solar panels providing 1-5 amps in low light levels.  Not a whole lot but better than nothing.  If you ever park overnight at a Walmart, consider parking under the street lights.  You should see some charging from your solar.  I have not parked under the lights, but have read reports of getting 2-4 amps from the lights.
 
Our Outback FM-80 goes into "sleep mode" when our panels' output equals the power consumption of the controller. I can't remember the amps-in threshold at which it goes to sleep, but it isn't very much. We live in a dark, rural area, and right now our coach is parked directly under a sodium vapor street light that's on our property, but it's still not enough light to awaken the controller.

Regarding our parasitic loads... When we're not hooked up to shore-power, and our solar controller and inverter are off (no parasitic loads from the "idling" entertainment centers, res-fridge, microwave etc) and with all the lights off and the TPMS booster turned off, our Trimetric indicates that .3 to .4 amps are being consumed.

Kev
 
Kevin Means said:
and the TPMS booster turned off, our Trimetric indicates that .3 to .4 amps are being consumed.

The TPMS booster is a good point, mine is always on. Any idea what the draw is?
 
Our booster is made by Minder Research and it draws .25 amps per hour, which I admit isn't much, but over 24 hours, that's six amps that's been wasted. Add in the draw from the clock in our microwave oven (.7 amps per hour) the parasitic draw of our coach's three entertainment centers (.6 amps per hour - even though they're turned off) and just those items alone consume about 37 amps in a 24 hour period. If someone has a 400 AH battery-bank (200 usable when they're drawn down to 50%) that's nearly 20% of their usable battery capacity that's been wasted. As boondockers know, it adds up. Disconnect-switches are your friend!

Kev
 
Kevin Means said:
Our booster is made by Minder Research and it draws .25 amps per hour, which I admit isn't much, but over 24 hours, that's six amps that's been wasted. Disconnect-switches are your friend!

That's enough to install a switch that's for sure. Not sure why I hard wired it when I installed  :-\

Everything else is switched, gotta get the Trimetric installed so I can get better readings

 
Sun2Retire said:
When you say "everything" off, you mean EVERYTHING, like fridge and LP detector? From what I recall others saying I think those two equal roughly 2A.
Wow.. one day I'll do a spell check when posting from the phone... Sorry..
"Everything Off" in camping mode means all lights, inverter (but still pulling stay current), etc. Things that need to be On: LP detect, fridge, background lights in the radio, etc., are running. I consider these (including the fridge) "parasitic" loads since they HAVE to be running in camp/ travel mode.

When in storage I shut down the house batteries and let them and the starting batteries float across the solar. There is always a parasitic draw from the inverter, On or Off to keep its SOC brains alive. I CAN disconnect it but it involves a 300A swx and it looses its memory.
 
If you have a "High Humidity" switch on the refrigerator, it controls an electric heating element around the door frames to cut down on condensation.  It adds about 3 amps to the refrigerator's draw if the switch is turned on.
 
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