Battery current draw

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   The heater uses about 2A when operating, so at a 50% duty cycle its going to consume about 24 AH per day, which is half of what a single group 24 battery should be expected to provide. They are about 100AH but you shouldn't take them below about 50% state of charge. So as furpod suggests, dual 6V GC2's in series will give you much better service. That will give you well in excess of 200AH rated, 100 available, depending on exactly what you buy. 
When I measured my current draws I didn't see a significant current with all the appliances turned off, maybe a few hundred milliamps at most. That really shouldn't be drawing your battery down much, only a few amphours per day. If you've checked everything is off and are confident your battery isn't really just tired, then you might want to consider buying a multimeter with a clamp on dc current probe.  They're really cheap these days. You can use that to determine what your real parasitic losses are and which circuits are causing them. 

The problem with a battery disconnect is that you do still need to keep the battery on float charge, which the pod charger does for you as long as the batt is connected, so personally I don't see the benefit from having one. That's me.  I just leave our trailer plugged in when at home. 

PV modules are dirt cheap these days and idling a tow vehicle engine or running a genny is expensive and inefficient so I wouldn't hesitate to buy one even for a few days a year, as long as your campsites have good solar access. By all means do also retain the capability to charge from a fossil fuel (TV or genny) source when you run into series of cloudy days.  

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offgrid Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290	Topic: Battery current draw Posted: 10 Sep 2018 at 10:49am
	The heater uses about 2A when operating, so at a 50% duty cycle its going to consume about 24 AH per day, which is half of what a single group 24 battery should be expected to provide. They are about 100AH but you shouldn't take them below about 50% state of charge. So as furpod suggests, dual 6V GC2's in series will give you much better service. That will give you well in excess of 200AH rated, 100 available, depending on exactly what you buy. When I measured my current draws I didn't see a significant current with all the appliances turned off, maybe a few hundred milliamps at most. That really shouldn't be drawing your battery down much, only a few amphours per day. If you've checked everything is off and are confident your battery isn't really just tired, then you might want to consider buying a multimeter with a clamp on dc current probe. They're really cheap these days. You can use that to determine what your real parasitic losses are and which circuits are causing them. The problem with a battery disconnect is that you do still need to keep the battery on float charge, which the pod charger does for you as long as the batt is connected, so personally I don't see the benefit from having one. That's me. I just leave our trailer plugged in when at home. PV modules are dirt cheap these days and idling a tow vehicle engine or running a genny is expensive and inefficient so I wouldn't hesitate to buy one even for a few days a year, as long as your campsites have good solar access. By all means do also retain the capability to charge from a fossil fuel (TV or genny) source when you run into series of cloudy days.
	1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold

furpod Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128	Posted: 10 Sep 2018 at 7:46am
	If you flip the main breaker, there is no 120v power to the camper. That's how the system works. The 120v and 12v systems are completely separate. Since the Pod doesn't come with a battery disconnect, you don't have any way to fully cut the 12v circuit, until you add one. As far as boondocking a couple times a year, and wanting to get by without a large investment to accommodate you 12v needs, surely as a truck owner, you carry a good set of jumper cables, right? In case of an emergency where you need to pump a few gajjillion electrons into your Pod battery, turn your truck around, hook up jumper cabled to your Pod battery, start truck, idle for 20 minutes. It's hard to say how long you can stay out with a single group 24 battery before you need to top off the batteries, because only you know what all you are going to need/want to run. The wife and I and 2 golden retrievers did a 3 day weekend in Nov here once, on a single G24. Had to do the jumper cable trick Sunday morning to get the slide in. We doubled our battery bank the next week, and 4 years later switched to dual GC2's. We never needed to do the jumper cables again, and stayed out as long as 8 days off grid.

Colorado r-pod guy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 09 Oct 2015 Location: Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 14	Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 10:05pm
	Thanks for the response. I suppose my thinking is that an RV electrical system should operate much like a house: When the main breaker is in the off position, you aren't going to have power anywhere in the house, but obviously that is not the case with an RV. I do have a battery disconnect switch, just haven't installed it yet. I've been taking the battery inside the garage when the R-Pod is not in use for more than a week or so just so the battery isn't baking in the summer or freezing in the winter. I'd like to be able to run the furnace off the battery while boondocking, but given the current draw I have doubts as to just how long I could get away with that without drawing the battery down too low. Naturally I could use a generator or photovoltaic system to charge the battery but would like to avoid that because I'd rather not shell out the money for something that would only be of use a few days out of the year.

StephenH Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6429	Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 8:28pm
	There is a certain amount of surge when the battery is connected as there are things that draw power even if everything is turned off. Things like the LP/CO detector or the circuitry for the AC/furnace or the radio or the refrigerator circuitry, etc. Some of these cannot and should not be disconnected (LP/CO detector, for example). It is a safety factor. Rather than continuing to disconnect and connect the battery, consider installing a battery cut-off switch (see my mods for an example). It won't eliminate the power drains but will make it easier to disconnect and reconnect power when you are not using your R-Pod. For us, we keep ours plugged in when it is not used since we park it in our driveway.
	StephenH Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS

Colorado r-pod guy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 09 Oct 2015 Location: Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 14	Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 7:58pm
	Greetings Helpful R-Podders, I am looking at ways to decrease power usage when on battery with my 2011 R-176. One thing I have noticed is that every time I connect the battery I get a fairly large spark from the wire/terminal. I've tried removing all the fuses before connecting the battery and still get a spark, so obviously there is a significant current drain on the battery, the question is, what is causing the drain and is there anything I can do to eliminate the it? Many thanks, Tim p.s. There is probably a post on this subject already, but I searched and couldn't find it, please forgive me for that.