We know whatever we do, there will be dozens of people who sadly shake their heads and tell us what a b-i-g mistake we've made. Maybe. But we've plunged ahead with what we thought made sense at the time. We plan to put a layer of thermal insulation against the aluminum foil before we put up the wall boards. Debates abound about what to use, but we think we will go with formaldehyde-free, encased fiberglass bats.
The blank section on the sidewall behind the driver's seat is where we plan to add another window, so we haven't done anything to that yet. We still are lusting after a Seitze window, and still have not found a North American supplier.
110-Volt Needs:
The big job now is the electric. We want a deep cycle house battery that can be charged by the engine's alternator, shore power, or a solar panel. We think three 110-volt outlets will be enough, as we will only occasionally plug in a small box heater, possibly a toaster oven or an electric kettle, and an AC/DC refrigerator. The refrigerator will be the only appliance in continuous use. We also will want to be able to charge the iPad, iPod, and cell phones, when we are parked, and shore power is available.
12-Volt Needs
We plan for all the interior lights to be 12-volt LEDs. We changed over to LED lights on our boat a while back, and
are very happy with the amount of light they provide for almost no
battery drain. We also want to have a couple 12-volt plug-ins for
iPod, iPad, and the AC/DC fridge, and a 12-volt line for
the electronic ignition on a future propane cooktop. The wires for all
this will run around the van through the blue "Smurf" conduit--the blue
"hose" you see hanging out of the van support struts. We don't plan to
have an inverter, because we can't think of what we would want to run with one if we are off the grid. We also do not want a generator--too much noise, fuel consumption, weight.
Speaking of What We Don't Want
Reading other conversion van websites, our power needs seem much smaller than most. We do not plan to have a TV--we don't have one at home, so we definitely don't want one on the road. We are not going to have any electric pumps or a water heater. We are not going to have a built-in furnace, a big sound system, or a desk-size computer. Our old van just had the factory-installed dome light and we wore headlamps for reading after dark. In some campgrounds where 110-volt AC was available, we did run an extension cord out the window, and used the power mainly to run either a little box-style electric heater, or our bread-maker. Kind of nutty to travel with a bread maker, I know, but waking up to the smell of baking bread is pretty wonderful, especially on a cold, drizzly morning. We keep thinking we should put in extra outlets for future needs, but really, the bread maker aside, we aren't big power users.
Our Hot Water System
We are going to use the same hot water system we use on our boat: a gallon-sized coffee pumper-pot. In the morning when we are making our tea and coffee, we keep boiling the kettle and filling the pumper-pot. It keeps the water scalding hot for nearly 24 hours. A couple squirts of boiling hot water in the sink, mixed with cold water, and there's instant warm water for dishes, hand washing, and personal ablutions.
We have a Mr. Shower for outdoor hot-water showers. We plan to get a Mr. Heater (Jeez why can't we be on a first-name basis with these products?) for knocking the chill off in the evening or early morning, never when we are sleeping--for that we have a down comforter, hot water bottles, and body heat.
Decisions to be made:
- the brand of electrical panel//isolator/charger/etc.
- which solar panel--we know it will have to a flexible, portable one, since our height is limited by ferry height restrictions. Any fixed panel on the roof would definitely put us over the limit.
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