Archives for December 2013

In this post I got over how I fixed this boiler up to work in my van. The gas wasn’t burning properly and was quite unsafe. This is to heat the water for the shower–see shower post I knew nothing about water heaters or boilers before taking this apart and had a lot of questions […]

In my van the hot water feed comes in through the wall of the bathroom (see post), through a tap and into the shower head. The water feed to the shower comes straight from the output of the instant water heater. No mixer is needed because the heater has it’s own temperature control. All you […]

Yet another major part of the build that can probably be as simple or as complicated as one likes. I think I went for somewhere in between. For solar panel installation please see installing the solar panels Update: In my book I go through and explain everything needed, in clear detail, for the vans electrical system […]

I fitted two LED down-lights but then decided I needed something brighter for working, reading, whatever so I used a £8 Ikea lamp (in picture above) and attached it to the chest of draws – its really useful. The two LED down-lights take just 0.8W each and give a warm but fairly directional light – straight […]

I was lucky to inherit two 100w solar panels with the van – they just need to be wired in. I used an external waterproof junction box mounted on the roof of the to take the panel cables into the van via compression glands and then into the MPPT solar controller charger (MPPT30 solar charger – […]

Wherever I live I need to be able to reproduce sound to an OK standard. For the last 8 years I’ve used my Alesis speakers. I’ve discovered and shared nearly all of my mammoth music collection on these speakers. All those last minute bedroom parties that would never have happened without these speakers. All that fun […]

This pine cladding is too white. I want a boat look rather than a sauna look. I’m after a  glowing semi gloss sheen effect but it was really difficult to find a product that would give me the image I had in my head. Finding the right wood finishing product is confusing and finding the […]

Today I installed my Shurflo water pump straight onto the wall of the van but when I switched it on, I couldn’t believe the noise coming from this thing! it transmitted around the full van. I realised that, ideally, these pumps should be mounted on solid floor or on any solid structural members to prevent […]

No major update but the completion of this cupboard really makes the van start to look more complete. I’ll now start to run the pipes for gas and water.