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Welcome to vehicular living. It's always an adventure. Reflectix is aluminum foil covered mylar bubble pack material. It is useful as a radiant barrier. Aluminum foil is useless as an insulator. Foam insulation sheets, spray foam, corrugated cardboard, or carpet pad and carpet can actually...

I added a bunch of insulation inside the fridge resulting in a very small cold space.  There is no coil on the back.  The entire outside steel box is used to dissipate the heat.  That is good to reduce condensation, a problem in high humidity Florida.  The daily energy use is low because of the...

Combustion is a fickle mistress.  Some people fear gaseous  fuels.  Some people fear liquids like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene.  Most people don't realize that solid fuels can explode like coal dust, flour, etc.  Candles that appear to be a solid fuel actually burn gas evaporated from the...

I got a small roll of cable, 50 feet of #8 AWG, from Amazon.  Looking at the cut end it was silvery in color.  Looking at the side of a stripped piece it was copper colored.  That means I actually got copper clad aluminum, CCA.  Aluminum has more resistance so a larger size is needed for similar...

My 100 watt panel was less than $100 in 2016.  They are cheaper now.  A flooded 100 amp hour battery should be about $100.  A ten dollar PWM charge should be about $10.  $425 should cover a lot of bits of wire, terminals, etc.  If your electricity requirement is very low you can use your starter...

You just didn't try hard enough to open them.  : ) The glass can be replaced with metal or plywood to close the space around the air conditioner. On the internet I have seen people mount the air conditioner on the floor with the hot side blowing out the bottom.  It is possible to build a wall...

I searched on the intertubes for "Battery Doctor 140-150A Isolator" and came away with few hard facts.  It says voltage drop is "none" so it appears that it probably is not a two diode isolator.  It says the the current draw is 500 mA, a half amp, so it is likely a relay operated by a...

Welcome to the CRVL forum.

According to the wikipedia awg wire chart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge AWG 4 wire is good for 70 to 95 amps continuously depending on the insulation temperature rating.  The 10 second rating is 946 amps.  If the wire chafes against a sharp edge cuttiing the insulation and...

My track record with battery powered tools has been horrible.  I think they have better batteries now than they did in the prior century.  I got a cheap $26 inverter, 400 / 800 watt, from Harbor Freight.  It works fine with my corded electric drill and corded jig saw.  I never go to use an...

If you are "READY TO GOOOOO" but have not yet gone you can use a Kill A Watt and the smallest space heater you can find and see how much electricity you need. A Kill A Watt will show how many kilowatt hours you have used over a period of time so you can better predict what you need. Kill A...

A full on hair dryer on high heat is 1800 watts.  A small space heater is 1000 watts.  A small space heater on low heat will be about 500 watts.  A Mr Heater Little buddy is 3800 BTU per hour.  That is waaaaay too much heat for a mini-van or hatchback.  500 watts is 1700 BTU per hour and still...

What filter you need depends on what contaminants you want to remove.  If you don't like the smell / taste of chlorine an activated charcoal filter will remove the chlorine and then provide a habitat free of chlorine where bacteria, amoeba and such bugs can thrive and multiply.  UV, ultraviolet...

I have an Ozark Trail (Walmart) brand two burner $30 folding camp stove.  It has been working well for me about 4 years.  I really like the low, flat, wide shape for excellent stability.  The two burners are convenient when cooking more than one thing at a time. I often get yesterday's...

I don't use much AC power.  I have a $26 Harbor Freight modified square wave inverter.  The original post doesn't describe the intended load.  I suggest considering my approach, go cheap, upgrade when you really need to.  I haven't needed to yet.  My inverter has only powered electric motors so...

When I was a school bus drivers the mechanics often thought I was crazy.  Once I asked why they have a six cylinder diesel engine.  They could put a 1 cylinder diesel engine in each of the six wheels.  That way it would be no harder than changing a tire or putting on new brake shoes to overhaul...

1 watt is about 3.4 btu per hour.  They are different units but both measure the speed of flow of energy.  It is like meters and yards both measure length.

I remember the big black cast iron range in the kitchen.  It took great skill to use it.  How do you keep a wood stove from catching on fire and burning up?

I know some people who have CPAP machines. You can get a 12 to 24 volt converter for them. The generic boost converter isn't nearly as expensive.

My controller can be programmed to turn it on and off based on battery voltage.  I use it to turn off my light when the voltage is low to let me know to turn off everything I don't really need.  The max current capacity of the switch is limited.