To continue the story:

Power storage

Now that the different parts of the electrical system have been established, the first thing to do is calculate the number of batteries needed to support the daily energy use. Here a lot of time goes into researching all appliances that will ultimately be installed. Adding up their amperage use, will yield our daily ‘electric bill’.

More on cargovanconversion.com

 

To continue the story:

Power storage

Now that the different parts of the electrical system have been established, the first thing to do is calculate the number of batteries needed to support the daily energy use. Here a lot of time goes into researching all appliances that will ultimately be installed. Adding up their amperage use, will yield our daily ‘electric bill’.

More on cargovanconversion.com

 

After upgrading to off-grid power and power storage, this post elaborates on the available power generating tools for a small RV. The electrical calculations are comprised into a detailed schematic overview, that serves as the basis for the installation.

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The introduction to off-grid power (upgrading to off-grid power, power storage and power generation) is concluded with a post about monitoring and maintenance. With all this knowledge we can finally begin with the wiring.

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Hardwood floors!! How cool is that!? LOL!

 

While working on the multi-use cabinet, I started with some of the wiring. Before I can continue building new cabinets, the majority of the electrical wiring has to be installed.

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Continuing with the wiring of the van, gives me the opportunity to search for and order some of the materials, needed in the coming weeks. My list currently consists of wire connectors, heat shrink, 12V outlets and power inlet. I still haven’t found decent and affordable 12V LED light fixtures either.

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Not sure what your budget calls for but superbrightleds.com has fixtures from $7.99 - $39.00 that look good. You could also use standard RV or conversion van fixtures and install LED bulbs in them.

 

I tried the brightest LED bulb I could find in an incandescent fixture, and it was an incredibly weak. no projection. I returned the incandescent bulb, but rarely use that fixture now.

http://www.sailorsams.com/12-volt-led-lights-reading

these are all too expensive for my blood.

I have a few of these the 3 led versions, which have a nice white light, but are still $$$ and not really bright enough. scroll down to the black cased lights.

http://www.sailboatstuff.com/lt_led_cabin_light.html

For bright light, I went back to halogens and just use them more sparingly. I made this:


Aim it at whatever for bright light, aim it at my white ceiling for bright ambient light. Draws 1.2 amps, and is about 10 times as bright as my OEM fixtures with .7 amp draw bulbs.

 

If you need brighter light than superbright LEDs it may be worth the hassle to build (or refit) fixtures with CREE LEDs. They draw a lot more power but I have one of these Smith and Wesson flashlights and can tell you it is bright enough to bllnd you!

http://amzn.com/B001CUL4EI

Cheaper CREE flashlight versions are available that could be disassembled for parts. This one supposedly has 3x more power than my Smith and Wesson.

http://amzn.com/B006E0QAFY