This DIY camper solar wiring diagram and parts list is perfect for ground-up electrical installs into campervans, skoolies, or expedition vehicles. This system is most suitable for systems that do not have a pre-existing house electrical system installed.
This diagram features:
- 2000W Inverter Charger
- 200+ Amp Hours of Battery Storage Capacity
- Up to 520W Solar Array Capacity
- Alternator Charging at 60A
- Shore Power Charging/Passthrough
Not quite what you are looking for? Check out other system setups here: https://www.explorist.life/solarwiringdiagrams
Note from Nate: It’s no secret that Battle Born Batteries and Victron Energy are sponsors of the work I do here at EXPLORIST.life. Both of those brands make top of the line, high-end equipment and in my opinion, is worth every penny.
BUT… I have seen time and time again people trying to design systems with less expensive equipment to fit within their budgets (rightfully so. I get that.) but struggle with budget-friendly system design including proper fusing, wire sizes, fuse choices, busbars, component placement, switches, and everything else necessary to build a high-end system. This is why I’ve made this diagram.
This diagram features high-quality fuses, busbars, wires, and lugs with highly efficient wire routing & system design with decreased redundancies that will accommodate most of the popular and less expensive Inverter/Chargers and other components I see people using like Renogy and AIMS.
This is the Honda Civic of camper electrical systems. It won’t win any high-performance races, but it will get you from point A to point B in a safe and reliable manner.
History of Changes to this Page (Click to Expand)
Post Published Jan 8, 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HOW TO USE THIS PAGE – VIDEO
This orientation video will show you how to best use this page to build your DIY Camper Solar Setup. It’s a quick watch but I think it’s pretty important.
DIY Camper Van Wiring Diagram
DIY Camper Solar Parts – Shopping List
The list below is a consolidated parts list for this entire system (Minus the solar charging leg, which is listed at the bottom of this blog post).
For the ‘Quantities’ in the below shopping list, each singular component is listed a quanty per each, wire is listed a quantity of feet, and heat shrink is listed as qty 1 = 2.25″.
For Example:
Qty 1 – Inverter Charger means you need to purchase 1 Inverter Charger
Qty 3 – 4/0 Wire means you need 3 feet of 4/0 wire. This may mean you need to buy 5ft from the product page
Qty 5 heat shrink means you need 5 pieces of 2.25″ heat shrink. This means you’ll need 5 x 2.25″ pieces of heat shrink for a total of 11.25″ of heat shrink.
Camper Solar Parts Detail
The section below will tell you where each of the parts from above fits into the wiring diagram. This is quite lengthy, but if you are having trouble seeing the diagram or just want more clarification that the diagram above doesn’t deliver, hopefully this will help:
Order of Operations for DIY Camper Solar Install
Coming soon
Chris Pearce
Monday 18th of January 2021
Hey Nate. We've purchased everything off of your budget friendly list as well as the pdf diagram. We're complete novices in all of this, so bear with us... I don't see a "standard" breaker box, so I was wondering where all of our regular outlets will wire into? Thanks in advance for your help and more questions may come later. I also had a question regarding the fuse kit, but I believe it's answered in a post below.
peter s baldi
Saturday 16th of January 2021
Hi Nate. I have a 2000W inverter already, but if I go to 400 or even 600 amp hrs of BattleBorn batteries should I go with a 3000W inverter? My AC power needs would be an induction cooktop, AC/DC fridge, coffee maker, and a micro/convection oven. My AC draw would be below 2000W at any one time, but if I have the battery capacity would I be better off with a bigger inverter?
Nate Yarbrough
Monday 18th of January 2021
If the 2000w inverter is working fine for your needs, I see no reason to upgrade.
john k
Tuesday 12th of January 2021
hi nate
your videos etc are so good i just dropped close to $3K buying parts from your list
i did NOT buy the Add-A-Fuse Kit. i don't see it in the wiring diagram and don't know why it's on the list
can you explain, please?
john k
Thursday 14th of January 2021
@Nate Yarbrough, thank you!
Nate Yarbrough
Wednesday 13th of January 2021
That's needed to connect the DC-DC Charger to an Ignition positive wire. The info for that connection is included with the user manual for the Renogy DC-DC Charger.
Gary
Tuesday 12th of January 2021
First of all thank you for all of the time and energy put into all of these diagrams. Your videos are very informative and make something complex simple to understand. I intend to buy all my install stuff thru your links. I also wait thru ads on Youtube so you get the most from them. I wish I could support by buying a wiring diagram but none fully apply to my situation. I am a little unclear of how the wiring would work of you don't have a combined inverter\converter. All of your diagrams have inverter/converter. I already have a separate converter/charger and inverter. I understand that the converter charger should be disconnected from the system when pulling energy from the batteries. So that it is not a loop. I have a transfer switch for inverter/shore. Would that output from the transfer switch go direct to the OE dist panel?
Thanks
Nate Yarbrough
Wednesday 13th of January 2021
Thanks for the support! I generally never recommend a seperate inverter and seperate charger, that's why I don't have a diagram covering that. Here's how I would recommend doing that with the power distribution panel I've got listed above.
Shore power -> Transfer Switch Primary -> AC Breaker Box Battery Power -> Inverter -> Transfer Switch Secondary -> AC Breaker Box.
From there, you would need to find a way to power your battery charger via, perhaps a dedicated outlet wired to your shore power connection to charge the batteries from shore power only.
Keaton
Tuesday 12th of January 2021
I can't seem to access the 'Tutorial Video' on any of these diagrams. Am I missing something?
Also, is the first long list of items the 'master list' and contains all the parts needed for this diagram?
Nate Yarbrough
Wednesday 13th of January 2021
If you have an ad-blocker, sometimes that makes the videos not work.
The first long list is indeed the consolidated list of all parts necessary to make this setup shown in this diagram.