163 thoughts on “Van Electrical Calculator”

1. Does the cost estimate include all items listed in “items list”? Thanks!

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2. In the 120V AC calculator tool, we added an induction stove (1800W), took out all other sources. We would likely use this on average 30 mi/day at the 900W setting. Our calculation shows 900W/120V * .5hrs = 3.75 amp hours. The calculator is showing 44.1 amp hours. What are we missing here?

   Thanks!

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   • Your energy source (battery) is 12V, so 900W/12V/.85 (inverter generally have around 85% efficiency). Remember that you draw 10 times the amps on the 12V side! Cheers 🙂

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3. Does your calculator design the electrical system based on a 4-day off-grid timeframe? I ask this because you mentioned that your goal was 4 days off-grid. What % of that time is assumed using the alternator?

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   • Hi Jason,
     All the calculations are detailed on this page: https://faroutride.com/van-electrical-sizing/

     Cheers

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4. Hi,

   Would love to buy the electric wiring module but am wondering whether this also works for 220V (EU) and does it have links to EU products?
   Thanks

   Lisa

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   • Unfortunately no, this is for 120V.

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5. Bonjour Antoine!

   Tout d’abord, merci de partager toutes ces infos, c’est très apprécié.

   J’ai reçu un panneau solaire de 275w d’un ami et je compte l’utiliser pour mon camper van. Cependant, le wattage est un peu haut pour mes besoins énergétiques; votre calculatrice solaire me recommande plutôt 175w. Je me demande seulement si c’est sécuritaire d’utiliser le panneau avec une batterie plus petite, disons 100ah?

   Je planifie acheter AGM 12V, avec un contrôleur de charge MPPT.

   Merci beaucoup!
   Édouard

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   • Pas de souci, ca devrait être correct. Faite passer le calculator en mode “MANUEL” et choisissez 100AH AGM comme batterie et 200W comme solaire (ou plus); si il y’a un problème, un message s’affiche dans la section “DIAGNOSIS”.

     Bonne chance!

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6. Antoine,

   Thanks for all your work on this site. It’s been a tremendous resource.

   The guide on this page recommended lithium batteries and the samlex SEC-UL battery charger for shore power. The product description for the charger does not mention its compatible with lithium batteries however. Do you see any issue with using this combination?

   Thanks.

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   • Lithium can be charged with AGM settings, since the voltage profiles are the same:

     “You can use any standard charger, solar or wind charge controller to charge our LIFEPO4 deep cycle battery. There are some chargers and controllers that are programmable to get full usage out of your battery, but most will have an AGM setting which normally bulk charges about 14.4 volts and floats at 13.6 volts. These levels are great for your Battle Born battery.”
     Source: https://battlebornbatteries.com/charging-lifepo4-batteries/

     Cheers!

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7. Salut Antoine,

   First, this site is amazing and so is your FB Group. I’m learning all the basics here, but I’ve been told to go another route and purchase directly on AliExpress (Ex: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000746859489.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.68d97270gTlSMB&algo_pvid=faccf03d-1de1-4427-a3e1-00f49b300139&algo_expid=faccf03d-1de1-4427-a3e1-00f49b300139-8&btsid=0ab6f83a15906140727713587e1e8a&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603)… Seems alot cheaper, and good stuff… What do you guys think?

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   • You get what you pay for; cheap and good rarely go well together. I always recommend to go for branded products, backed up by a warranty and customer service. Especially for critical components such as the electrical system where safety counts.

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8. I feel like I’m in electrical boot camp. Trying to synthesize all the information related to van system. I’m starting to understand how it all fits together but 2 questions for today. What are the terminal fuses and main switch functions in the faroutride wiring diagram and is this something needed in our simpler set up? Diagram in facebook post (DIY Cargo Van Conversion Help | Campervan Builders Forum) 5.20.20

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9. Thank you for creating all this information! Massive help. I am working on sizing wires through the blue seas app. As a means of understanding and checking things, I have plugged in some of your info from your build. I can’t get it to size the wires you listed.

   Example – Your fan – .3A @20hr at 30ft recommends 18 awg wire. You used 14 awg. ( I have tested several of your other scenarios and can not get the gauge to be similar.

   Am I plugging something in wrong, or is there a different wire size calculator used? Thanks.

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   • It is not really recommended to use 18AWG as it is weak (because of the small diameter). Then, the next size would be 16AWG… but we choose 14AWG, so we don’t have to order too many different size of wire (to save $$$). It is totally acceptable to use bigger wire than needed (but it’s not acceptable to use smaller one).

     Hope that helps!

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10. Excellent website! I appreciate you guys sharing all of your knowledge and troubleshooting!!
    One question I didn’t see anywhere else (maybe I missed it). How did you get your wire from alternator to battery? Under van in conduit? Inside van under flooring? Thanks!!
    Andy

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    • There is no need to connect “directly” to the alternator; it is actually done by connecting to the starter battery. It is documented here: https://faroutride.com/b2b-review/

      cheers

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11. I’ve got two questions.

    1. What is your take on charging equipment that uses 5v? For instance, the wifi-extender we are planning to use is 5vdc.
    2. Do you have a way to limit ‘vampire drain’ but shutting off sections of your system overnight? I just don’t see the sense in letting something like a wifi-extender drain power, even in standby mode, while I’m sleeping.

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    • Hi!
      1. I would use a 12V to 5V converter: https://amzn.to/2O1PBDN
      2. We don’t have any appliance that stays on stanby (except maybe the JetPack, but we turn it off at night. Oh and the SensorPush Gateway as well, but I don’t really worry about that…), but adding a switch to a section of your system would definitely works!

      Cheers!

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12. Hello!

    This 3 part electrical series has been so helpful in wrapping my head around this as a total beginner, so THANK YOU! I’ve created my own diagram based off of yours and I have one question. Did you include a ground? I’ve seen it connecting at the negative bus bar, but I’ve also read some contradicting opinions. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Thank you again!
    Amanda

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    • The ground it the connection between our Negative Bus Bar & the van chassis (see faroutride.com/b2b-review/). If you don’t charge from the alternator, you don’t need to ground to the vehicle chassis!

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13. Antione.

    Love your site…definitely one of the best and of great help to me in doing my 2005 chevy extended van conversion here on Vancouver Island. I’m just finishing the building of the actual hi-top now and then will be facing the electrical side of the project. The most daunting. I have a question though. I am interested in using your wiring plan system but there are a number of changes I would like to make in equipment, to suit my small budget. Does the planning set up your wiring diagram allow for changes in equipment rather than some of the choices given? Can I somehow swap one for another and have the wiring diagram produced show these changes? I look forward to your response. All the best you two. Enjoy life to the full and thanks for your help.

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    • The diagram actually is “static”; it doesn’t update according to your choices. Sure it would be nice, but it’s way above our coding skills!! You can still change some of the equipment and use the diagram as a baseline; the concept would be the same.

      Hope that helps!
      Antoine

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      • Antonie,

        First off, amazing site. It is streamlining my build a ton.

        So I did catch on that the wiring diagram was for YOUR build, and not updated based on the calculator that I did. Regardless, the wiring diagram is a huge help. Where I am getting somewhat stumped now is sizing the breaker, bus bar, fuse block, etc. I do notice that the “Items List” does change as I change selections on the calculator. Is it safe to say, if the calculator is done properly, the “Items List” is updated based on what I input on the calculator?

        Thanks much!!

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        • That’s correct. The calculator outputs exactly what you need depending on your inputs!

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14. I chose a Lithium set up, but I see the Samlex SEC-1280UL 12V doesn’t mention it working automatically with Lithium batteries. Does it support Lithium?

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    • Because they need the same charging voltage, Lithium batteries can be charged with the “AGM” settings of any smart charger (like the Samlex):
      “There are some chargers and controllers that are programmable to get full usage out of your battery, but most will have an AGM setting which normally bulk charges about 14.4 volts and floats at 13.6 volts. These levels are great for your Battle Born battery.”

      https://battlebornbatteries.com/charging-lifepo4-batteries/

      Cheers!

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15. Thanks for the help. Just wanted to let you know the B2B is wire wrong according to the sterling manual. The negatives aren’t hooked up right. The manual also recommends larger fuses than those shown. Just a heads up. Great site!

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    • Hi Jason,
      Negatives are as per manual, take a second look. That’s how our own B2B is installed and we confirm it works!
      Fuse are sized per manual V51 (70A); they changed the fuse size recently (100A) for some reason (V68). Can confirm the 70A works!

      Have a good one 🙂
      Antoine

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16. Super helpful. Thank you.

    A recommendation: The download for the wiring diagrams says “download YOUR wiring diagram and tutorial.” It should say “download OUR wiring diagram and tutorial.” After working through the thorough step-by-step calculator that you’ve created, I excepted this wiring diagram to represent the selections that I made for the system that I want to create. Instead, I paid $30 for a diagram that is a representation of the system that you created for your own van. The diagram of your system is available for reference (at no charge) on the first page of your Electrical Systems Design. Although I appreciate the time and energy that you put into gathering all of this information, I’m a bit frustrated that I purchased a product that was different that what you claimed it would be.

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    • We agree with you. We replaced “YOUR” with “OUR” and added this note near the download button:
      “*At the moment, the wiring diagram represent the electrical system as we built it for our van. Our goal is to make it so it represent the electrical system as YOU designed it using this calculator, but we have a few technological challenges to overcome to make it happen… Meanwhile, our wiring diagram can be used to build any variation given by this calculator! :)”

      How does this sound?

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17. Freaking great site and calculator.

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    • Thanks!! 🙂

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18. Very nice feature but it doesn’t quite cover what I am considering. I’m currently looking at an all-electric system, no propane with 240V appliances, 600Ah Lithium battery bank, 3000W inverter, and a Nations Starter and Alternator 280A dual alternator kit for charging the Lithium batteries.

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    • That’s definitely out of the box! 😉
      What appliances do you plan on running on 240V ?

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19. Congrats guys, this is very cool!

    Would you mind me asking how you do your web design? Are you writing in Python or some other language?

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    • Yeah sure!
      Platform: Wordpres
      Hosting:SiteGround
      Theme: GeneratePress
      Builder: Elementor

      The only “code” we’ve got on this website is the calculator, it’s written in JavaScript.

      Voilà!
      🙂

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      • Amazing resource! I’m planning on doing the alternator connected to a battery to battery charger connected to a 200ah Renogy 12v battery. I have a 2006 dodge sprinter with a 150A alternator output. I’m having a hard time finding any resources that tell me the sprinter’s amperage to get the Amps available on the alternator. I used your calculator and tried various options (60A-90A) and received a “up to 40A battery charger”. I see that Renogy only makes a 20A and 40A. Is there a difference or recommended battery charger? If it says up to 40A, would 40A be too much? Is 20A the best option? Also, does your diagram show how to connect the battery to battery charger to the alternator? A person was helping me convert my van but ending up being a scam artist and now I’m left with partial wiring. Trying to figure this out on my own! Any help would be appreciated!

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        • Hi Alyse,
          A 200A AGM battery should be charged at a rate of around 20% its capacity, hence 200 x 0.2 = 40A.

          Therefore, a 40A Renogy B2B is your best option.

          The Renogy owner’s manual will describe how to hook it to your van, and you can go on the Sprinter forum to get help from others fellow Sprinter owners: https://sprinter-source.com/forum/ (we personally converted a Transit, not sure about the Sprinter…).

          Hope that helps!
          Good luck,
          antoine

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20. Hi there –

    First of all, I can’t tell you how incredibly helpful your site is. To the point, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the difference between 12V and 120V. Additionally, what things actually run on 120V vs 12V. Looking at you 120V list it’s much smaller, but in my mind, all of those things plug into a standard 12V outlet, right? Anyway, I’m starting to fill out your extremely handy calculator and want to make sure I’m taking everything into account so any additional information would be great. Thanks again!

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    • Hi Tucker,
      We listed all our 12V loads here: https://faroutride.com/electrical-system/#12v_loads
      And I think this should help you understand 12V vs 120V: https://faroutride.com/electrical-system/#120v_loads

      Try to minimize your 120V appliances as it’s less efficient than 12V.

      Hope that helps!
      antoine

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