My camper still retains most of it's original equipment exept microwave and thats how I would like to keep it , but because all our sites are 240 v I am using a builders type transformer to go down to 110v but the battery charger seems to be giving a low output , I wonder if this down to our 50hz cycle ?
I think a auto transformer may be the answer as I have known other people fit them to American RVs with success so this I am happy to do but does anybody know the power requirement of the Aircon ,charger ,fridge all together so I can source a transformer of correct rating .
Swampy, Good question. I don't find any helpful specifications in my documentation. Let me see if I can take some measurements on my B190 and pass that along to you.
Swampy, I hooked up my B190 power cord through my "Kill A Watt" meter under the following conditions.
I could not run the water pump as my RV is drained down for winter.
Ambient temperature is -1 degrees C today.
My interior lighting is converted to LEDs so that load is not present.
My battery is fully charged so that load may not be present.
Here is what I measured.
AC fan set to high but compressor definately not on. ~500watts
AC fan set to high and temperature set to max cool. ~955watts, 9.25amps
AC set to heater mode. ~1685watts, 15.5amps
I seperately checked the refridgerator. It seems to pull ~250watts in 110v mode. I did not check the current draw.
No telling if you and I have the same appliances. But, perhaps this will give you a rough idea.
Hi Kentuckian , thanks very much for the effort , I have got my eye on a 3000w transformer so I should be well in . I will give update when I am up and running ,
The converter could be bad. They aren't good ones to start with, and they do die. In theory if you're putting 120 volts 60 herz into it, you should be getting 13.2 volts DC (roughly...I forget what it should be exactly) out. Another possibility is that the battery is bad and it's "dragging down" the converter with it.
The problem is i think the imput is poor and it may not help us being on 50Hz , I am at the moment using a 240 to 110 transformer that is a bit rough as it's only supposed to be for power tools and the out put of these is very varible thats why I thought of up grading to a more expensive auto transformer these will hope fully give me the 120v output to make up any difficency i have on my shore supply .
I can still charge the battery with an after market charger but it's nice to experiment and get things working .
Rather than converting 220v to 120v, you might consider just changing the entire AC system in the van to 220v.
One way to approach this is to make a list of every device that receives AC power in the van, then address them one by one.
I think this list of AC devices is complete (at least for my 1993 Airstream 190):
- Converter/charger (this is what charges the battery and supplies 12v power to the van’s DC system)
- Air conditioner
- Microwave oven
- Refrigerator
- AC outlets
Converter:
As others have said, the stock converter/charger is quite bad and should be replaced in all our vans. I’d think you should be able to find a modern multi-stage converter/charger that accepts 220v input. You could check with BestConverter.com.
Air Conditioner:
If you use the air conditioner, perhaps you could replace it with one that runs on 220v? I believe that some modern AC units are also at least slightly more efficient, potentially reducing the power demand for the same cooling capacity.
Microwave Oven:
It should should be easy to find a 220v microwave oven locally. You’d need to make sure it fits in the provided space. You say that’s already been replaced, so perhaps this is already taken care of.
Refrigerator:
It might be possible to replace the heating element in your refrigerator with a 220v element. If you tell us the brand and model of your fridge (probably a Dometic RM2310), we might be able to find more information for you. You could also just run the fridge on propane all the time (that’s what I did with my RM2310; though now that I have a Dometic RM2354 I let it autoswitch between AC and propane).
AC Outlets:
You could replace these, or simply disconnect them.
If your van has a built-in generator this might complicate matters, as it would presumably be a 120v unit.
So, in short, best case is that you've already replaced the microwave with a 220v model, don't use the air conditioner, and don't care about running from the generator. Then you might be able to upgrade the converter/charger, replace the heating element in your fridge, disconnect the AC outlets, and be done.
As for the size of a 220v-120v transformer, the maximum continuous power demand can be established in part by considering that although these vans are wired for 30amps input (about 3600 watts), I’ve routinely plugged my van into 15amp outlets (about 1800 watts) and had no trouble running the air conditioner. But that’s also somewhat misleading, as the air conditioner can draw much more power for a fraction of a second each time the compressor kicks in; potentially as much as 50+ amps (so-called “locked-rotor” amps). You’d want to make sure your transformer can handle this brief demand surge. (Note that a 15amp outlet directly supplied by the power company can easily supply much more than 15 amps for very brief periods without tripping the overcurrent protection device.)
The power demand of the converter/charger is dependent not just on the 12v loads, but also on the charge rate to the battery. If you tell us the model of your converter/charger (probably a Magnetek 6332; look for a label inside the fusebox door), we can give you an idea of its maximum power demand (which is probably also listed on that same label). (Though again, if you still have an original converter/charger, you should seriously consider replacing it with a newer multi-stage charger.)
I have fitted the auto transformer (won it on ebay for £10 so thought it worth a try) and now I have 120v the battery charger seems to be coping better especialy under load and seems to cut in at 12.9 volts .
There is no onboard genset so no probs there, the outlet have been replaced with 240 ones on there own circuit, the microwave is also 240v.
The fridge seems to work ok on all systems and the aircon well i can not remember the last time it was warm enough hear to give it a real test though the heat cycles seems ok .
The info on coverter panel is as follows ,
Magnetek series 6300A Model 6332
Options CL JOI.
Imput it says is 5amps.
I have fitted 12v to 240v inverter to run the microwave as we do a lot of events where no shore supply is available so the charger will be mostly for keeping the aux battery up at home .
I will keep my eye on things and proberbly change things as and when they give trouble , can anyone think of problems leaving the van on shore at home all the time , as the damp hear I like to keep a little heat inside.
swampy wrote:I will keep my eye on things and proberbly change things as and when they give trouble , can anyone think of problems leaving the van on shore at home all the time , as the damp hear I like to keep a little heat inside.
With a cheap converter, it'll cook the battery. But if you're using a good 3-stage charger/converter, no problem at all.
