Power draw of Pump/Fridge/Heater 160X

[Jaguar]

Hi!

I'm working on building a solar system for my 2008 160X and wondering if someone can help me with the running watts (or amps) of the following components. (My trailer is in storage so I can't get to it for a while and hoping someone here has these figured handy??)

Water Pump -
Fridge (in LP mode) -
Built-in Space Heater -

Thank you!!

 

[Jaguar]

Well, after scouring the internet, this is what I come up with.... For those who may be going down the same path as me or wanting to size their battery properly:

Consumer | Power draw (Watts) | Hours usage/day | Total power required/day
RM2351 Fridge | 9.6 | 24 | 230.4
Gas H20 Heater | 20 | 4 | 80
suburban NT-16SEQ Furnace - Fan On | 32.4 | 2 | 64.8
Furnace Standby | 3 | 22 | 66
A 12v RV LED light | 0.12 | 10 | 1.2
Bathroom Fan | 97 | 0.5 | 48.5
Water Pump | 60 | 0.25 | 15


Daily Power Requirement (watt hours) 505.9
Days of Autonomy 3
Total Wh 1517.7
System voltage 12
Total Ah Requirement 126.475

 

[Woodgrain]

Jaguar-
Impressive.... thanks for sharing this research -

 

[DogsGo2]

This may help

I how you can see this and that it helps as a general guide.

Hi!

I'm working on building a solar system for my 2008 160X and wondering if someone can help me with the running watts (or amps) of the following components. (My trailer is in storage so I can't get to it for a while and hoping someone here has these figured handy??)

Water Pump -
Fridge (in LP mode) -
Built-in Space Heater -

Thank you!!

 

[Xerofall]

I was curious to know how many amps my trailer was drawing, so I bought a Kill-a-Watt device, you plug it in between the shore power and trailer plug.

Then I turned on every single light, fan, power outlet (USBs for charging phones, etc) and it was under 4 amps.

I have 100w solar panels and dual 6v batteries with a 225 amp hour rating. Recently went camping in Utah, off grid, and with every day usage, including a CPAP, we lasted all week on just batteries with the solar charging them during the day. It's nice to know we can do that without worry.

The ONLY thing we ran into was the grey tank filling up quicker than the black, and there wasn't a place nearby to dump... but we made it before it was full.

 

[Jaguar]

Jaguar-
Impressive.... thanks for sharing this research -

You are welcome!

 

[Jaguar]

That was my other plan as well but we always boondock so haven't plugged into shorepower in over a year.

Totally agree, it's great to do these tests to know for sure you capacity and demand. Saves stressing about going dark before its time to leave now if they I ly made larger grey tanks lol

 

[Jaguar]

Ok, here is the update. We went camping for 2 days and and relied only on this 300w power station. We turned it off for 1 night so we saved about 50-60w or so of power. We ended the trip with 40% remaining = about 120w. Had we run it the full time we'd probably have aroubd 60w left (20%).

Here is a rundown of power usage on a 2008 Fun Finder x 160BH

4w radio always on (now disconnected)
56w water pump
5w fridge on
5w 1 double LED light
46w furnace

I hooked up the power station when we arrived and noticed a constant 4w draw. Put the fridge on gas mode and that constant draw jumped up to 9 watts. At this rate, we'd only have about 37 hours of power.... Cutting out 11 hours before we were planning to leave IF we didn't use anything else... Which we definitely needed to.

I climbed into the camper and disconnected the stereo/DVD player as we haven't used it since buying the camera back in 2010. This lowered our power consumption to a constant 5w for the fridge (in gas mode) this gave us about 52hrs! We had hope!

We decided not to limit our use of the water pump (toilet and hand washing only - we do dishes outside and don't take showers). Also we used the furnace a few times when going to bed but it didn't turn on the rest of the night. In the end I dont have an exact ammouy of wattage twe used for these high draw consumers I I forgot to make note of exactly how long we were camping for.

But roughly estimating 48hrs of usage and the 4w constant draw from the fridge = 192w. Using that number and the estimated usage of 249w, 59w went to the water pump and furnace. Which is surprising as we really didn't use them much.

Anyhow, there is some real world numbers, heading campi g for the may long weekend and I'll update with more numbers from that trip incase anyone is else is wondering about the power consumption of these trailers and is wanting hard numbers.

 

[profdant139]

You probably already know this, but instead of relying on the little power station, you could put some pretty hefty batteries on the tongue and end up with plenty of amp/hours.

For example, we carry two group 31 deep cycle 12 v batteries, each rated at 110 amp/hours. One is in use, the other is a spare. We have a 120 watt portable solar panel -- easy to deploy. It tops off our battery every day, fully recharging it.

So no need to go without a shower or to do dishes outside, if you'd prefer not to.

 

[Xerofall]

Yep, I have two 6v batteries hooked together with a solar panel system on the roof to top it off. Both batteries hooked together provide the 12v I need and they have 225 amp hours.

The test was to see if we could go off grid for a week with the ability to charge cell phones, have lights and water pump and allow my wife to use her CPAP machine.

The setup worked flawlessly. I was at a constant 13v pretty much the entire time and never once worried about loss of power.

 

[profdant139]

Jeff, remind me again -- how many watts of solar do you have? And these are roof-mounted, right?

On my X-139, there is very little real estate on the roof -- we use a 120 watt portable panel, which keeps us topped up. But I doubt my system could handle a CPAP.

 

[Xerofall]

It's just the Harbor Freight 100w panels. All 4 fit with room to spare, so if you were to get the poly panels, you could fit two 200w panels with ease and have more than just a trickle charge.

The Harbor Freight panels are amorphous, meaning they'll charge in cloudy weather, dawn til dusk rather than having to be specifically pointed toward the sun like poly or mono, but they aren't as good... all four panels only get 100w where poly or mono can reach 200-600w for the same real-estate, but again, you have to make sure they get direct sun.

It's a trade off for sure, but since my dad gave me the Harbor Freight set, I worked with what I had.

 

[Wishyouwerehere]

Here is an amp hart for normal usage

 

[Xerofall]

I'm NOT installing a washing machine in my T139FK!

 

[JimboFunFinder]

Just to raise another device which seems to be making news on other forums and that is a 12VDC compressor powered refrigerator/freezer. There are several on the market (including Amazon) so you have zero propane consumption. The absorption refrigerators are extremely inefficient on DC or AC.
Just FYI our FF came with a 115VAC LG refrigerator which is powered from an Inverter. It is moderately efficient. Someday I intend to tear into the LG and see about disconnecting the defrost heaters which are often not needed.