Where are my 35 watts going ?

J

JD Hogg

Joined
Oct 10, 2023
Posts
27
Likes collected
34
Location
Valencia, Spain
Funster No
99,304
MH
Rapido 9648DF
Exp
Since 2007
I tried today to plug my EHU directly into my Ecoflow 700w battery. Everything worked great. I was surprised to see that my fridge pulled 200w when filling, so the Ecoflow would only power me for about 3 hours. Anyway, that just by-the-by.

Anyhow, with everything switched off, including my control panel, it was still shoving 34 watts into the motorhome. I checked that everything was unplugged, no lights, no 12v , nothing on at all.....so i don't understand that. The MH has recently been on EHU for a week outside my house so every battery should be full, plus its very very sunny and i have a 200w panel on the roof. The only thing that i can't turn off (don't know how) is my solar controller, but f that is being fed by solar, surely it can't be using 35 watts independently?

Any thoughts where my 35 watts are going ? I need every one i can get !
 
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In probability order:

Battery still charging even though reporting topped up?

Calibration error on the meter?

Next door have hooked up to your van and using your power?

Hole under the battery box so the watts are falling through it? 😳
 
Upvote 0
meanders said:
In probability order:

Battery still charging even though reporting topped up?

Calibration error on the meter?

Next door have hooked up to your van and using your power?

Hole under the battery box so the watts are falling through it? 😳
Click to expand...
Watts are lighter than air so probably boiling off the battery.🤔
 
Upvote 0
Random light is on somewhere. Cooker is my favourite. But lockers sometimes have lights.

Or you have a battery master?

Or the head unit?
 
Upvote 0
Drain to starter battery

12v switched on in van so USB lights, control panel draw etc etc.

Have u left the bathroom light on again.. ;)

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Upvote 0
The battery charger even if the batteries are charged will still take some current, 35 watts is only 146ma (0.146 amps) at mains voltage, I would have expected a much bigger draw from the charger than that.
 
Upvote 0
I was amazed that our phones take 1A when first put on charge

Can’t convert that back to watts but it’s quite a few
 
Upvote 2
Trip the MCBs one by one until the wattage drops 🤔👍

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Upvote 0
Guigsy said:
Are you plugging the van into the 230v socket on the Ecoflow? You're probably losing a fair chunk of those watts just through it's own internal inverter.
Click to expand...
yes, using the ecoflow as some kind of EHU. Good call. Ill try and plug something else into 230v the Ecoflow - of a known wattage - and see if it draws more than expected.
 
Upvote 0
Guigsy said:
Are you plugging the van into the 230v socket on the Ecoflow? You're probably losing a fair chunk of those watts just through it's own internal inverter.
Click to expand...
I agree, if the Ecoflow is outputting 230V it will be running an internal inverter and even if it is outputting 12V it will probably be running a converter because the battery is likely to be 25V not 12V.
 
Upvote 0
Pausim said:
I agree, if the Ecoflow is outputting 230V it will be running an internal inverter and even if it is outputting 12V it will probably be running a converter because the battery is likely to be 25V not 12V.
Click to expand...
48V inside most ecoflow units (needed to support the faster charges they offer), and agree, it's probably the charger needing the mcb tripping.

On our ecoflow (delta2) we've measured inverter losses at ~ 10W, it uses about 20W to run the TV... but still worth using the Delta2 for that, as we can just plug the solar in and get > 30W in most cases, so the TV use is "free" watts.

The neat thing about the ecoflow (and the allpowers 288w one we have) is both support turning on/off the inverter remotely, so we can turn the inverter on/off using phone and turn the TV on/off after that...
 
Upvote 0
Items I have seen previously taking electrical power discreetly include :-
Alarm system, many aftermarket systems are quite greedy.
A Tracker which is effectively a mobile phone with GPS running.
Reversing camera where the monitor in the cab has an ON OFF switch but the camera at the back is powered all the time.
Interior light in the wardrobe (Our Hymer has two)

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Upvote 0
My dashcam is quite capable of flattening our starter battery. Don't know what its power consumption actually is, but as originally set up by the installer, it only took about 10 days!
Fortunately I was able to change the settings of the thing so it shuts down at 12.4V rather than the much lower voltage originally set.
 
Upvote 0
JD Hogg said:
I tried today to plug my EHU directly into my Ecoflow 700w battery. Everything worked great. I was surprised to see that my fridge pulled 200w when filling, so the Ecoflow would only power me for about 3 hours. Anyway, that just by-the-by.

Anyhow, with everything switched off, including my control panel, it was still shoving 34 watts into the motorhome. I checked that everything was unplugged, no lights, no 12v , nothing on at all.....so i don't understand that. The MH has recently been on EHU for a week outside my house so every battery should be full, plus its very very sunny and i have a 200w panel on the roof. The only thing that i can't turn off (don't know how) is my solar controller, but f that is being fed by solar, surely it can't be using 35 watts independently?

Any thoughts where my 35 watts are going ? I need every one i can get !
Click to expand...
Are the fresh and waste water tank heaters on for they are too easy to knock on in our vehicle.

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Upvote 0
steve69 said:
Is your dashboard clock still on?:unsure:
Click to expand...
By dashboard, do you mean the cab dash ? Cant see how that could be possible, but I'll check next time. The control panel seems to have a light, but so small that it cant even be a watt.
 
Upvote 0
JD Hogg said:
I tried today to plug my EHU directly into my Ecoflow 700w battery. Everything worked great. I was surprised to see that my fridge pulled 200w when filling, so the Ecoflow would only power me for about 3 hours. Anyway, that just by-the-by.

Anyhow, with everything switched off, including my control panel, it was still shoving 34 watts into the motorhome. I checked that everything was unplugged, no lights, no 12v , nothing on at all.....so i don't understand that. The MH has recently been on EHU for a week outside my house so every battery should be full, plus its very very sunny and i have a 200w panel on the roof. The only thing that i can't turn off (don't know how) is my solar controller, but f that is being fed by solar, surely it can't be using 35 watts independently?

Any thoughts where my 35 watts are going ? I need every one i can get !
Click to expand...
Is it still pulling 35 watts when you unplug the motorhome from the power pack?
 
Upvote 0

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