hookin up the electric

[elmo makaroy]

hi there,

i am finally at the point of refitting my interior and just have a couple of electrical issues to get my head around before our planned camping trip on march 11th,

most of this has probly been answered but i read through this section and feel lost, if i run through wot i am planning to do maybe you guys could stop me were im wrong?

basically i want to be able to use hook up at the campsite, so my easy plan is to just by the extension lead wich goes to the electric box at the site and stick it through the window of my van, thus being able to use hookup at a campsite for things like laptops, lamps etc.
hookup done,

right, i then would like to be able to use a leisure battery for places were i will not have hookup
i understand that i need a leisure battery (obviously) and an inverter to plug wichever appliances i fancy into the battery

wot is the typical size inverter needed for a camper?

i am only using basic electric items like the odd film on a laptop , a small cd player and mabe a bedside lamp, and some sort of electric heater? or maybe electric radiator? not sure if i can use electric heaters of any kind on a leisure battery?

i know i will need a split charge kit so that my leisure battery is charged when i am driving .
how do theese work and are they hard to wire up?

[Cruz]

What are you planning to power from an inverter?

[elmo makaroy]

things like a laptop to watch a film on, maybe some sort of heater if possible ,maybe some lights and a small cd player

[jamesc76]

unless its a propex or ebber dont plug a heater into an invert, you can kiss good bye to the battery if you did , it would be so flat it would be hard to re charge it!

[kevtherev]

No heaters....it just won't work.
Not even hair straighteners.


there's no way around it... so just save up and buy a second hand blown air heating system.
They were £250 complete at Vanfest last year

Try to move away from mains power and research 12V equipment.
I mean mains lamps on inverters is just plain daft, when you can get or make 12V lamps and lighting so easily.
With LED lighting so much more improved and easier to obtain have a look there too.
LED lights use a fraction of the power that DC lamps use, so this prolongs your battery power.

[elmo makaroy]

i just bought a propex late last night from ebay for £210 including delivery, it is a propex gas blow air heater 1600watt
and comes complete and ready to use,

the only thing that is missing is it has no switch but wiring any switch to the red and black wires is very straight forward, wot i am wondering is can i wire up some kind of thermostat to it or is it just a case of switch it off when u get too hot?

[1664]

Don't know if it's that simple.

http://www.club80-90.co.uk/pages/downlo ... ompact.pdf

http://www.club80-90.co.uk/pages/downlo ... ex1800.pdf

[kevtherev]

I wired mine up to a B & Q Mechanical thermostat cost £10 "sunvic" was it's name.

[elmo makaroy]

my propex is an old red 1 and the guy who sold it to me said that he just connects the wires to a battery with a simple 12v switch to turn off and on, 2 wires to positive and one to negative.

so if i want a thermostat like yours kev do i just wired it in instead of the switch? or aswell as? if you could draw a diagram that would be great, thanks

[Gunslinger]

my propex is an old red 1 and the guy who sold it to me said that he just connects the wires to a battery with a simple 12v switch to turn off and on, 2 wires to positive and one to negative.

so if i want a thermostat like yours kev do i just wired it in instead of the switch? or aswell as? if you could draw a diagram that would be great, thanks

This might help. They have manuals and wiring diagrams. http://www.propexheatsource.co.uk/

[Red Westie]

Hasn't Ringo got an Ebberspacher control that may be adaptable? just a thought.

Martin

[lloydy]

when i had a propex i got a new stat with on/off switch from propex themselves http://www.propexleisure.co.uk/default. ... check=yes&
Not cheap, but i like things that match. and it allows you to just have the fan on in summer
But there is nothing wrong with using a room stat, just have to make sure it doesn't need 240v to work (standard honeywell one fine). You would also need a on/off switch, i don't think you could use the stat for that as i think a propex has fan over run to cool itself down? So would need a permanent 12v supply for that. Someone might correct me on that