5 Tips To Help You With Your Electrical Installation

Whether you are wiring up a boat, campervan, motorhome or an off grid house, these tips should help you along the way.

Our five tips to help you with your electrical install are:

1) Research! There are lots of helpful articles online, we have a section on our website called Knowledge Centre which is full of information to guide you on the way to completing your electrical installation. In addition to the information on our Knowledge Centre we have created a lot of videos on our YouTube channel which could also be beneficial to you. Even reading the manuals for products can help clear things up like which cable to use, which fuse to use and how to install the product. If a manual is available for a product that we stock, it will be on our website under the Manuals/Guides tab on the listing of the product.

2) Take time planning your installation. Making a wiring diagram is a key part of the planning process for an electrical build and having a guide to follow can save you lots of stress along the way. If you do not know where to start with a wiring diagram or just want to see examples of some, we have a few different options available to check out on our website - click here to view them. It can also be really useful to ident/mark your cables as well because if you need to fault find at any point, this can make it a lot easier!

3) Fusing is extremely important in electrics because if your cable is fused and there is a surge in current that the cable cannot handle, the fuse will cut the circuit off before the cable gets hot, melts and eventually catches fire. You only need to fuse on the positive/+ side of the cable and every positive cable needs to be fused (it's good practice to even fuse the cable going to the fusebox). Always remember to fuse above the current that you are expected to go through the cable and below the cable's overall rating. 

4) Voltage drop is a major issue in 12V DC electrics and has a much more significant impact than in domestic 230V AC systems. An example could be with an LED light where if the cable is not sufficiently large to reduce voltage drop, the voltage experienced by the light might be so low that it may appear to be dim, flicker or, in some cases, not power up at all. We have created a calculator on our site to help you select the correct cable for the job. Simply type in the voltage of your system, the amperage of what you are powering and the number of metres the cable needs to be and the calculator will recommend the best cable size for you.

5) Give yourself more time than you originally planned. With electrics you do not want to leave things to the last minute or cut corners as mistakes with electrics can cause fires and in some cases be fatal. We often hear from customers that their electrics took twice as look as they originally thought they would. 

I hope these tips help you along the way and as always, if you have any questions, contact us at sales@12voltplanet.co.uk and we will be happy to help you.

Also, make sure you are following us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as we share exclusive helpful and inspiring content on these platforms.