Excessive Power Consumption

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

chaz1040

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Posts
15
Location
Bellingham, WA
I have been living full time in a 2002 40 foot motorhome for the last year. For the last year my power bill has averaged 1300 kWh per month ($130 per month at 11c per kWh). There has been very little difference between summer and winter. I live near Seattle, WA.
My hot water tank is always on propane only.
I never use power for heat.
All my lights are LED or compact fluorescent.
The fridge is on AC
I have been using the electric dryer for the last 4 months and it made a 10% difference on the power bill.
When I switch off the inverter/charger unit at the breaker panel in the motorhome the power meter on the pole slows to a trickle. There is nothing else on the power meter except the motorhome.
I have a 50 amp plug with an adapter plugged into a 30 amp outlet.
Does this seem excessive?
 
Seems excessive to me. Can you have power company do a meter check or audit? Might pay to buy a kill-o-watt and check everything that runs on 120. Our sticks and brick was $119 last month @ .12 kw. Air conditioner (2 1/2 ton) ran 10-12 hrs a day. Did quite a bit of welding - plasma cutting in shop on a project last month(same meter). Electric clothes dryer. Electric range.  All led lights. 3 refrigerators and deep freeze. Year round average, $70-80 month.
 
Ya, what jubileee says. I'm at home. I run 2 large AC's every day for 14 hours and everything else and my bill was $130 last month. The Kill-A-Watt meter is a nice tool.

https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501827505&sr=8-1&keywords=kill-a-watt
 
We use ac extensively (stay quite cool in FL) and run everything on ac that we can. Our bill varies between $100 and $120 per month. Note that we have three slides, including one full body so its a big 37 foot MH.

Ernie
 
As Seilerbird says, the fridge in 120vac mode sucks a lot of power, but I still think your consumption is high for what you describe. I would have expected around $60-$80.

What make/model of inverter/charger do you have? I ask because the meaning of "Off" varies by model and I'm wondering what consumption gets stopped when you turn it Off. Sometimes Off is just the inverter function, while in others it also stops charging and/or 12v power production.  Also, what stops working when you turn the inverter off?
 
When I switch off the inverter/charger unit at the breaker panel in the motorhome the power meter on the pole slows to a trickle.

In addition to the fridge on AC, don't forget that the converter is still charging the batteries. Assuming you have a good, 3-stage charger it will still maintain a float charge a lot of the time.
 
When Inverter/Charger is on can you read the amount of charge(amps) going to batteries? Is it in Float mode or maximum (40-50amps) try to charge bad batteries. Check condition of batteries and test them if charger is on full continuously .
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
As Seilerbird says, the fridge in 120vac mode sucks a lot of power


Out of interest, how much is "a lot"?
 
When we're in Florida in the winter, at the park we stay at the longest we pay a monthly rate plus $0.12/kwh for 30 amp electric. Using one A/C at a time, plus our residential fridge, converter/charger, satellite dish, and the other usual appliances, we average about 300 kwh each month for a monthly bill of about $35. No washer/dryer on board though. Back when we had an RV fridge, the bill was about the same, but I don't recall what the rate was then. When we're living in the coach while parked at our upstate NY cottage, the combined bill for both places rarely exceeds $75 at $0.16/kwh. And that includes a washer, a dryer, two electric water heaters, a fridge, a freezer, water pump, etc., in the cottage.
 
don't forget that the converter is still charging the batteries. Assuming you have a good, 3-stage charger it will still maintain a float charge a lot of the time.

If it is only "float" charging, the 120v power draw is tiny, surely no more than 1 amp (120 watts/hr). That's about 3 KW per day or  $0.36. But if the charger is struggling to push amps into a shorted battery, it could be several times that.
 
There are 720 hours in a month, so at 1300 kwh usage, you're being charged for using an average of 1.8 kw per hour.  That's 15 amps 24/7, or half of what 30 amp outlet can deliver running flat out.

I'd unplug the motorhome for a day.  Confirm the spinning disc on the electric meter completely stops after you unplug and take a picture of the electrical meter.  Then take another picture a day later before you plug the motorhome back in and compare the readings. 

Any change means something else is drawing power through the meter, and I'd have a talk with park management.
 
We had a very high consumption of electric and we realized our engine heater had been on for 2 months.  We didn't even know we had an engine heater!  Ouch.
 
I am very frugal but I get high power bills too.

I read an article that an absorption fridge can suck 5 times the electric of a regular fridge. But I do love the propane option for when I am traveling or there is a power outage.

Must be my fridge cause I do keep it good and cold so the food doesn't go off.

Also I am a fan-o-holic. Always a fan running somewhere. I do have a compact washer, that is good and bad. More loads, more electricity, but the convenience has me spoiled. A larger one would mean less loads, but I don't have room for a larger one.

 
According to the latest "energy star" certification ratings residential refrigerators draw and avg of between 600 kwh/per year to 810 kwh/ per year.
That is only 50 to 70 kwh per month. May be something other than your refrigerator.

https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-residential-refrigerators/results?scrollTo=1242&search_text=&type_filter=Side-by-Side&additional_features_filter=Icemaker&capacity_total_volume_ft3_filter=18+-+23&height_in_isopen=&width_in_isopen=&brand_name_isopen=&markets_filter=United+States&zip_code_filter=&product_types=Select+a+Product+Category&sort_by=percent_less_energy_use_than_us_federal_standard&sort_direction=desc&page_number=0&lastpage=0
 
Jomo said:
We had a very high consumption of electric and we realized our engine heater had been on for 2 months.  We didn't even know we had an engine heater!  Ouch.
Wait a minute. I see from your tag line you are using a 2007 Gulfstream Friendship DP. I own a 2002 40 foot Gulfstream Friendship DP. This may very well be the problem. (however I will also switch my fridge to propane). Where was your engine heater switch?
 
chaz1040 said:
Wait a minute. I see from your tag line you are using a 2007 Gulfstream Friendship DP. I own a 2002 40 foot Gulfstream Friendship DP. This may very well be the problem. (however I will also switch my fridge to propane). Where was your engine heater switch?
Okay Jomo, I owe you a beer. After reading your post I checked the compartment where the power cord and the inverter is. There was plug coming in from the side of the compartment and was plugged into a 120 volt outlet. I had seen it before and knew it was there but had no idea what it was for. I pulled the plug out of the outlet and the power meter slowed to a trickle. In the last year I have spent $1,000 keeping my engine warm. The only possible switch I can find is a breaker marked "GFI". 
 
Usually there is a switch that controls that outlet so you can turn the block heater on/off, but I have no idea where it might be on your Friendship.  Many RVers simply unplug the heater, since they rarely need worry about starts in freezing weather.
 
There is no switch that we could find.  We too, had to unplug the plug.  Too bad the 50 lbs of manuals in these rigs aren't a little more helpful!!  Glad you found the problem!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
131,753
Posts
1,384,359
Members
137,524
Latest member
freetoroam
Back
Top Bottom