Here’s something I’ve been wondering about for a long time. It's a genuine question: I'm not trying to challenge anyone or say one way is better than another, but I genuinely want to know. Why do people bother adding 110v electrical wall-type outlets to vans and short skoolies and the like? I guess I get it if your bus is long, and you’re going to need to plug things in far from the inverter, but for smaller vehicles, Is it just a desire to have the space look like a house?
I’ve lived in a bus for four years now. I love my little home but I’ve never had any desire to turn it into a full-on house. It has all the necessary things for living, but it’s still a bus.
My bus is powered entirely off of a pair of solar generators. Yes, I know they’re not generators by the old school definition but it’s as good a way as any to describe them. I’m talking about all in one units, each with its own built in inverter, controller, etc. The appliances etc. I use, I just plug directly in to an outlet on the device. This includes a 4.3L dorm-style refrigerator/freezer, a microwave, and a small, very efficient inverter air conditioner. For smaller AC items, I plug into one of two power strips I've got attached to the wall, one on the passenger side near the front, the other on the driver’s side near the back. I have a diesel heater wired to plug in with a cigarette lighter plug to the corresponding outlet on one of the sogens, and I have a lot of USB rechargables as well.
If know not everyone is into all in one units, but I would think you could plug directly into a power inverter, right? And I’ve always thought that the simpler the system is, the safer it is. Am I wrong about that? I haven’t had any issues ot run out of power so far, and I’ve lived this way for four years. Of course, I calculated my needs when I started all this and made sure my system was big enough to handle them before I loaded all this on.
When I’m someplace where I can have shore power (rare), I use an extension cord out the window, with a 30 or 50 amp adapter if it’s necessary.
But every time I look at some Facebook group about van or bus builds, people are jumping through hoops to learn how to wire these household outlets all over these teeny vehicles as if they were houses. Is it really any safer or better to be plugging in to a wall outlet on a moving vehicle than it is to plug directly into the side of my actual power source? I've tried asking this and all people will say is that I should do it the "right" way. But IS that really the right way? Am I missing something? Is there some valid reason why a wired outlet is better, even if it’s hooked up by someone who learned how to do it a few days ago from a YouTube video?
I'm really just trying to understand. i do it the way I do because it just seemed so simple and it never even occurred to me to put in outlets and all that.
I’ve lived in a bus for four years now. I love my little home but I’ve never had any desire to turn it into a full-on house. It has all the necessary things for living, but it’s still a bus.
My bus is powered entirely off of a pair of solar generators. Yes, I know they’re not generators by the old school definition but it’s as good a way as any to describe them. I’m talking about all in one units, each with its own built in inverter, controller, etc. The appliances etc. I use, I just plug directly in to an outlet on the device. This includes a 4.3L dorm-style refrigerator/freezer, a microwave, and a small, very efficient inverter air conditioner. For smaller AC items, I plug into one of two power strips I've got attached to the wall, one on the passenger side near the front, the other on the driver’s side near the back. I have a diesel heater wired to plug in with a cigarette lighter plug to the corresponding outlet on one of the sogens, and I have a lot of USB rechargables as well.
If know not everyone is into all in one units, but I would think you could plug directly into a power inverter, right? And I’ve always thought that the simpler the system is, the safer it is. Am I wrong about that? I haven’t had any issues ot run out of power so far, and I’ve lived this way for four years. Of course, I calculated my needs when I started all this and made sure my system was big enough to handle them before I loaded all this on.
When I’m someplace where I can have shore power (rare), I use an extension cord out the window, with a 30 or 50 amp adapter if it’s necessary.
But every time I look at some Facebook group about van or bus builds, people are jumping through hoops to learn how to wire these household outlets all over these teeny vehicles as if they were houses. Is it really any safer or better to be plugging in to a wall outlet on a moving vehicle than it is to plug directly into the side of my actual power source? I've tried asking this and all people will say is that I should do it the "right" way. But IS that really the right way? Am I missing something? Is there some valid reason why a wired outlet is better, even if it’s hooked up by someone who learned how to do it a few days ago from a YouTube video?
I'm really just trying to understand. i do it the way I do because it just seemed so simple and it never even occurred to me to put in outlets and all that.
