House Battery Went Dead

[rowekmr]

Hello,

I am boondocking at AirAdventure and using my Champion generator for running AC and charging up everyone's portable phones, laptops, etc. Last night it got colder so the AC wasn't coming on and I fell asleep without refilling the gen gas tank. When I woke up this morning the house battery (just bought new) was dead. I had a few chargers plugged in for phones, laptops and a few lights, water pump, gas hot water heater and fridge was on auto. Everything was dead incl the battery if the panel is accurate. I unplugged the generator, refilled tank and restarted it and everything is operating.

Did the battery converter/charger draw power out of the battery to power the small 120v loads? Is there supposed to be some type of one way electrical switch to prevent this or did something else happen. I know I will always unplug in the future but normally use shorepower so hadn't encountered this before.

Thanks

[Bassdogs]

The only way you are going to get 110V while running on battery [12V] is thru an inverter. Your onboard converter doesn't produce 12V from the battery. Did you have an inverter turned on? What battery do you have installed? When was the last time you recharged? Are you using a battery charger or just relying on the onboard converter? You may also have a bad battery, even though it is new.

[Kellys]

All of the above

[Tail_gunner]

It sounds to me like maybe you lost all your 12 volt power when the generator ran out of gas. That tells me all your 12 volt is coming off the power converter and not the battery.

I would suspect that maybe your battery is not hooked up correctly or you have a wiring issue. If the battery is not hooked up, the monitor panel will show it as a dead battery.

If you use shorepower all the time it would be easy to not be aware of such a battery issue. You would have to make it a point of checking things like lights while not plugged into shorepower to see if your battery is hooked up and working.

[rowekmr]

Thanks everyone. While I had to admit I didn't believe the problem was in the battery because it was new I kept the generator running until it was time to go and then when I turned it off everything went dead again. I checked the terminals on the battery and although they were snug when I tightened the + I heard the spark from it making contact and my panel lights came back on. I am at home and I will clean the terminal connectors and test the battery. Thanks for the quick response while I was away from home.