Hi, At the moment I have my van connected to household power. When I turn the lights on in the van, I have noticed that the lights are drawing power from the batteries. Is this normal?
I had always thought that when plugged to AC, it would just use that power source.
Alan
Alan - there is no standard system amongst vans. What exactly is your van? Is the electrical system the standard installation or was there some special inclusions put in at manufacture or by a subsequent owner?
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
If the lights aer DC then they will draw from the battery. The usual system is that you have a 240V battery charger that keeps your battery topped up when you plug into 240, so in effect your lights draw from the battery but the battery is immediately topped up to compensate. Any meters measuring load output will normally measure only what is being drawn.
Thanks for the replies. My van is a Windsor Royale. I have had solar panels installed, and it was whe I was checking the solar meter that I noticed the draw on the batteries. Anton, that makes sence to me. Alan
In a bygone era it was common practice (unlike today) to have separate 240v powered and 12v powered lights. Often these were incorporated into the same fitting. It was not uncommon in those days for those who mainly "camped" on powered sites to not bother to fit a battery.
When purchasing my Goldstream the previous owner explained that this was the case and the type of fitting (a "240v" circular fluoro and a 12v halogen) was consistent with this. the previous owner was confused that when the battery was disconnected that the "240v" lights didn't work. He had owned the rig for several years but was unaware that the light fittings had been modified (by whom???) to operate directly from 12v.
