Storage with 20 amp service

[B&T RVers]

I hope to be moving my 2021 Ventana to a covered storage facility. They have 20 amp service. What can I run? Obviously I want the batteries to keep charged. I am hoping I could keep the refrigerator on as well. Is that possible. If not the refrigerator I am hoping to have my ceiling vent fans come on if the humidity get too high. Thoughts?

 

[Scooterfan]

Although I'm no electrician, in my experience the inverter/charger uses about 3-4 amps, the refrigerator about the same and the vent fans are 12 volt. IMHO you can do all the above. Just NO A/C, 110 fans, etc. Should be fine. I only have 20 amp service for my home storage and haven't had any issues running what you are hoping to run. But, I'm certain the 'smart" guys will chime in if I'm mistaken

 

[Richpatty]

I agree….this should be fine…especially if you put the batteries away fully charged so the charging will be largely float…

 

[David.jce]

Just make sure you have a true dedicated 20A service. The storage facility where we keep ours claimed to have 20A service, but really, 4 spaces shared a circuit. So, each of us was allocated 4-5 amps. That's enough to keep the battery charged and I could run some lights. If one of the other coaches is out, then we have capacity to also run the refrigerator. It took some finagling, but I was able to figure out how to set the EMS to limit the charge rate and the overall max power flow. So far so good.

 

[Chuggs]

I’ve got the old school controls…but if you can set them properly with the touchscreen version it will help.

Make sure your cords are rated for 20A…and contacts are clean.

The energy managment system and inverter charger…Hmmm already don’t know which inverter you have on that year model…but the Magnum Inverter has some settings which will make it play nice.

Shore Max = 20A. This is normally set to the breaker rating which provides AC power to the inverter. Ours is a 30A breaker and that it where it is set normally..but if I plugged into 20A, I would drop his down. It helps keep the inverter from drawing too much power.

Your energy management system. Ours will detect a single phase source of power and default to 30A. I can manually toggle this value down to 20A or 15A. If programmed to the correct value..it will load shed items which it can control…normally water heater elements, block heater outlet, and air conditioners…but it can also signal the inverter to reduce Charger output…and it can get a momentary boost from the inverter to handle short surges caused by startups like your fridge compressor, etc…

If you set these these parameters it will help. If you have trouble…you can manually set the charger to a lower rate. It should reduce power when it needs to…but if for some reason it doesn’t…you can set the Charge rate down. Typically set for 80%…you could set it lower, and even during a bulk charge…it wouldn’t demand as much power.

Of course, when you get back to normal 30A and 50A availability…make sure to return to your original settings for best performance.

You can run the fridge, led lighting, fans etc. If you start powering things like a vacuum cleaner…you may see the energy managment system cut back the charger for a while. We see it on the status page of our electrical management panel. It’s all good. If you have a microair easy start…you may even get one A/C to work…but I wouldn’t leave it unattended in that condition. It would drastically reduce your chargers ability to work…while the coach is hoarding energy to run the fridge and A/C.

If you have a way to drain condensate…a dehumidifier would probably be able to work even with 20A depending on it’s power consumption.

Hope this makes sense…I don’t have experience with the updated remotes Panels.