Components of the VanLab Wiring Loom
So, what do you need? Well, in the typical VanLab sized van (Hiace, NV350, Elgrand, Alphard, L300, Vanette, G10, Bongo, Nissan Caravan etc.), most people are asking for the following on their road trip.
·     Lighting
We suggest LED strip lights. The power draw is tiny and the lighting is mighty! Our VanLab campervan wiring kits run 3 x 5 Watt LED strip lights, and they’re plenty bright enough. Obviously, it’s a campervan, so points for gratuitous fairy lights too!Â
·    Fridge power
The fridge is often the biggest draw. You need to think carefully about the fridge size and type. The two main types are thermoelectric coolers (less efficient but cheaper) and refrigeration systems (more efficient but more expensive). How and when you will use your fridge, will be your biggest concern when building your electrical system. Thermal inertia also plays a big part in fridge performance, as in, a full fridge takes a while to cool, but stays cold. An empty fridge heats up and cools down much quicker.Â
·     Phone/tablet/camera/speaker charging
USB chargers everywhere! We run 2 x double USB chargers, one for each side of the bed. These are super useful because they provide 24/7 charging from the leisure battery. We have had a few people charging off the cigarette lighter in the van, but you can only charge your phone while the ignition is on. This is a recipe for a flat van battery in the morning…. We don’t recommend this. Always charge from your leisure battery!Â
·    Battery monitoring
Battery monitoring is super important and often overlooked. We run a voltmeter for the start battery and the leisure battery. This lets you keep an eye on how much power you are using by monitoring the battery voltage. It helps you decide when to back off the power and when to start charging your leisure battery. Once you learn to read them, they are an incredibly useful tool. As an overview, lets not run your leisure battery below 10.8V and when its charging you should see 13-14V.Â
·     Laptop charging (from inverter)
Some fancy laptops run on USB, however, if you’re like me, you need a 3 pin 230V plug in. In this case, we need an inverter. Inverters take a 12V Direct Current (DC) input, and output a 230V Alternating Current (AC), like the plug in your house. From here, you can plug in normal household appliances. Inverters are rated to a certain power (in Watts). You just need to match the amount of power you want to draw with the inverter you install. For example, the laptop this article is written on draws 65W (see below), so you could happily run 4 of these laptops (4*65 = 260W) from the 350W inverter VanLab offers. You just need to check the items you want to run, note; anything to do with heat generation is super power hungry. A typical kettle would be over 2,000W. Â