I was quite afraid to start this part but it was actually the easiest one. The good thing is either it works, or it doesn’t and so you can fix it. I took time to make the plans, finding the good size of fuses and cables. Internet is full of pages to understand how to choose so I am not going to start a courses about that!
The size of battery you need is depending mainly on two factors :
– how much electricity you think you will need everyday
– how long you want to stay in autonomy without having to charge.
I know I will have a big electricity consommation. So I decided to get 2 x 200Ah battery with 2 x 200Wc solar panel. It gives me a lot of electricity to charge all my batteries and I have many. As soon as I have some sun, the solar is charging really fast the battery. When I am in the north of Norway, and it’s raining all day in October, I have to drive a bit to charge the battery after 2/3 days.
To get 220V, I am using a 2500W convertor / charger. So I can also charge the battery by plugin the van to 220 which is quite cool. A classic 220 box is used with 2 disjoncteurs for each plug. I am running a rice cooker inside the van !
The brain of everything is a MPPT 500 who is receiving the electricity from the solar panels and from the motor. He is in charge to control how much electricity he can take from it by the way, as it is working with the intelligent Alternator (Euro6). The risk otherwise would be to get an error from the electrical computer of the car and not being able to turn it on ^^
I designed a control panel with vintage interruptor, I love them! the idea was to get everything electrical in the same compartment. I also have 3 interruptors to cut the motor battery, the solar panel and the 12v system.
Time1 weekDifficultiesEasyCost3.600 €
