Thursday, September 27, 2018

Brite iDear?

Some time ago I found a nifty work light. It's LED and works on either AC or DC.

The only problem was the AC cord was permanently attached. The extra cord was always in the way when plugged into a vehicle. My solution was to replace the AC power cord with a removable cord and outlet harvested from an old computer.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Power Outlets

Several years ago we remodeled the RV dinette. Benches on each side of the table were replaced with real chairs. We traded guest twin bed conversion capability (which we never used) for shelving on both sides of the table. Key to making that possible was consolidating all the electrical stuff into a compact cabinet under the table between the shelves. The cabinet hides the wires for all the AC and DC circuits as well as the converter/charger. Its face left access to the power panel with all the breakers and fuses. (Previously, all that electrical stuff wasted most of the space under both benches.)

The dining mod also involved ditching the LP furnace (which didn't work anyway). To stay warm in cold weather electric space heaters work well. We always have shore power at full hookup RV sites in volunteer villages where we serve. To help reduce the trip hazard of a corded heater an outlet was added under the table. This winter I completed a mod to control the heater from our wall thermostat. An outlet was added under the table that only gets power when the thermostat says so. (Eventually, I'd like to replace the space heater with baseboard heaters; meanwhile, at least the wiring is now in place for that mod.)