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
Paul Johnson
Wednesday 24th of February 2021
Hi Nate, Best website I've seen so far for camper solar systems! I'm a bit confused about battery nomenclature. I've seen reference to lithium batteries, lithium ion batteries and lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries. Are these all the same animal? Thanks
brent heness
Wednesday 24th of February 2021
Hi Nate, I have just purchased a sprinter van, my inverter is running straight off the starter battery, the inverter is 1200 watt running a electric fridge, 1000 watt microwave & convection cooktop. My question is to run a solar set up, can i run leads from my inverter to a dc to dc charger first or should i run it to the 2 135ah house batteries. New to this stuff cheers confused.
Casey Cook
Saturday 20th of February 2021
Hi Nate, Can I use 150AH 12v LifePO4 for my 2000 watt inverter? I am really only using the inverter for a 1200w microwave which will only run for a few minutes at a time, 1 or 2 times a day. Or should the Battery WH exceed the inverter? I could probably use a 700w microwave with a 1500 w inverter.
Thanks, Casey
Nate Yarbrough
Saturday 20th of February 2021
Any less than what I've recommended in this blog post will yield inconsistent results and I, therefore, cannot recommend less than minimum stated here, which is a minimum of 200Ah.
Mike Goodman
Thursday 18th of February 2021
Nate, Great stuff. I originally planned to use this system. However, I've switched to the system with a 2000w Victron inverter. On this you have the two bus bars. The positive is a Victron (although what came from Amazon does not say Victron). In another post you say you aren't recommending some bus bars. Are the bars in this system sufficient or should I return these materials and get the Victron Lynx you have in the wiring diagram I purchased?
Marty Gregory
Monday 15th of February 2021
Nate, Thanks so much for all the good info. I have purchased your 12v DC and AC diagrams along with DIY Campervan diagram. I want to use the Kisae (DMT1250 DC-DC & MPPT charger and Kisae inverter/charger 2000W) Can you show a diagram where these are implemented? Happy to buy the diagram again if these were in place.
Thanks!!!! MG
Nate Yarbrough
Tuesday 16th of February 2021
The Kisae inverter/charger should be able to just be able to be substituted in place.
The DC-DC & MPPT charger would take a bit of changing up, but is something I don't have a diagram for, so you'll have to do your due diligence on that, but you can use my diagram as a base. Just be VERY cognizant, that the solar input on this unit is only 30-something, so wiring solar panels in series or series-parallel like I show in my diagrams is NOT acceptable.