My Amara Coachman is permentley sited and I just had the bill (SHOCK !!!). It was as much as the whole of last year and I have only been on the site and plugged into the mains for about 2 months and I know electricity has gone up considerably but not that much
Its always been left plugged into the main while I'm not there with only the fridge actually draining power. All the sockets are off (mains switch), pump is off (pump switch). Checked the readings while I was up there and it seems I am using about £1.40 per day. Seems to be a lot of money (£40 pm to run a fridge). Tried switching the fridge over to 12v and got an error message.
My thoughts are, could it be the leisure battery is knackered and its constantly being charged, hence the usage? Or is there something wrong with the actual charging circuit?
I've emptied the fridge and switched the mains off this week, took a reading, so it wont be using any electric at all.
Its worth checking out whats using the power, however you have to remember that your being charged for the electric at commercial rates not domestic rates
The fridge won't work on 12v, it needs to be hooked up to the car with the engine running to work on 12v
How can you have all the sockets off but the fridge working?
Post last edited on 19/09/2023 10:32:40
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Fridge will draw around 125W (0.125kw), BUT should be on a thermostat so will cut in and out and not draw 125W constantly unless possibly set to coldest setting and/or ambient temp is high.
The fridge will NOT and is not intended to cool off the onboard 12v system, it only cools on 12v supplied by the tow vehicle with engine running, but does draw a little from the onboard 12v system for the control panel regardless of power source used to cool.
Unless switched off (probably not good unless frequent visits to occupy van), the battery charger will also be drawing current at varying amounts. There will be a small amount of power consumed powering the various control systems in the van, such as main control panel, heating control panel etc. The mains power converter/battery charger typically has a max draw of around 155W (0.155kW), but should draw nothing like that in an unoccupied van.
Any alarm system will draw a constant say less than 100mA, so virtually nothing.
TV aerial amplifier may or may not be switched off by control panel settings, and again draw a minimal say 55mA which can be ignored.
Microwaves fitted to caravans typically go into standby mode and draw next to no power, but a standard MW will draw around 3W (0.003kW) constantly.
Heating and water heaters sometimes have a frost protection mode whereby they will kick in to stop van/water heater dropping to freezing point.
It depends on your unit charge, but £1.40 per day could be under 2KWh/day of electricity, which fits with above usage WITHOUT heating kicking in.
Water heater is run off gas and only goes on when I am there
No alarm system fitted.
No air blower on
Aerial amplifier is switched off when I switch the sockets off (they also go off when I switch the mains switch, but I switch them off anyway. The radio also goes off too.
MW stays on (socket is at back of where it is situated in designated cupboard)
Fridge stays on (on mid setting)
All in all as it has been for the last 6 years, although this is only the 3rd full year with this caravan.
i would be fully disconnecting the lead from the post and taking a meter reading, double checking that on my return, to see if the meter was faulty or connectd up to another caravan too
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Topic: Big Electric bill
via mobile 19/9/2023 at 10:25am
