All Wired In

I couldn't wait. Impatience is one of my weaknesses. I decided to bring everything into the living room and get it done this evening.

I was rather surprised when I opened the plug socket and found that the earth lead had come loose - this was a better way of finding out than an electric shock.

This is likely to have been because the wire was pulling on the earth cable so I made a note to leave the earth lead longer than the others when I rewired it.

It was pleasing to see that the suppliers had included a wiring diagram. This meant that I didn't need to go back onto YouTube to remind myself of where each wire went. 

The picture above is the unit with all the wiring finished. The next job was to screw it to the inside of the unit.

With the consumer unit fitted snugly up against the shelf it is easily accessible to turn it on and off - which is important because all of the instructions I have read say that it should be switched off before plugging it in on site. So I made sure all the switches were off, connected the other end of the lead to the 13A adapter and plugged it into the mains.

The green light in the picture below shows that everything is working. I flicked both the RCD and MCB off and on again and they both cut the power, which means I have wired everything up correctly.

So Tyrion is all ready for plugging in on site, safely protected from current leakage, short circuits and overloads.

The next project I need to tackle is lighting.

Some Winter Usage

I don't like winter, but now that Christmas and New Year are behind us the days have started getting a little longer and I'm pottering around in the back of the van during the evening again. Yes, it's dark by the time I get home from work, but between the outside light on the drive and the head torch I have just about enough light to work by.

Yesterday I put the bed back in. I know I posted about it being unsafe, but if I put it down the other side I can't have any back seats up at all and I can't see any sensible way to carry it on it's side, so I'll just have to hope that nobody hits me in the rear hard enough to ram the bed forward - for now anyway.

Having taken the mattress and bedding out for the winter it seemed silly to put them back in just on a whim, so I have inflated the airbed and am using that on top of the bed frame. I figure that not much can happen to a plastic airbed in the cold and damp (although if something does I will call it a learning experience and head to Asda for another one).

An airbed in a van - neither are mine,
just a pic from the net to break up the text

So today's lunch break was spent lounging in the back of the van, propped up on a rucksack full of spare clothes, drinking coffee and watching Netflix on my tablet. It was more comfortable than sitting at my desk (we have no staff room), quieter than Starbucks (or any other coffee shop or restaurant at lunch time in a busy city centre) and afforded me some privacy.

I have experimented with different storage options, starting out with a single plastic tote with a hinged lid. When I started planning the bed I hoped to store the tote underneath it, but this didn't work out so it slid around in the back of the van, sometimes on the top of the bed and sometimes beside it. 

I had to add a second tote when I bought more gear and new then that something had to give. Although they stacked beside the bed, there was no room to move around them and they had to come out if I needed to carry anything else.

I may have too much stuff in the back of my van,
but at least I know mine will never be this bad.

Recently the totes were replaced by a pair of folding crates and these took up less space, but still didn't work around the bed very well. Last week I came across under-bed storage boxes in Asda for three pounds each and bought a couple. Most of my gear is now stashed in these and they both slide under the bed and out of the way. I still have a few things in a folding crate, but have an idea to get rid of this and to gain a worktop which will support either a laptop, wash bowl or gas stove and which will store the cooker and gas underneath when not needed. This will free up a lot of space in one of the under-bed boxes, which means I can get rid of the last folding crate.

Of course, like many of my ideas this may not happen, but I will be popping into B&Q tomorrow for a dig in their offcuts bin.

I've added some random pictures from the web but I wanted to add a couple of my own. I got a Selfie Stick for Christmas, so here are a couple of 'in the van' selfies taken this evening.