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.