Van Electrics – Iveco Daily Van Conversion Week 7 Pt 2

Van Electrics now this is exciting!  We have put the van painting debacle behind us and well and truly got stuck in to the electrics.

Power

There are many options to power your van.  To start with it is worth really getting your head around the difference between 12v and 240v.

12V is what you will usally find inside of your car and what will be the main voltage for your van.  240v is also known as mains electric and is what you use in your house and so most appliances are made for a 240v power supply.  You can use 240v in your van with the help of an invertor. More on that in a later post though ;-).

Batteries

To have power in your van you will need 2 things.  Something that creates the power and something that holds the power.  We are starting with the latter, holding power.  In a van conversion that means batteries.

There are two main types of batteries on the market for Van Conversions and Campervans. Leisure and Lithium.

Our Interim Solution

Lithium batteries are definitely superior to AGM Leisure batteries and the cost reflects that.  As our Iveco Daily Van Conversion is on a budget we have an interim solution.  We have two 220ah agm leisure batteries and will update to lithium later or on the next van conversion.  One of the biggest advantages aside from the longer use capacity between charges is how much lighter they are in comparison to leisure batteries.

Charging

There are a number of ways to charge your batteries.  DC to DC charger.  This is where you charge your leisure batteries from the van battery whilst you are driving or a smart alternator again when you are driving.  You can also add a mains electric point which is what we added in the video above.  You will also need a consumer unit and we cover this more at a later date.

Then there is also solar.  We will have two initial ways to charge our batteries to start with.  DC to DC charger and also mains electric hook up.  For our van conversion that means we have a 12v electrical system and a 240v electrical system. It gives us options.  A 12v system will be able to charge mobile phones and some tablets and ipads but it is not enough to charge a laptop.

As we want to be able to charge our laptops on the road without the need to be hooked up to mains electric (also called shore power) we will be getting an inverter which will turn the 12v into 240v.

If you missed the start of our painting the van journey you can catch that in our previous post.

After a few people from our Facebook Page asked about the products we used I created an easy to shop Van Build List on our Amazon Shop we may get a small commission when you click on our links at no additional cost to you and as always appreciate your support.

Join us in Week 7 where we complete the van painting after a lot of trial and error with varying techniques! You can also see how our Iveco Daily van Conversion has been progressing.