enormous electric usage

[lbrachfe]

Hi all,

I have a friend next to me that has a Newmar Essex and similiar electrical components, except inverter and wiring of course and he has been drawing more than double the KWH's than me and thought that someone might shed some light on what he should be looking for. Could shielding or resistance be the issue or inferior wiring and cables ?? Any ideas to help himout from any electrical guru's ?

[Richard and Rhonda]

My first guesses are insulation and AirCon efficiency. Inferior wiring that would create that much of a current draw would cause the Essex to burn to the ground.

He could also be running a gas fridge off electric, that would be a big power suck.

I would also check to make sure his battery charger isn't locked in some full on mode, or that one of his batteries doesn't have a shorted cell which is causing the charger to stay in full on mode.

If you have a current meter, and are comfortable working with an open circuit box, you could measure each individual circuit to isolate the big draw.

[lbrachfe]

Thanks for the tips Richard. Will pass these on.....

[tuga]

Larry,

You might try using an IR thermometer and shoot the temperature of his batteries. If one battery is much hotter than the others that might indicate a "stuck" inverter or a bad battery. A friend of mine had a similar problem when one of his inverters somehow got stuck in the "equalizer mode". It caused his batteries to over heat! Reseting the inverters to the default settings corrected the problem.

Hope this may help.

[lbrachfe]

Thanks Tuga, appreciate your tip.