Electrical Amp reporting

[Papapohli]

Hey, newbie here. We purchased a 2008 Winnebago Sightseer WFD34M and have made some modifications (LED lights, furniture, plumbing, etc). We spent the weekend camping with no issues. Came home and my wife was cleaning inside while I change the skylight above the shower, when she told me we had no lights. We were not plugged in to shore power, no power to lights or EMS panel. Checked all circuit breakers and fuses. Engine started fine. Connected shower power and everything came back, except when I turn a couple of lights on I get an amp usuage on display of 36 amps, we are a 30 amp vehicle. Batteries appear to be charged (9 year old interstate 12v deep cycle marine/RV batteries). Everything seems to be good except when I turn on the galley and bathroom in lights, they all work just get a false reading on the panel. Any help appreciated.

[Morich]

Yes, it takes a bit to figure out what to expect and there are lots of curves to figure!

So as a first thing to check, those batteries are extremely old, especially for an RV as we treat them rougher than the normal car battery.
So some checks to verify what I feel may be true.
When the RV engine starts, there is an automatic gizmo to connect the coach and start batteries together.
I suggest first start the engine, then check the coach battery disconnect switch to see if that brings the interior lights, vent fans, etc to life???

That switch is a momentary type which only uses power while we are pushing it one way or the other and then there is a magnet gizmo which "latches" the relay connected to that switch and the relay stays where it last moves to, on or off.
The tricky part is that the switch will move and you thin you have it on but if there is not enough battery in the coach system, the relay just sets without moving!

In other words, the switch/relay deal needs power to turn on or off and if the battery gets too weak, yoou are not doing anything flipping the switch!

I'm guessing the batteries are too low and that means much of the other electronics are prone to going goofy, but do a test before we believe that story???
If it turns lights on inside when the engine runs, it is likely the power is comming from the engine alternator and start battery, so a close look at why the old batteries are dead.
Mayber old age, maybe the charging system is not getting to the batteries and that can be as simple as dirty cables. But first do check some things. Some voltage readings right at the battery may be needed next.

[creativepart]

We see posts like this fairly frequently and I liked to say it’s always dead batteries - but I’ll hedge my bets and say 99% of the time it’s dead batteries. But… when you said the batteries are over 9yrs old I’ll change my bet to 99.5% likely to be your issue.

[Wyatt]

Is that showing 36 amps, or 3.6, because I don’t see where in that display a decimal point would display?

[Papapohli]

Wyatt, it is showing 36 not 3.6 amps.

[Jim_HiTek]

Could be a shorted water heater element, try turning off the water heater AC switch (assuming you have one near that panel you show). The electric heater for AC operation of the refer partially shorted to the chimney could cause an over current too.

The other thing mentioned by others here is that your batteries are fairly old, but I limped along with mine for 12 years and never had an over current event like you're having. But a internally shorted battery could cause over current from the charger (called a converter in RV lexicon) but your battery would get warm or hot too so check that.

I'd start turning off all the electrical items shown on your display one after the next and find where that excess current is going.

[BobC]

Why not measure the amps with a multimeter to be sure if the reading is accurate?

The ideal tool to use is a multimeter with a clamp-type amp probe so you don't have to disconnect anything to take a reading. Make sure you get one capable of reading both AC and DC amps. Be careful since the descriptions can be misleading in this regard. For example, this one reads AC amps only but you can only tell by looking at the dial:

https://smile.amazon.com/Digital-ACE...l%2C124&sr=1-4

Here's a link to one I recently purchased that is both AC and DC amps:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

Less expensive ones are available but I wouldn't go to cheap (not all are AC/DC Amps):

https://smile.amazon.com/Digital-ACE...l%2C124&sr=1-4

This won't be an unnecessary expense since you'll find numerous uses for it in the future such as chasing down parasitic loads, etc.

You can read your DC amps by clamping it around either your pos or neg battery cable, making sure you include any small, separately connected wires. The only difference will be whether the reading is pos or neg, the magnitude will be the same as long as all wires connected to the post are included. AC amps can be read at your main breaker panel by clamping it around either the hot or neutral wire feeding the main breaker.

This will save you a lot of time and effort now and in the future.

[Papapohli]

Thank you everyone for your wisdom. I had also messaged Intellitec and they contacted me with specific directions to reset the circuit board which worked! I also took the time to change the 5 amp fuse on the board. And I’m picking up new house batteries and a chassis battery tomorrow.

[Papapohli]

Random question, how did you all put a picture as a “profile” pic?

[HappiHenri]

Shower power?
Lots of confusion in your electrical problems, so lets start with some basics:
Your coach has 2 different electrical systems - (1) 120v AC and (2) 12v DC

(1) 120v AC - Powered by either your generator or by plugging into shore power. Many have added an inverter as well to invert the 12v DC batteries to 120v AC - but this does not seem to apply to your rig.

This 120v AC circuit powers all outlets, the absorption refrigerator electrical heater, A/C, microwave, water heater electric heating element, and the 120v AC --> 12v DC converter (typically located under the stove/oven). This converter supplies 12v DC to charge house batteries and to power your 12v circuit.

(2) 12v DC - This power comes from your house batteries and/or the converter. This circuit powers all lights, ceiling fans, the refrigerator control circuitry, and possibly a small 275w inverter which Winnebago installed on some models to power the TVs..

You said that your batteries are 9 years old - which is very old for batteries. You said they were fully charged - but how do you know? You cannot go by voltage alone - especially on old batteries. They need to be load tested to see what their actual output voltage is. As others have surmised I STRONGLY suspect your batteries are too old and not holding a charge - which is why your lights suddenly went out.

So why the 36 amp draw seen on your Powerline meter? I suspect you are seeing a combination of loads you had turned on when your plugged into shore power. These might include:
* Converter. Since your house batteries appear to be dead the converter was fully loaded trying to charge them up.
* Your water heater electrical heater was turned on. That will draw 12-15 amps alone.
* Your refrigerator was likely drawing ~ 3 amps (unless running on propane) since it would have shut down when your lights went out.
* A/C - the biggest draw. If turned on they draw many amps.

I love the Powerline Meter which Winnebago built into many Class A's, but the purpose of the Powerline system was to distribute loads to various devices when you have too many turned on at once. You may have 30 amp shore power, but if you had your A/C, microwave, water heater, etc. all turned on together you would be trying to draw A LOT more than 30 amps. Because of this Winnebago installed the Powerline system, but unfortunately they do not really describe it's functions very well. Suffice it to say that it trys to distribute the amps it has to only certain devices, because all turned on together would totally overload your AC electrics.

So you have described 2 separate issues in your questions. To summarize:
1> Why did your lights go out. I would say your need new house batteries. Also strongly suggest your install a Battery Monitor (such as the Victron 712) so you can see your exact state of battery charge.
2> Why the 36 amp draw on the Powerline? I think that this is the result of too many devices turned on together, not the least of which is the converter which was working 100% to try and charge your old depleted house batteries.

Hope this helps.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Papapohli

Random question, how did you all put a picture as a “profile” pic?

You don’t want to do that. That’s not what you are looking for. You want to add a photo as an Avatar.

An Avatar photo shows up beneath your Username on posts. A Profile Pic shows only on your Profile which no one really sees.

To add an Avatar click on “User CP” in the gold color menu bar above. Then just click on the “Edit Avatar” button on the menu to the left.

While you’re doing that click on “Edit Signature” and put your RV’s information in your Signature, then every post will include this info visible to everybody when you ask a question about your RV.

[tmelsonjr]

Originally Posted by Papapohli

Thank you everyone for your wisdom. I had also messaged Intellitec and they contacted me with specific directions to reset the circuit board which worked! I also took the time to change the 5 amp fuse on the board. And I’m picking up new house batteries and a chassis battery tomorrow.

papapoli. what did you have to do to reset it ?
thanks in advance

[Papapohli]

I disconnected all power, took the cover off the electrical panel under the fridge and on the right side was the circuit board for the EMS system. I disconnected the 3 (here could be 4) wires from the board for ten minutes. Reconnected the wires, connected all power and the panel is displaying the correct amps.