Bus electrical

[Old Cool Bus]

So, converting a school bus is a bit out of my league! But we are doing it.

We were able to buy our fridge off of a guy who buys old RVs, and scraps them out. Since reading a lot of the threads on here about electrical and realizing there is so much more to it than I can comprehend, how do you feel about the idea of trying to buy all of the electrical components from a scrapped RV, and set it up on the bus like it was on the old RV? I would still need to find help from someone who at least thinks they know what they are doing.

[bansil]

Its reasonable if that is what you want, I find most older rv's power lacking in output,plus all components are old and the technology is out dated

It is the cheapest way possibly, if rv is free and it fits your needs(most fridges are to small, at least for us)

Write down what you want to run and when, how long and at the same time.

Will this be hook up to electricity only, or "off grid"

Lot of variables

Electrical if kept simple is not that expensive, I have maybe $1300 which includes wire, breakers both boxes, conduit and small boxes, fridge(120v only), microwave, burners, rotisserie and water heater(120v only)
Mine has been done over time, base wiring first and then a fridge and $20 electric eye, then I doubled up breakers and more wire for more recepticals

Solar and batteries added more don't remember how much, def. Worth it

So determine what requirements are and then save money and prioritize and have money saved up for deals when you can see them

[Old Cool Bus]

One day ultimately I would like to have batteries, some solar panels, a generator, and electricity throughout the bus as you would expect to see in a small bus-home, as this is our goal. By the end of the summer I would like to have a set-up in place that would allow me to upgrade to this without a lot of hassle.

For now, however, and to get us through next winter, we would like to have something in place that would allow us to run a space heater from a campground electrical set-up. That is the main goal, and if that is all we figured out how to do by the end of this summer, we would be okay with that. A couple outlets for some lamps would be nice, and if we had the ability to have a couple outlets for an RV fridge and a 5 cubic foot freezer, running all at the same time, that would be ideal, but if we had to unplug the freezer and fridge to run the space heater, we could live with that for this winter.

When I get a chance I will post some pictures of our little unit. We threw some stuff together very quickly during a couple long weeks at the end of last summer, and in my hast (and before discovering this site) I have done some things that of course should have been done differently, or in a different order.