It’s alive! Power now flows through its veins.

Today was rather a strange day. Work was very pleasant and quite straightforward with no incidents at all other than after taking the children from the elementary school to their homes, I went to the high school and had no riders. That meant I could head straight back to the bus yard and go home. Very nice.

During my between shifts break I came and worked on the bus a little, continuing to put connectors in place toward getting everything wired up to the new battery. I didn’t do much more than attach a couple of connectors during my break. I spent quite a while researching a second fuse box, hunting eBay for one before finding I’d ordered the previous one off Amazon.

A few days ago, having had the thought of a second fuse box I’d looked in the car parts stores and while I hadn’t found the right kind of breaker box I had found the connectors I needed to complete my project. Believe me, when you’re doing a bus conversion you will need an absolute ton of male and female insulated spade connectors in all sizes plus a few ring and fork connectors of each size.

After work which ended earlier than normal due to an unusual complete lack of highschool bus riders, I did get more done. In fact I almost completed the 12v work at the front of the bus. Discounting that I want to install a digital unlocker for the front door, I connected and tidied every wire in the cockpit section aside from those going to the solar arrays.

The single (twin) black wire poking up on the right from the bundle is the solar wire that passes from front to rear. That will be connected to the front solar array and to the portable solar array. The small wire drooping down will be connected also to the solar arrays and that goes to a voltmeter so if I wish I can press a button and see what the solar voltage is.

This blurry photo that I didn’t realise my phone had screwed up on focusing shows my completed wiring. Theres a bit of a bundle of connectors to the right of the fan but it’s not too intrusive. Both switches on my switch panel work. One turns the fan on and one turned the light on. Even the USB charging box that my lantern sits on is powered. The only thing on that lacking power is the voltmeter that will give me the voltage on my solar arrays.

At the back of the bus, the requisite fuses are installed. The light currently has a 2.5W bulb in it which produces ample illumination. In fact, that produces several times the light of my brightest LED lantern while my lantern claims to have a greater number of lumens. You’ve heard me say that I consider manufacturers that quote lumens as speaking with a forked tongue.

I’ve used several 1A fuses. I can’t see a bulb of less than 12W needing more than a 1A fuse so the bulb has a 1A fuse. The fan is probably 150mw which won’t again need more than a 1A fuse. The charging array claims to have two USB 1 sockets and two USB 2 sockets. That’s a grand total of 6.6A at 5.5v. I’m playing safe and putting a 10A fuse. Now half my fuse box has working fuses running working outlets.

The bulbs I put into my bulb holders were all purchased from Walmart. The 1W bulb is not very bright but is much brighter than my LED lanterns. The 2W bulb lights up the whole room very nicely.  In fact the 1W is very effective in the bathroom while the 2W works very well in both the bedroom and in the galley. The bulb on the top that looks funky is one of my 4.5W bulbs from China. To say it sucks is putting it mildly. The light is harsh and glaring while the bulb is not as bright or rather as well illuminating as my 2W bulbs. The Walmart “Great Value” bulbs were made in China but they work while the eBay thing doesn’t.

Doing the maths, a 2W bulb will burn up 0.1666AH. In 24 hours that’s about 4AH of power. My solar arrays will produce 35 watts between them so assuming they produce half of that for 8 hours of daylight then I’ve got 11.6666AH incoming. I could have two of the 2W bulbs and one of the 1W bulbs lit 24 hours a day. That’s not bad at all! As the battery is 35AH then I’ve got two days of light available with zero sun at all.

The next thing on the agenda is to put together my USB charger box for the bedroom and the light/fan switch assembly. I have a couple of boxes available but the one I would prefer to use needs holes cut in it for the voltmeter etc and my step-saw is blunt and needs replacement. My fault - I drilled thick steel with it and blunted it. Maybe that means tomorrow is Harbor Freight day?

Once those electrics are installed, I’ll install my water inlet and then fit the flapper valves into my ventilation system. Then I’ll look at installing a second fuse box with a cable run to the bathroom and galley giving me a USB charger box, fan and light on the other side of the galley or in fact, the opposite corner. I’ll put a 12V socket (bought one the other day) by the shower so I can run a 12V shower unit. While I’m at it, I’ll put a second light cable just in case. I think what I have is adequate though. I’ll also put a light at the other end of the bedroom purely in order to illuminate the closet area better. That already makes for 6 connections to a fuse box. Perhaps the control for the front would be better installed instead of a probably unnecessary second bathroom light.

After that, I’m sure I’ll think of other things to add but for the moment that all seems like being pretty good for a motorhome.