For most of Project Erica I've been publishing one video a week, but here we are with the second installment in the space of 4 days. There are two reasons for this:
1) The build has accelerated over the last couple of weeks with lots of tasks getting finished, so I've already got the footage recorded for the next two videos;
2) My month-by-month subscription to the video editing software is up for renewal in a few days' time, so it seems sensible to get the antepenultimate and penultimate videos edited now so that I can cancel it (the final video* may be a while away yet) - and if I'm making the videos, I may as well publish them**.
The subject of this video is Erica's electrical system, which involved three days of me kneeling on her floor surrounding myself with tools and wires. My pleasure at things actually working once I'd connected them was arguably a little disproportionate and perhaps reflects an inbuilt pessimism that I seldom expect things to go to plan.
It's another quite long one at 23 minutes (including a couple of bonus snippets at the end), but unlike the heater installation installment, I'm happy with how this video has turned out.
(*Now I think about it there may be two more videos: the final bits of the build combined with the grand tour, and a 'what it cost' review.
**YouTube would probably advise me to stick with a regular schedule, however, I've no interest in building a YouTube channel. I may well create more videos in the future if we do another significant project of some description, but for now the vlogging will finish with the completion of Erica.)
I am impressed with your command of electrics. I have no doubts about your abilities, but I wonder if you are obliged to have your systems and installation checked. I guess a commercial enterprise undertaking conversions would need to have some kind of inspection certificate or the like?
ReplyDeleteMy knowledge (and experience) of mains electric is rather better than my knowledge of 12v, but I've certainly learnt a lot on the subject this year. It's surprising how different two things that essentially involve wires, connections and current can be.
DeleteThere is no obligation to have our systems checked (neither electric nor gas), although I suspect that if there was a fault caused by a negligent installation that caused the destruction of the vehicle then the insurer would decline to pay out.
Commercial motorhome manufacturers do have greater obligations, although experience suggests that doesn't rule out dangerous faults. Colin had been converted by a professional set-up and we also had them carry out an annual habitation check which included an electrical safety test. The problem with electrical safety checks is that they only pick up safety issues that are manifesting themselves at that moment. So, they didn't pick up the chafed wire that caused us a trip with no lights (the fuses did their job on that one), nor did they pick up the near-disasterous fault that could so easily have resulted in Colin going up in flames (we smelt the smoke and were able to isolate the fault before his melted electrical panel actually burst into flames).