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Old 04-18-2010, 01:57 PM   #1
brulaz
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Default Elkmont Electricals

It's pretty clear that to boondock for more than over-night, something has to be done to reduce energy consumption. Dave (ShrimpBurrito) and others have measured the various energy draws for the fold-downs. So I thought to do the same for the Elkmont. The numbers I've got are similar to theirs.

Disconnected from 120VAC and measured amps drawn at battery.
With everything turned off the Phantom load was usually 0.100A (sometimes 0.160A).
Removed Fuse #2 (CO monitor and clock radio, plus lights and other stuff turned off), Phantom load becomes ~0.015A
This must be the WFCO converter/charger load. And so the CO monitor and clock radio must be 0.085A.

Turned on one ceiling lamp with 3 - 12V 921 bayonet incandescents (subtracting 100mA phantom): 3.9A or 1.3A/bulb
Kitchen hood light with 1 - 12V 921 bayonet incandescent: 1.4A/bulb
Bathroom fluorescents (2 - 8w): 1.35A, 0.65A/bulb

Kitchen Hood fan: 1.1A
Furnace (fan+thermostat): 2.9A
Bathroom fan (speed 1,2,3): 1.0A, 1.4A, 1.75A

Water pump: 2.8A
Refrigerator (when cooling on propane): 0.6A
Hot water heater (when heating): 0.7A
Hot water heater ( on but not heating): ~0.01 A

So like the others have found, it's mainly the fans and lights that are a problem, especially the furnace fan which can be on for a long time in cold weather. The water pump is not used enough to be a big problem.


We decided to do something about the lights right away, and replaced some with LEDs. Purchased these from LEDlight.com:
47852 T15 Wedge 36 Ultra Bright SMT LED Light
Two each for the plastic ceiling lights, RG921 bayonet type base
36754 S25 12 SMT Long Stem LED Light
One each for the 3 mini-spots over the bed, 1156 type base
54689 S25 20 Super Flux LED Light
One each for two of outside light fixtures, 1156 type base

I probably should have got another 921 LED for the stove light.

None of the LEDs were "warm-white". The 3 long-stem LED's in the mini-spots over the bed turned out really well. There's no problem at all reading and the slightly blue tinge of the light is not a problem, to us anyway. And the plastic ceiling light over the sink also works well. But the light from the two other plastic ceiling lights doesn't illuminate as well, I guess because they are in the top-center of the trailer. Also you notice the general lack of warmth more. The same applies to the two outside lights we swapped. But really, they're fine for when we're boondocking.

So that warmer lights are available when we have 120V, we left the incandescents in the pewter ceiling fixture (but each could use 3 of the 47852 LEDs if you wanted) and pewter wall lights (could use the 54689 with a different base, 1157 type).

The bathroom has small globe incandescents over the sink which I could not find a LED replacement for (and my wife was quite hesitant about replacing them with LEDs anyway), as well as a two fluorescent bulb fixture, which is what we will use when boondocking. The frig has a tiny tube-type incandescent that I didn't try to replace.

The LEDs we got really reduced the current draw:
Ceiling lamp with 2 - 921 bayonet LEDS : 160mA or 80mA/bulb
All 3 LED bedroom spots: 320ma or 106mA/bulb
Both outside LED lamps: 200ma or 100mA/bulb

So we're quite happy with that investment (despite the price; they were not cheap).


Another way to stick around longer when boondocking is to increase the battery size. Like many others, we decided to replace the 75-80Ah Marine/RV battery with a pair of 6V golf carts. Originally I looked for Trojan 105's but got a much better deal locally on US Battery T2200xc's which are the same size. These claim 232Ah which almost triples our boon-docking capabilities (and adds ~75# to the trailer dry weight).

I see Interstate and others have equivalent golf-cart batteries so it might be worth while to shop around locally. The nice thing is that these two 6V's can be placed end-to-end in the same place as the original battery under the settee. There's lots of room and it's right over the axle. We used the same battery box that others here have used (http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=9446) and mounted it with angle brackets to its side (http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/...eat=directlink). I then expanded one of the box portals for the original gas hose (cut off a few inches of the hose and thread it in), sealed two other portals and reduced the size of the fourth for the cables. Finally I put a bit of weather stripping inside on the cover and will (eventually)strap it on.

We still have to figure out how long we can go with these big batteries and LEDs. Eventually we may invest in solar panels to extend our boondocking stays even longer.
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Old 04-18-2010, 04:29 PM   #2
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We still have to figure out how long we can go with these big batteries and LEDs. Eventually we may invest in solar panels to extend our boondocking stays even longer.
YES!!!! By all means....please add a couple 80W solar panels to the trailer. I'll be too darn old to be messing with that by the time I buy that trailer from you....
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Old 04-18-2010, 04:47 PM   #3
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I'd have to be pretty desperate to sell this now.

If it seems like I'm spending a lot of time on this thing, well, yes, I am. It's interesting. It's new. It has "issues". And the alternative is re-siding the house.
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Old 04-18-2010, 05:06 PM   #4
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I'd have to be pretty desperate to sell this now.

If it seems like I'm spending a lot of time on this thing, well, yes, I am. It's interesting. It's new. It has "issues". And the alternative is re-siding the house.
Are you kidding me. That's half the enjoyment of owning an RV IMHO..... It just goes to show you, just because a person spends a lot of time moding out his RV doesn't mean that it's an old or bad RV.....it just means that we take pride in what we have and we enjoy doing it....no matter how old (like mine) or how new (like yours)......
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Old 04-19-2010, 06:32 AM   #5
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brulaz, excellent report. In reading this thread , and 1 posted on another forum that I am a member of, I think it is amazing that 2 291 bulbs pull about as much from the battery as the furnace fan.

I have a couple of LEDs on order to try out. If they work out, I plan on replacing a lot of my bulbs with the LEDs, but leave some of OEM bulbs for a "warmer" light if I have hookups.
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Old 04-19-2010, 06:56 AM   #6
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Not sure about the configurations in every model, but our TM has several dual 12V lights with 921 bulbs. Since we do a mix of dry and powered camping, I replaced one bulb in each of the dual lights with LEDs. This gives us the advantage of both styles with no effort.
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Old 04-19-2010, 09:06 AM   #7
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I spent a small fortune on LED bulbs. In the end, we went back to the incandescent bulbs. We couldn't stand the color of the light and grew tired of the lack of light. That's one of the biggest reasons that I went to the Trojan T105s and solar panels. We have no more power issues.
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Old 07-22-2010, 07:43 PM   #8
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Discovered another fan in the Elkmont while dry camping for a couple of days this week. The frig has an additional Norcold fan kit installed that only comes on when it gets pretty hot outside. It has a thermostat attached to the cooling coils visible through the upper side vent.

Unfortunately, I didn't measure its load but it could be as much as one amp if similar to the range hood and bathroom fans.

An easy way to reduce this load is to temporarily remove that upper side vent. Just twist the two twist-lock screws, push up and pull out. That really opens up the ventilation area, and the fan never came on after I did that.

The longest we've dry camped so far has been 2.5 days, and the most electricity we've used has been about 5% of battery capacity (the two golf carts at 232Ah). But that's being pretty obsessive about electricity usage.

Maybe we can forget about solar panels? We'll see. After all, many of the places we've been camping at are pretty shady, typical of the eastern forests.
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Old 09-30-2010, 06:01 PM   #9
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When I was dry camping last month, I disconnected the fan. It was one of the red wires with a spade connector, accessible from the lower fridge vent. Next time, I think I'll try removing the top vent instead, as running the fridge w/o the good airflow is less efficient.

There is also an ELECTRIC HEATER in the fridge between the doors. This can be disconnected by removing the front control panel and dislodging the correct wire. (See the manual)
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Old 09-30-2010, 07:30 PM   #10
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There is also an ELECTRIC HEATER in the fridge between the doors. This can be disconnected by removing the front control panel and dislodging the correct wire. (See the manual)
I don't have the manual here. But I'm pretty sure the Elkmont frig does not support D.C. operation. It's just too big and would draw down the regular battery too fast. So that heater must be 110V A.C. ?
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