€109.00
(tax incl.)
The perfect little additional storage made to co above the C5 or the A units.
Your van should be a place of freedom, not frustration.
Wiring it up doesn’t need to feel like you’re back in school studying electrical engineering. Forget endless diagrams and tangled wires. With the right power station and a few smart choices, you can have safe, reliable power without blowing your budget or your patience. Let’s walk through how to keep it simple, step by step.
Step 1: Choose Your Power Station
The heart of your system is the power station. These clever boxes combine battery, inverter, and charge controller all in one, meaning no messy wiring jobs or scary electrical setups.
At Simple Vans, we always reach for EcoFlow power stations. They pack everything you need—battery management, pure sine wave AC, multiple charging options, and built-in safety protections—into a sleek, reliable unit. For weekends away, 500–1000Wh is plenty. If you’re on the road for longer, aim for 1500–2000Wh. Tuck it somewhere secure, ventilated, and easy to reach, and you’re good to go.
Other names you’ll see out there are Bluetti, Goal Zero, and Jackery, but EcoFlow is our go-to for performance and ease of use.
Step 2: Keep Lighting Simple
Lighting makes all the difference between cargo van and cosy home on wheels. Luckily, it’s one of the easiest upgrades. USB LED strips are plug-and-play with your power station with no wiring required. For something more permanent, 12V LED strips peel and stick under cabinets or along the ceiling, connecting straight into your power station’s 12V outlet. Add a little switch or remote control and you’re sorted.
And here’s a neat upgrade: built-in USB ports. Mount them flush in your furniture and run a short length of wire back to your power station’s 12V output. It’s as simple as connecting the positive and negative terminals, adding a small in-line fuse for safety, and tucking the wires away. The result is a clean, professional-looking charging point right where you need it—next to the sink, your bed, or the table.
Need more focused light? Puck lights are perfect. Battery versions screw in anywhere, while 12V wired ones sip power from your station. And thanks to the efficiency of LEDs, you’ll get days of light from a single charge.
Step 3: Charge While You Drive
Your engine is basically a big generator, so why not use it? A DC-to-DC charger (we like Ecoflow, Victron or Renogy) sends power from your starter battery to your power station whenever the engine’s running. That means a two-hour drive can top up most of what you used overnight. If you want the ultimate lazy option, most power stations can also charge from your 12V cigarette socket. It’s slower, but dead easy.
Step 4: Add Solar Freedom
If you really want to feel off-grid, solar is the way to go. Portable panels are great. You just unfold them like a briefcase at camp, angle them to the sun, and plug them into your power station. On a sunny day, 100–200W panels can keep your power station topped up and humming along happily.
Want something more permanent? Flexible roof-mounted panels give you solar on tap, but you can still keep it simple with tape-on installs instead of drilling into your roof.
Step 5: Put It All Together
Here’s the magic. Your system runs itself. Solar charges while you’re parked, the alternator charges while you’re driving, and your power station keeps everything powered in between.
If you’re just starting with a light and a phone, plug them straight into your EcoFlow and you’re done. But as soon as you add more 12V gear—like LED strips, built-in USB ports, or a fan—it’s worth installing a small 12V bus bar or fuse block. This gives you one clean connection to your EcoFlow’s 12V output, with each accessory safely fused and neatly wired.
The best place to mount the bus bar is inside a cupboard, out of sight but still within reach—ideally right next to your power station. Our D5 Top Cupboard is designed with exactly this in mind. It’s the perfect extra unit to house both your EcoFlow and a compact fuse block, keeping your wiring short, tidy, and easy to access whenever you need it.
Start small with just the basics, then expand with a fridge, fan, or more outlets as you go. And don’t forget safety: use fuses, secure your cables, and if you’re not confident about hooking into your starter battery, get a pro to do that part.
The Bottom Line
Modern power stations have made van wiring refreshingly simple. You don’t need to wrestle with complicated systems or expensive installs. You just need a solid power station, some lights, and a bit of common sense. Start simple, grow as you go, and spend your energy where it belongs: out on the road, not hunched over wiring diagrams.
Power sorted. Now it’s time to chase sunsets. 🌅🚐
