Beefing up Wilma’s power (getting serious about electrical gear)
Background
So, our idea of “camping” or “vanlife” or simply traveling with Wilma is to be as independent as possible. That is why we swapped out the chemical toilet for a dry composting one. Step one to “independence” - check ✅
Besides the toilet, the other 2 limiting factors are power as how long does the battery last us and water. While water is a tough one to fix (we chose to go the “use as little as possible and be really sensible about it”-path), power is an easy one to fix. The sun gives endless amounts and never charges you a dime! You just need to harvest it and save it up so you can use it when the sun is shy.
After lots of math (see below) we figured that when we are both working our consumption will end up somewhere between 80Ah to 100Ah. Yes, this is a huge range and we will need to simply test and observe the actual usage.
Here’s our back-of-the-napkin math:
Fridge ~30Ah/day
2x Laptop ~30Ah/day
Small stuff (water pump, LEDs, chargin a phone occasionally, heating ventilation, etc) 10Ah
Starlink ~20Ah
Requirements and wish list
Based on the math and based on our style of travel (stay 1-3 nights, drive elsewhere) we figured we should have at least 450Ah of power to last even if the sun doesn’t shine for a couple of days.
We also figured we need to be able to load the battery rather quickly when driving while neither putting too much strain on the battery nor the alternator. A well-sized battery charger is required. Mostly, because we don’t expect to drive huge distances when going place-to-place and still want to charge a decent amount.
Our primary source should be the sun (when it shines), so we got ourselves a 340Wp foldable solar panel. A sensibly sized charge controler is required to ensure we store every last bit of sun energy possible.
Lastly, in case we do ever hookup to shore power, the battery should be charged, too, but this can go slower.
The list
BullTron 540Ah LiFePo4 battery
Victron Energy 50A DC-DC battery charger
Victron Energy 30A AC-DC shore power battery charger
Victron Energy 30A MPPT solar charge controller
Installation - prologue
While we figured we probably could do the installation ourselves, we are always quite careful when it comes to critical components such as electricity and we chose to let a professional do it for us. We searched quite a bit as there are many providers, and we chose Camper Power based in Neuwied close to Koblenz (Germany).
They had great reviews and the quote was prived fairly.
The entire installation took around 7h and the service was fantastic. The base electrical wiring and installation from the manufacturer of the van (Pössl) was a bit messy and presented some challenges when it came to finding suitable locations and mounting points for the new gear.
It’s not perfect and cleaning up the manufacturer’s mess would probably take another full day (which we chose to skip for now as we didn’t see any reason apart form asthetics), but the mechatronics engineer did a great job given the cirumstances.
Installation step-by-step
Unboxing the battery.
…getting it out of it’s wrapper.
The stack of gear - it’s like Christmas!
The passenger seat has come out.
The old battery is about to be removed.
… and it’s gone!
For space, the base plate also had to be removed.
The starter batterie and where to connect the new wires to the DC-DC charger.
The new battery is in place for the first time.
The new battery is strapped down and installed.
The 50A DC-DC charger is installed.
Taking in the manufacturer-made “mess” under the driving seat where the EBL is located. Trying to find locations for the new gear.
Shore power charger and solar charge controller are installed, but not yet fully connected.
New cables to the alternator have been connected.
The final installation after cleanup to the best extent possible given the pre-existing cable situation.
Epilogue
Everything is installed and working very well. We couldn’t test the solar charge controller just yet as we still need the manufacturer to connect the outside plug.
On our drive back home from Camper Power the battery was fully charged by the DC-DC chargers and we are super happy.
We fully recommend Camper Power.
