Electrical Systems
Electrical Design
I have to start off by saying that I’m not an electrician. I understand that spending countless hours online really doesn’t qualify me for anything. So nothing here should be considered “official” or even “correct.” That said, this is what I did and why.
My main goals of my van’s electrical system were similar to many others: lights, fan, heater, maybe an outlet or two to charge my phone and headlamp. Honestly I was trying to keep it simple, but I got to enjoying the process and I went a bit further than planned. To start with, I sat down with a paper diagram of the van (Thanks RB components!) and planned out a rough idea of where I wanted stuff to go – lights, heater, outlets, etc…. Of course, then I needed a place to put the battery, a way to charge the battery, a way to measure the charged battery….
Things quickly got messy on my piece of paper, so I switched to the computer for my design process. I didn’t want to learn a whole new CAD software for the design, so I stuck to the limited, but functional diagramming features of Excel. This resulted in the design you see here. Remember, I’m not an electrician so this was strictly to remind ME what to do.
Here is a summary of what fixtures I wanted and where:
- Dimmable lights above the passenger and driver’s seats for reading,
- Lighting for main van area with switch by sliding door,
- Dimmable lighting above bed,
- Dimmable reading lights above end of bed for reading,
- Load lights under bed platform switchable from front or rear,
- Work lighting at back doors,
- Light under galley cabinet,
- Ceiling Vent Fan,
- Diesel Heater,
- Multiple 12v outlets accessible from bed, back, entry, galley, and front,
- 12v Cooler/Refrigerator (future), and
- 12v wash-down pump (future).
To accommodate all those electric things, I figured I needed the following power system:
- Battery bank (~220Ah more on this in the Battery post),
- Battery charger – for “shore-power” and maintenance,
- 12v to 12v battery charger for charging while driving,
- Solar panel with charge controller, and
- Battery Monitor.
