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1. Building electrical installation tutorial how to#
2. Building electrical installation tutorial manuals#
3. Building electrical installation tutorial code#

It’s a good idea to think about how much electricity you’ll use when deciding how many solar panels you need and how big your batteries should be. That’s basically what’s going on in a 12-Volt van solar power electrical system. This is connected directly to the battery. If you want to power something like a computer or other complex electronics that require a 3-pronged wall outlet, you’ll also need an inverter, which converts 12-Volt DC to 110-Volt AC (alternating current). In our system, the electricity is fed from the batteries back to the charge controller, which then distributes it outward. The batteries we use store electricity at 12-Volt DC (direct current), which can power your lights, exhaust fan, fridge, USB/cigarette lighter outlets, and anything else that runs on DC. The charge controller regulates the flow of electricity from the solar panels and uses it to charge your batteries. Solar panels absorb light from the sun, convert it into electricity, and send it on to the charge controller. Using science, we can convert this energy into electricity to power vanlife! The sun not only gives us life, it also constantly beams energy to us here on Earth. Let’s break it down from a bird’s eye view. But don’t worry, it’s really not all that complicated.

Building electrical installation tutorial how to#

You can always add solar later.Ĭheck out this detailed post for more information on battery isolators, what kind to get, and how to install one. If you only have a few hundred dollars to spend on your electrical system, we recommend starting with a good battery, a smart isolator, and an inverter. This is a great supplement to solar panels, especially if you’re spending time in overcast or heavily forested environments where you don’t get as much sun.

Building electrical installation tutorial code#

Note: If you have a newer vehicle or are trying to charge a LiFePO4 battery bank, you will need a DC-DC battery charger like this one from Renogy ( make sure to use the coupon code GnomadHome at checkout for 10% off your purchase).Ī smart battery isolator allows you to charge your auxiliary batteries from your vehicle’s alternator while driving. We have the Keyline Chargers 140-Amp Smart Isolator in our van, and it has worked flawlessly for us. There’s one more component that we’ve discovered is vital to have on the road: a smart battery isolator. How to Charge Your Batteries While Driving

Building electrical installation tutorial manuals#

It’s always a good idea to read the manuals for all of your components and consult with a licensed electrician before performing any electrical work. Working with electricity in any form can be dangerous. Obligatory Disclaimer: This post describes what we did with our own system based on our own research, and we hope you’ll find it helpful. We want this post to be as accurate and helpful as possible, so if we get something wrong or you want us to clear something up, let us know in the comments! In this post, we go over exactly what we bought, exactly how we connected everything, and we even have pictures and diagrams (yay)!įor those of you interested in further reading, we also include links to blog posts and other resources that helped us out along the way. This post is an attempt to make such a resource. We longed for a resource that told us: Buy this. Getting electricity in a van is such a vital part of any van build, and we wanted to get it right. We were learning a lot about circuits and electrical systems, but we were also overwhelmed by all the new knowledge coming at us from all directions. Some were very helpful, but many left us with a swirl of even more questions. We researched online, read other van build blogs and forum posts, and watched Youtube videos. When we first started thinking about our vanlife electrical system and buying our components, we had a lot of questions.