What exactly do the wattage amounts on the status screen indicate?

[showme]

I've been under the impression that the watts on the status screen that displays kwh, as opposed to Ah, is indicating the wattage being used by the system through the inverters, i.e., all the AC loads being fed and used by my two Trace SW5548's. But yesterday when I was at the property where our solar set up is, I saw something that has me confused. I had just finished installing 3 rv tank heater pads on our fresh, gray and black water tanks, and also a 12' heat tape on the outer sewer drainpipe that the black and gray tanks empty through. I also just added a 700w portable heater in the 5th wheel for the winter that has a thermostatic shut off which I set for 'low'. These are in addition to the small AC refrigerator that's been in it and running (when it kicks on, maybe 25% of the time), and the AC electric element in the 10-gallon water heater.
  I will say that the fridge and roof AC have been used all summer, but the AC was only on when I was down there at the property during daylight hours and was probably not using battery power. The fridge and water heater element have been on continually (again, these both are on for brief periods, then shut off for what seems like 75% of the time or more) for a few weeks now. I covered and shut down the AC for the winter a few weeks ago, so it hasn't been on at all since then.
  So, after installing the water tank heaters and heat tape, I left them plugged in and the fridge and water heater on to see what kind of draw they would have. Note that it was not below the 40* turn on temp when I left the property, so none of the tank heaters or heat tape were on when I left, and it probably only got down to the required 'on' temp early the next morning and were not actually drawing power for most of that night. (One thing to note here that I'm not sure of is that the tank heaters and heat tape say they will shut off when they reach 63*?? The day I put them in was a gray, sunless day, as was the next day. When I returned two days after installing these items, I was surprised to find a few of my (5) 100Ah batts (500Ah total battery) were down to 42% with the highest at around 66%. Since the sky was still overcast, I pulled the plugs on the tank heaters and the heat tape. When I checked the (2) charge controllers, they were both reading around 200-250 watts on the status screen that shows kwh. As I said, I've always assumed these readings were for power going to/through the inverters to loads that were drawing power from them. But when I saw the wattage on the screen, I couldn't figure out what was pulling that much power. It wasn't the water heater since it draws 1300w, but I turned it off anyway. I didn't hear the fridge running, and the only thing that was on that I could tell was the converter due to its humming. I was still getting those readings, so I shut the circuit breaker in the breaker box in the shed that feeds the 5th wheel off and still was getting the 200-300w readings on the Classics. So, I guess I've been completely off for the 2 years I've had this system up and running about the meanings of the information on the controller screens. I've gone back over the manual, searched this forum and did a general search on the web trying to figure out what is what per the readings on my Classics. It's giving me a headache! Where can I find easy to understand, not hard to find information on what I'm seeing on my two Classic screens? Am I missing something? Is it hiding from me? Help! (BTW, I feel really stupid asking this question.) I'm sure it must show this somewhere. Midnite Solar is a great company. And I've watched some of their videos, but I'm not finding what I need to know. Thanks for any help or references that can show me EXACTLY how to read these things. Lee

[ralph day]

The kw reading on the screen is showing what is being outputed by the controller, not load.  You could be putting 200 watts "in" the batteries, but have a load of 500 watts (as shown by a monitoring unit or whatever).

If you're not at the place all the time I'd consider winterizing the plumbing system.  Drain and blow out the water lines, empty the water heater and holding tanks and shut off the fridge.  Get loads down to or close to zero.  In my trailer I even pull the fuses to the CO detector and water pump circuit.  Zero loads.

I used to have an SW4048.  The idle draw was about 45 watts iirc.  stacked 5548's would put a constant load of close to 100 watts or more on the batteries.  Tried Search mode?  If you have no loads (as above) then you could also shut down the inverters when you're not there, and just have the controller(s) charge the batteries as needed.

Good luck.

[ClassicCrazy]

If you have a Whizbang on your classic , there is a screen that will show you it's data . It is also shown in the Local Status app as system amps. The whizbang shows everything going into or out of the battery. So if your pv is putting out 1000 watts and your inverter is using 600 watts , and your battery is charging with the remainder - then the whizbang will show the 400 watts going into the battery ( or equivalent amps ) .
The other screen is showing all the power the Classic is producing .
You can , or an app like Grahams Classic Monitoring App can derive the load amps by calculating the classic power production and the system amps. But you need to have a Whizbang and shunt  on  your Classic system.
In your case when you saw the 200 watts being produced by your Classic, if you also had a big load on the system and you looked at the Whizbang system amps , you would have seen a lot of amps being drawn out from the batteries . The 200 watts was going direct to your inverter but you may also have had 1000 watts coming out of the batteries at the same time.  The load calculation an app would make would be 1200 watts.
A better way to know what your inverter is producing is to put a power monitor like the peacefair or a shelly on the AC output of the inverter.
Hope that makes sense.
Larry

[ralph day]

I stand corrected.  I don't have a Whizbang hooked up, so am unfamiliar with it's whizbangy capabilities 

[ClassicCrazy]

I stand corrected.  I don't have a Whizbang hooked up, so am unfamiliar with it's whizbangy capabilities 

You are correct in that your classic shows the output on the screen. If you have a Whizbang it shows another Whizbang screen that will show exactly what is going in or out of the batteries.
If I remember correctly you never got a whizbang because it uses Aux1 and  you use Aux1  for something else.
Larry