Camper Van Installation Certificate

[marcuswareham]

If installing a new 230v AC electrical system in a camper van which has the option of being supplied from an inverter from leisure batteries within the van or from a hook up with a change over switch. What supply characteristics are recorded on the certificate

The inverter side would be an IT earth arrangement and the PSCC would be very low however this would be different when on hook up so I guess the system needs to be designed to factor in being connected to the grid.

Likewise if installing a system in a campervan without an inverter only a hook up, how do you a cert not knowing what the supply characteristics will be

I guess rather than having a change over switch, but instead having a battery charger, so when on hook up the batteries are being charged and you are using electricity via the inverter as normal would solve cert details issue, although this seems a little silly & not the best way to do it

This is a theoretical question, although preemptive as the other half is going on about getting a van and converting it into a camper ?

Also while on the subject a similar system within a canal boat, supplied off an inverter with the N-E linked from the inverter, and the hull of the boat bonded to the earth, I would have thought the earthing arrangement would be IT as there is no deliberate connection to earth, but there would be a fortuitous connection to earth via the water and canal banks when the boat is tied up. But is it of a high enough impedance not to count?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I would have thought the earthing arrangement would be IT as there is no deliberate connection to earth,

It is actually TN-S because N & E are solidly linked, separately distributed, and referenced to earth via the hull. The hull connection need not carry significant current, it's not part of any fault path if the installation is entirely within the boat.

In reality a steel-hulled boat will make a rather good connection to earth because canal water isn't usually very pure and the surface area is significant. It's at least as good as a small rod knocked in next to a genny on land. It gets more complicated when a shoreline is involved due to galvanic potentials between different boats and a galvanic isolator or isolating transformer is desirable to avoid accelerating corrosion.