OUR ELECTRICAL SETUP
Every Van Needs One
TO DIY OR NOT…
The electrical system of our van is the heart of our tiny house on wheels. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to power our lights, our fridge, blender, charge laptops and cameras, you get the point. Matt designed and built our entire system with no prior knowledge or experience. It is very possible for anyone to understand with enough time, patience, and effort.
The main reason we did it ourselves and didn’t hire it out is because if something goes wrong (and it has) Matt has the ability to diagnose and fix the problem because he understands the system.
We’re not qualified to tell you how to do it yourself, but we’re here to let you know it is absolutely within your capabilities. With the amount of YouTube and free resources out there, we believe anyone can DIY their electrical setup. Just be cautious and make sure your wires and fuses are sized properly for whatever you’re going to run.
When in doubt, consult a qualified electrician. Electricity is nothing to mess around with.
Battery Bank
The Heart of our electrical system is 300Ah (3 x 100AH) of Lithium BattleBorn Batteries. This allows us to live in our van off-grid.
INVERTER-CHARGER
We have a 3000W Victron Multiplus Inverter/Charger which allows us to use household appliances and charge our batteries from regular 120V outlets and 30amp outlets via a separate shore power plug.
SOLAR
We have 600W of Renogy Panels (3x200W) which keeps our battery bank powered up on sunny days
Charge Controller
Our Charge Controller allows us to convert the energy from our solar panels to charge our battery bank
DC-DC Charger
We have a Victron Orion DC-DC charger which allows our van’s alternator to charge our batteries while we drive. This is an absolute essential. We went our first 3 months without it and it turned out to be a big mistake.
Shore Power
We haven’t gotten much use out of this since we hit the road, but it’s definitely nice to have whee when Mooch-docking or staying at the occasional campsite. Our INVERTER-CHARGER allows us to charge with 15 or 30-amp outlets.