If you want to hook up to mains to charge your battery, or power other appliances, you will need to protect yourself from electrocution.
To do this you need a Mains Controller Unit which is basically a box with a RCD and a circuit breaker in.
You can typically get these ready made in a plastic box – often made to about the right spec for bringing power into sheds.
- The RCD is essentially protection for the mains circuit and is designed primarily to prevent electrocution – but also other shorts or unintended current
- The circuit breaker simply shuts down the electricity in the case of an overload or a short
Note: In my latest van I did not install a MCU/RCD or mains charger unit. The solar is simply enough for me and the Split Charge is enough of a back-up and I almost never pay for camping / mains hook-up.
Warning! The mains electrics are important to get right. I recommend getting a qualified electrician to check your system.
Battery charger
I connected this in to the mains unit and the output goes to the –ve of one battery and the
+ve of the other. CTEK make a wide range of smart battery chargers.
Invertor
This is my Pure Sine Invertor.
If you want to runs mains appliances off your 12V battery system you will need an invertor.
The better invertors are ‘Pure Sine’ invertors. These supposedly have a better output for sensitive electronic devices. My electronics; MacBook etc – are expensive so it seemed worth it to have a decent invertor to reduce the chance of them becoming damaged.
I simply connected the invertor directly to my main socket.
I got a nice chrome socket too – it looks good!