At 12:23 PM 12/16/97 -0800, Chris Uzzi wrote:
>(1) I will be following the instructions listed at
>http://www.vanagon.com/info/faq/. These instructions state "With this
>configuration, the aux battery supplies cabin power  whenever your
>engine is not running." Does this include the 120V power sockets?
Nope. You need to add something called an inverter to convert 12 VDC to 120 VAC.

> For example, will I be able to plug in a heater or a laptop computer into
>the power socket and get juice as if I was hooked up to a external power
>source.
Forget about running a heater off of your battery. Even if you had an
inverter capable of supplying that kind of power, the heater would suck your
battery dry in a matter of minutes. You can buy a small inverter for less
that $100 that will nicely power a laptop.

>(2) Referring to
>http://www.vanagon.com/info/vehicles/beethoven/electrical.html I'm a bit
>confused as to the purpose of "Getting a charge" procedure. Does the
>trickle charger simply monitor the secondary battery's charge?
Trickle chargers charge a battery very slowly over a long period of time.
They are really designed to be used to maintain batteries in a charged state
when they aren't being used.

>someone explain in greater detail this statement from the above
>procedure, "Another thing I wanted was to be able to plug my van into
>the power grid and have my heater run right off the grid." What is meant
>by "grid"?
The grid refers to the country's power system, what you connect to when you
plug something into a wall socket in your house. For examle, when you're
camped out in the wilderness in your van, you're off the grid. When you pull
into a RV campground and plug in to the 120VAC there, you're back on the
grid. I believe the statement above is referring to the fact that a trickle
charger generally won't supply very much power, so it's nice to have a bit
more sophisticated & powerful charger that will supply lots of 12 volt power
at the same time it's charging the battery(s). Such chargers cost quite a
bit more money than trickle chargers, which can be obtained for $25 or $30.