Making use of 120 volts when you have it

[grandfatherjim]

Not quite sure if this is the right place but the electrical zone stresses that posts there should be symptom/repair - which this isn't.
So I put it in camping. Let me know if it should be elsewhere.

We sometimes camp at sites where there are 120 volt hookups.
I didn't want to get an auxiliary battery, yet anyway. So I came up with this scheme and it has worked out fairly well. This wiring is in a kitchen unit that I made that houses an electric cooler, water reservoir, and sink. There's a length of 120v extension cord that stores in the back of the cabinet, so when we get to a campsite with 120 it pulls out through the hole in the side of the bus.

Plugging in to 120 energizes the relay, so that then the 12 volt loads (cooler, pump for kitchen sink, and whatever you plug into the lighter socket) are run from the 120VAC/12VDC adapter that came with the cooler, rather than the bus battery. Unplug from 120 and the bus battery takes over.
Where I show the +12v from vehicle, I actually have a plug that goes into a cigar lighter socket. I thought I might want to easily remove the kitchen unit one day.

[albumimg]2365[/albumimg]

[grandfatherjim]

Grrrr that picture is too small. But it's almost the largest size I can upload.
When you click on it, the IAC logo is covering up the 12 volt cigar socket.

[bretski]

Nice idea for the non-camper model folks. For the picture, I would suggest linking it through one of the free upload sites (flickr, photobucket, etc).