Campervan Conversion - Part 5 - The Solar Panels & Major Electrical Items

This is number five in the series of posts about our campervan conversion, following on from Part 4.   

The solar panels arrived last weekend so it was time to fit them on the van roof.

I've bought 3-off identical 100W panels from Renogy.  Using monocrystalline cells, these are quite compact panels measuring just 1,074 x 498 mm.  This particular panel design is narrow enough to fit between our rooflights, and it also has a low open-circuit voltage which can be important when choosing controllers.  I'd considered 2-off at 150W or even a single 300W panel, but these layouts didn't fit properly on the roof space available and they also tend to operate at a higher voltage. 

the panels ...

panel nameplate data ...

So we've nominally 300 W of solar power available under bright sunlight conditions, although during standard rating test conditions the light source is positioned perpendicular to the panel surface, whereas on the van roof the panels will always be horizontal and therefore the actual available power is likely reduced by around a quarter, so let's say it's a maximum 225 W installation.

Campervan Conversion - Part 4 - Water Tanks & Shower Room Framing

In this post, we're initially looking at the water requirements for the van build.

We've bought a 75 litre tank for fresh water and a 85 litre tank for waste water, both of which will be installed inside the van.   Many people fit at least the waste tank under the vehicle, i.e. underslung from the floor beams and effectively located outside, but I wanted everything to be mounted inside the van and easily accessible for installation, piping & maintenance etc.

upright 85 litre and flat 75 litre tanks ...

There will also be a small hot water tank to design, build and install at some time in the future but that's not an urgent requirement - I can come back to it later when I've eventually figured out exactly how to provide a hot water system.  For now, we'll just concentrate on the main tanks, and I'm including the shower tray here because it's a deep unit and can hold more than 40 litres (see Post 3 in the series). 

The sink and shower greywater will collect in the 85 litre upright tank which sits on the floor up against the LH rear wheelarch.  The flat 75 litre fresh water tank is mounted directly above it.   This configuration minimises the amount of space required for the tank cabinet.  The top of the waste tank is low enough that the kitchen sink waste will flow to it under gravity, although water from the shower tray at floor level will be pumped into it.

Fruits in the Garden - Part 2

It's been a while, but as we mentioned in Part 1 we decided to add to the collection of edible bushes & trees in the garden.  

This post has been delayed because we were waiting for three more bare-root fruit trees to be delivered, but after two months the nursery simply refunded the money and cancelled the order.  Not a word about this cancellation to me of course, either before or after the event - I only spotted it from the credit card statement.  They've shown themselves to be complete amateurs and so I'll be avoiding Chris Bowers & Sons in the future.

Anyway, this year so far, we've bought the following new plants :-

Supplied in larger pots :-

Macadamia Nut (exact cultivar unknown) - Macadamia integrifolia (UK hardiness H3)

This evergreen tree was already quite large when delivered.  It has been grafted, and the variety above the graft has very different leaves from the rootstock. The grafted cultivar leaves are of a lighter green colour than the rootstock, with fewer very sharp spines along the leaf edges and a longer petiole.  The graft has been made quite high up on the trunk of the rootstock, around 600 mm from soil level.  

Macadamias can grow very large if not controlled, and so I'd have preferred the graft to be nearer the soil and for the cultivar branching to start much lower down, to make a more compact tree better suited to containerisation.  Macadamias are only half-hardy and the pot will need to be brought into the conservatory for the winter.

However, it's not a bad looking tree and is growing away strongly, so I cut off all the branches below the graft to stop the rootstock growth sapping the strength from the cultivar.

In the photo pairs, the image on the left is 'as received' from the supplier, and on the right is after my initial training cuts.

Campervan Conversion - Part 3 - Sound Insulation & Shower Tray Installation

Following on from Part 2, the next step was to install some acoustic insulation.   

I applied proprietary butyl rubber sound-deadening panels of 2.5 mm thickness, although self-adhesive butyl roofing tape is basically the same thing and might work out much cheaper if you're on a strict budget.

The van body panels were locally cleaned using methylated spirits, and the acoustic insulation was cut to basic shapes as required and then simply pressed onto the painted surfaces, using a cloth and a small paint roller to smooth them out and ensure a good contact.

These butyl sheets are quite heavy and add mass to the thin body panels to act as vibration dampers.  Each insulation piece is fitted in the centre of every 'sub-panel', as are naturally formed between panel stiffeners and / or folds & creases in the metal.  You don't need anywhere near 100% coverage to kill noise due to panel resonance - even a relatively small piece in the correct location will be effective. 

acoustic insulation panels ...

It was quite cold on the day I added the sound insulation, so I borrowed the oil-filled radiator from our conservatory and used it to pre-heat the van before fitting the butyl panels, to ensure good adhesion.  After I'd fixed the insulation, I also left the radiator switched on during the following night.

Campervan Conversion - Part 2 - Stripping out, Rooflights and Partial Framing

Since the first post, I've been clearing out the van load space.  I'd originally thought of keeping some of the previous panelling but after I'd seen how the battens were fixed I decided to change the whole framing arrangement to provide additional support in some areas to suit my design.

It was quite a task and took several days to demolish the existing panelling and fitments to bring the vehicle load space almost back to the condition it was in when it left the factory.  Many of the panel and flooring screw heads snapped off when I tried to remove them so there was a lot of cursing and a fair amount of drilling & grinding required.

I didn't remove the floor panels at the front of the load space - there is a solid aluminium plate over this location covered with a rubber matting.  At the rear however, there was a thick plywood base which I stripped out to expose the steel floor of the van body.  

steel floor exposed at the rear