YorkshireGlobecar Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Heading to LeMans for the 24hr race this year. We have a 3 amp hook up (240 volt) on site. Will I be OK running fridge on mains as well as lighting etc and keeping batteries topped up or am i likely to blow the trip on the supply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Your charger could take up to 2.2 amps on it's own, however 3 amps is a useful amount if you 'juggle'. How about you only run the Fridge on 230v all day, then just before you go to bed, switch off the Fridge and turn on the charger overnight to put back the days 12v use for Water pump, Lights, etc?. So long as the Fridge door has not been opened much prior to turning it off, so still cool inside, it should stay cold for several hours. Depends how warm it is in the MH. Or just switch the Fridge to Gas for night time running? Suggest you ensure you have a really good battery before you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 The model number of your fridge will confirm, but guessing you have a globecar therefore a small fridge, its likely to be rated at 1/2amp, add this to about 1amp if EBL was working at max and you should be ok. The only concern might be if you have a compresser fridge and it has a spike on start up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 3 amp equals about 690 watts at 230 volt mains supply. An absorbsion fridge takes around 120 watts of mains power, so that will leave you over 500 watts to run the 12 volt etc. You should be OK. If your fridge is a compressor type and has a large switch-on surge, you may have a problem, only time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 aandncaravan - 2017-02-08 10:28 AM Your charger could take up to 2.2 amps on it's own. Maybe if you run only the Fridge on 240v all day, then just before you go to bed, switch off the Fridge and turn on the charger overnight to put back the days 12v use?. So long as the Fridge door has not been opened much prior to turning it off, so still cool inside, it should stay cold for several hours. Depends how warm it is the MH. Or just switch the Fridge to Gas for night time running? . How does an EBL with 16amp 12volt charger manage to draw 2.2amp at 240v Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Nobody told me it was a Schaudt EBL 99 16a or even the 18a charger, it could easily be a 25a Amperor or 70 amp Victron. People add all sorts of chargers. Just as many with an EBL 99 18amp charger might add a second LAS 1218 18a charger. As they say don't assume anything. If you look at the front of an EBL 99 with an 18a charger you will see the fuse is rated at 1.9a, the load is not constant. Quite conceivable it may take much higher start up current than a static rating. Secondly, chargers are not 100% efficient, an 18amp output will not directly relate to it's 240 input. But regardless of the OP's set-up it is a useful question for anyone with any Motorhome who might only have a 900watt Generator. Showing how loads can be juggled rather than putting everything on at once might demonstrate how a low 240v power supply is not so restrictive as people think. The other thing I have also just thought of is the quality of the supply, we don't know if it is going to be 190v or 240v. Using the charger only at night, when the quality of the supply might be at it's best, might be the better option anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkshireGlobecar Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Yes, we have a 2014 Globecar PVC with a large absorption fridge that was fitted by Globecar in Germany as part of a UK upgrade pack.. Didn't know we could turn off the charger. I always thought it was active immediately the EHU was connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmac Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Hi what campsite will you be staying on? I will probably be going and staying on the Beausejour campsite alongside the Porsche curves. There is no hookup there. Regards David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Slightly off topic....We use fairly low rated power supplies on French sites, and have to 'juggle' what mains units are in use at any one time. However, one thing which is now becoming standard in many motorhomes is a Microwave. Our new ATwill have this, which I think is rated in use at max 800w. My understanding is that on start-up there is a surge( to around 1400w?)....so that could cause problems, especially if on a 5/6am mains supply.. Anyone with experience of use of Microwaves on lower power supplies?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Is that 800w input or micro output? A cat E 800w nuke will always use around 1200 to 1400w when on 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Keith, it depends on the microwave, but the 'surge' on the microwave we had it seemed to be a percentage of the power selected. So if you have selected max power, then what you describe above may occur. On the one we used to have, we selected the lowest power and the surge at start up wasn't high. Once it was running we slowly turned the power up to what we thought the mains will support. The ones that have a rotary Power dial seem to be the best for this? On our existing 'digital' one we can't change the power rating once started, but not bothered now the 'babies' are 5 and 6. Worth a look to see what yours will do?. Globecar, we have mentioned this before on this Forum that the Victron Energy 70amp/1600watt Charger/Inverter is really intelligent and has the ability to take power from the batteries to meet 230v demand over and above the EHU amperage. So for example, you set the Victron Inverter to your 3 amp EHU limit, and if someone then plugs in a Laptop, Tele or whatever that takes demand to 4 amps, the Victron will instantly make up the 230v/1amp difference by using the 12v batteries. It then sets an alarm to show your have exceeded your set limit and are on 'borrowed' time from the batteries.It only takes from the batteries the shortfall of the EHU. If EHU drops out altogether, it instantly picks up demand using the batteries. When EHU 'returns' it automatically switches back to mains supply. . Not actually taken one apart, but one sales guy we spoke to said that when you switch in the 70amp charger overnight, it adjusts it's output to match the 240v 3amp input, but don't know if that is true, it would need to be one very nice unit to achieve that. Obviously an Inverter can shorten the batteries life dramatically so suitable for only drawing little current for a short space of time unless you have a really big battery bank. We worked on Dethleffs last year that had the set-up installed, which we again documented on here. I understand it is standard/optional fit on some Dethleffs this year. Not always easy to integrate with the existing Electronics, depends on what is installed already. Keith, in your case with the Microwave the Victron might 'pickup' the surge only, assuming the EHU could cope with the continuous power of the Microwave. So if you are on a supply of 5 amps with an appliance that has a continuous draw of 5 amps but a startup of 8a, the Victron would only intervene for the Surge. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkshireGlobecar Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 davidmac - 2017-02-08 8:16 PM Hi what campsite will you be staying on? I will probably be going and staying on the Beausejour campsite alongside the Porsche curves. There is no hookup there. Regards David We;re going with Thomas Cook sports, staying on their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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