M&L CAMPMOBILE

ENERGY

Cabin electrical system

Since one of us grew up as a amateur radio hobbyist and was educated as an electrical engineer, but worked mostly with computer software, I viewed the camper electrical system as a opportunity to return to earlier interests.

On the roof we have four 100-watt solar panels, similar to these.

Most of the electrical components are tucked behind the microwave oven, accessed by raising the bed, including:

Solar charge controller with bluetooth dongle.
Battery monitor with bluetooth dongle. It works fine, has bluetooth support, but I wish it provided the daily history of charge and discharge.

Simple interconnect of cabin battery system to Sprinter electrical using the 25 amp auxiliary electrical connector under the driver seat (EK1-2) of the sprinter, the engine running terminal (EK1-1), a simple relay and a .05 ohm resistor to limit current . I installed switches to enable the interconnect and also to interconnect with engine running, thereby charging van battery from cabin battery. Both features have proved useful.

For two years we had two of these AGM batteries. They worked fine, providing about 1000 watt-hr of usable storage. However, we recently updated to a 1280 watt-hr lithium battery.
Our inverter has a sleep mode, as it's important not to be continuously drawing more than a few watts. Our is similar to this inverter.

Appliances

Our refrigerator cost less than $200, is very efficient, and includes a separate freezer good for making ice and keeping ice cream very frozen.
Our microwave is nothing fancy, but compact.
We use a 1000-watt electric kettle often. Most electric kettles are 1500 watts, which could be problematic with our 1200-watt inverter, though a power controller like this could make 1500 watt units usable.
We initially had a portable induction cooktop, which made us completely dependent on the battery system. We have switched to this butane /propane cooktop, which is faster to setup, and gives us an alternative energy source. The butane is more convenient and good in warmer weather, the propane works better in cold weather.
We also use an Instant Pot, which is very energy efficient, since it uses steam for cooking, but uses electronic control to prevent overproducing steam and wasting energy.

Water system

We have two water tanks, a potable water tank and a wash water tank.
We use two 12v pumps similiar to these to feed the kitchen water faucets.

Heating system

We use our Airtronic D2 diesel heater occasionally.
We're curious regarding the heating system in the Revel.