Electrics Explained

A usable modern camper van needs electricity, to power lights, TV, music players, laptops and more importantly the water pump, compressor fridge and other appliances. Sometimes people use their camper van battery for their power requirements, but this is a mistake. Vehicle batteries are designed to provide short bursts of power and are not suitable for continued usage and charging, you'll soon have a flat battery and be unable to start your vehicle.

The answer is to have a separate battery bank, for all your leisure use. Leisure batteries are designed to be used and recharged many times and are often referred to as deep-cycle batteries. You'll need to recharge them to ensure you continue to enjoy your camper van. There are a few options :-

Battery to Battery

This is where a excess charge from your vehicles battery (getting charged from your vehicle's alternator when the engine is running) is used to charge a leisure battery bank. The excess charge from the alternator is boosted or reduced to provide a stable voltage output according to a multi-stage charging profile. This provides a 100% re-charge for your leisure battery bank in a controlled way and typically achieves it around 5x faster than with direct alternator (split) charging. This method is great as you can have a large leisure battery pack to power your campervan appliances without ever using or flattening your vehicle's starter battery. Using a battery-to-battery charger is the only reliable solution if you intend to recharge a leisure battery bank in a modern vehicle that has an ECU-controlled 'smart' alternator (generally Euro 5/6 compliant engines onward, start/stop technology).

Solar Power

The beauty of Solar power (apart from being free) is that even on a dull day your leisure batteries are getting a charge. When away in your van (often in the summer) the solar panel will be working at its optimum. By installing a sophisticated charging CTEK system, excess solar power is also used to charge your vehicle's starter battery, so during the winter when your van may be laid up, the solar charge will be keeping your leisure batteries and your vehicle's battery fully charged.

Alternator pass through technology

This is a device that can use the direct current from the camper van alternator (usually much larger amps than battery to battery or Solar charging) to directly charge the Camper Van starter battery and the leisure battery bank. This can charge batteries quicker than other technologies but does not intelligently charge them, so your leisure battery bank is never 100% charged without battery to battery or solar technology. In addition this device can also provide start assistance, using power from your leisure batteries to help get your Camper Van engine started if your starter battery is flat.

240v Mains Charging

If you are on a campsite providing main hookup then by installing a good mains charger with intelligent charging technology you won't need to worry about your battery charging and power usage. An intelligent 12v battery charger can then be wired into the fuse box, to provide 12v intelligent charging and 12v supply for your campervan appliances.

Combination Packages

Here at Camper-Electrics we offer combination packages of our individual products offering you complete solutions and great savings.

Click here for a further glossary of electrical terms.