1998 Sundancer 400 Electrical Control Panel Question

[hd2002hd]

Had the new to us 400 dewinterized last Friday and spent the first weekend on it. While preparing to leave today, I was going to leave the heat on low since there will be a couple of nights around freezing. As I was shutting things down I noticed a 5 amp draw on the strbd amp meter and when I flipped the Steve systems switch off it went to 0. This made me curious. So I flipped the strbd systems switch back to on and the 5 amp draw popped back up. I began shutting down the 120v systems on at a time to see if any affected the draw. After shutting down the forward AC, aft AC, AC pump relay, refrigerator and AC converter one at a time, no change. Still 5 amps. Nothing plugged in.....check. After trying to figure out what it was for about 30 minutes, it went to 0. Any idea what it might have been?

 

[peterkvs]

Do you have a bilge heater? Could it have been running? 5 Amps is about 600 watts. That's a lot of draw and there are only a few things on the boat that draw that much. Bilge heater, hot water heater, space heater?

Pete

 

[mistercomputerman]

Battery charger (converter)?

 

[hd2002hd]

Interestingly enough, it does have a bilge heater. I tried to figure out how it was wired in another thread last fall but never really understood other than it was direct to a 120v source. The cord went to strb side and up through the top of the ER, but I couldn't find it after that. This winter I tried to test it with some compressed air but it didn't come on. However, I never had the Steve system switch on either. So maybe it does work and the Steve system switch turns it on?? It was 28* out this morning. Anyone else know if a bilge heater is typically wired in like that? I turned the AC converter off and the 5 amps remained.