Owning a motorhome can be great fun, especially if you are thinking of buying one for the first time. When we purchased our motorhome a few years ago it felt rather strange and confusing.  So much to learn from how they run to how to maintain your pride and joy. 

In this post, we’ve focused on electricity side of things because this is were most of our questions come from…but please bear in mind we are not experts just folk who have picked up things along the way.

Electric

I will be the first to admit that I couldn’t get my head around the electric 12 volt thing. But when someone explained it in simple terms it stuck! 

Motorhomes have two electrical systems 

1. Battery – The 12 volt system is powered by a battery (or in some cases, multiple batteries), and it powers things such as the start-up on your water heater and refrigerator, plus most of the lights in the living space, your water pump etc. These are often referred to as leisure batteries and we have 3 Banner AGM leakproof batteries.
2. The hook up – The 230 volt system is powered by an electrical hookup plug. It powers daily use items like kitchen appliances, in my case hairdryer, as well as other electrical appliances like computers. Make sure you get a decent cable like 16 amp.

Whats the point of an inverter?

Adding an inverter to the mix will convert the 12 volt battery’s direct current to a 230 volt alternating current. This means you can power appliances that need 230 volts and use your motorhomes electrical points.

So in English that means…if I am on hook up I can use my hairdryer, if not I have to switch on the inverter to dry my hair.

How do you charge your batteries?

There are two ways to charge your batteries

1.When you’re plugged into at a campsite (or any power source), your 12 volt battery (or batteries) automatically charges.

2. Solar Panels (like us) as we love idea of wild camping and motorhoming off the grid.  Equally, we enjoy public campsites than may not offer power hook-ups, This is an especially great option as there’s never really any need to plug in. Solar panels get wired directly to the battery and inverter / charger unit.  There’s some upfront work to get them up and running but huge benefit.  You can be almost totally self-reliant for your electrical needs. This is how we installed solar.

Flat Battery

Not everything you plug in will draw the same amount of electricity. Some devices run quite well on very little power, while others are big draws on your available power. In general, anything that generates heat or gets cold will draw a lot of power. I soon leant that you can’t run too many of these at once. 

Most of your kitchen appliances use a lot of electricity. Your microwave, coffee maker, kettle and toaster are all electricity hogs. Hence why we don’t own any of these items. Air conditioning units also pull a lot of power.

If you are buying new appliances from new then I would seriously start looking at the power required. It could end up flattening your battery quicker than you thought.

The oven and hob are run on LPG, which we will cover in a separate article.

How do motorhome fridges work?

There are several types of fridges from compressor to absorption. We have an absorption fridge also known as “three-way” fridges.  These fridges use a heat source to supply the energy to run the cooling system. They can use power from a range of sources including LPG gas, 12V DC power (leisure or solar power) or 230V (mains power).

Maintenance

Regular maintenance and inspection is the easiest way to spot a small problem before it becomes a big issue. On a frequent basis take a look at your batteries and all of their connections. A good time might be just before you depart on a trip. 

Check to make sure that all of the connection points are secure, nothing looks damaged or frayed, and everything is clean with no signs of corrosion. If you see something that looks off, it’s a good idea to have it checked out.

Additionally, know where the motorhome electrical panels are in your motorhome. If something’s not powering up as it should, first look to see if a circuit is tripped or if a fuse is blown. You can usually see if a fuse is blown, but sometimes you can’t. In that case, you can use a small test light that will illuminate if a fuse is good. If you replace a fuse and it blows right away, that’s a good sign that there’s a bigger problem. You can also try to follow power lines to determine if there’s a connection issue.  Though these can often be hard to find without professional help.

Electrical storm in Marseille.