A27 Shore Power Usage

[whitelightning]

I'm new to the forum but have had my 1988 A27 FC for a about a year and half now. I have been a full time liveaboard during that time and have the opportunity to cruise Coastal North Carolina since I have acquired this boat.

Recently, my power usage on shore power has increased from an average of $12-$20 per month (in the humid heat of NC summers and chilly winters) to over $100-120 per month.

I typically run the forward A/C 24/7 as I have a dog that lives aboard and the aft A/C at night. I run one ICECO refrigerator and a small TV pretty regularly. The water heater gets turned on only as needes.

My question is why has my usage increased so dramatically and what steps can I take that I havent already taken to troubleshoot the issue? My fear is that the excessive power draw is going elsewhere on the boat or into the surrounding water. I don't want to have a fire, cause unnecessary damage to a system, or cause injury to the diver who cleans my hull regularly.

I've tested essentially every system on the boat and only found one loose neutral cable on the aft A/C. After repairing that issue, my amperage draw decreased from 27 amps to 17 amps, yet I'm still pulling the same kWh according to the meter on the pedestal.

I should also mention that my average monthly usage has been 100-150 kWh. I have been using that amount in a matter of a few days over the last couple of months. I have batteries that are less than a year old, and a shore power cord that was replaced in January.

[tego]

Have you checked your battery electrolyte levels? These should be checked every couple of weeks in this kind of weather ( HOT)! If they get low, your charger will run 24-7 and really suck up the amps. Ben

[whitelightning]

Thanks for that Ben. I went ahead and checked out the battery bank and a few of the cells were a little shy of full. I topped them off, but im not showing any drop of usage via amp readings or kWh usage.

After going through my log book, this issue seems to have started after a trip I took to Oriental, NC with the boat back in Mid-May. While at the marina there, I went to dinner and came back to find my boat had been disconnected. This was due to a communication breakdown, and the shore power cord that was hung on the pedestal belonged to another transient. I was under the impression that it was a 'free use' hookup that the marina provided.

I have not found anything related to that event that would suggest an issue with the shore power hookup or cable from my boat.

Any suggestions?

[tego]

They might have dropped your cord in the water when they disconnected it. That would be easy to check with an ohmmeter. You can also use an ammeter to check your wiring while plugged in and see what's sucking all that juice. You can get a decent clamp-on ammeter at Harbor Freight for about $60. It'll come in handy later, I promise. Ben

[whitelightning]

Those are some of the testing tools I've been using. I'll keep on troubleshooting tonight when I back from work. I did cut the breaker for the aft A/C and the aft outlets yesterday before heading off to work. Over the course of 10 hours the boat only utilized about 3 kWh. This morning it had utilized another 15 kWh from 5pm last night to 7am this morning. I'll try to put my focus on those two items and see of anything strange comes up.