I’m Gustavo. I trained as an electrical technician, converted a cargo van into a camper with my own hands, and then ended up living in one.
That last part wasn’t the plan.
The two vehicles behind every number on this site
Where this comes from
In December 2018 I traded my car for a 2005 Ford Transit L2H2. Bare metal, no windows, nothing. It took eight months of evenings and weekends to make it liveable: floor, insulation, furniture, water, electrics. No plans, no software — measuring as I went and fixing what didn’t fit.
Later I rebuilt the entire electrical system of a 1982 Ford Transit motorhome, which is where I live now.
So the electrics on this site aren’t a hobby. They’re what keeps my fridge running.
Why electrics specifically
Because it’s the part where people lose the most money, and where the internet gives the worst advice.
Almost every guide tells you to add up your watts and add 20 %. Follow that and your inverter shuts down the first time the fridge compressor kicks in. Nobody mentions surge current. Nobody gives you a single amp figure for a rooftop air conditioner — they say it “uses a lot of power” and leave it there.
It’s 137 amps at 12 volts. That’s the kind of number this site exists to give you.
How I work
I measure things. When I say a fan drew 65 to 85 W instead of the 46 W on its display, it’s because I put a clamp meter on the battery side and worked out why.
I publish what failed. I killed a perfectly good AGM battery by running a 230 V fan overnight through an inverter. I spent close to €1,000 on a hot water system that never worked. A charge controller terminal melted from road vibration. A Victron MPPT died on me at nine months old.
Those are worth more to you than the things that went right.
If something doesn’t work, I say so. That includes gear I bought and equipment I’d never buy again.
Start here
Sizing an installation
- Inverter sizing calculator — including startup surge
- Wire gauge calculator for 12V systems (AWG)
- AGM vs lithium: what the difference looks like in use
- How to Wire an Auxiliary Battery in a Camper Van
Working out consumption
- What a 12V fridge actually draws
- Can you run air conditioning off a battery? The real numbers
- Your Power Calculations Are Wrong. Here’s by How Much
- Diesel Heater Power Consumption: The Startup Is Not One Spike
Something is broken
- Why your inverter keeps shutting off — seven causes
- Undersized wire: the symptoms and a ten-minute test
- Solar panel not charging? Find the fault in five measurements
- RV water pump not working? Nine times out of ten it’s air, not the pump.
- Where to place fuses in a 12V camper electrical system
- What fuse size do you need between battery and inverter
- Why does the fuse keep blowing in my camper’s 12V system?
- Camper battery draining overnight? Find the parasitic draw
- Camper Van Hot Water: I Spent €1,000 and Got 20 Seconds
- Why My AGM Battery Died in Under a Year — With the Measurements
This site is also published in Spanish, where it covers Spanish vehicle regulations and homologation. Those pages aren’t translated here because they don’t apply outside Spain.