Cables and Volt-Drop A cable is such a simple thing – so what could possibly go wrong… go wrong… go wrong… After all we’re just connecting power to our 12Volt stuff – it’s two wires, one positive, one negative, pretty simple really. Well it is and it isn’t. DC Systems It’s certainly true that in […]

What size Battery?  Daily usage first: Just like for Solar panel sizing, battery sizing begins with first working out our typical energy usage per day. For this you can refer to the article How much Power does 12Volt stuff use? This figure of Ah in a typical day is essential for determining both battery size […]

Electrical Basics Volts, Amps, Watts and all those other things This information is on a need-to-know basis, and if you plan on getting the best out of your 12Volt stuff – you need to know! Fortunately the 12Volt equipment that we use for camping and caravanning is DC (Direct Current) and that simplifies things a […]

Solar Insolation in Australia In Australia we are very lucky to have the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) who collect weather data from hundreds of stations around the country. Even better, they now compile this data and make it available online. In the 1990s solar insolation[*] was added to the historical figures for rain, temperature and […]

Inverters Inverters are one of the most useful bits of power electronics around, but they are also one of the biggest consumers of 12Volt power, so we need to know what we’re doing when we invest in one of these beasts. In short the inverter’s job is to take the 12Volts DC we have in […]