I'm just about to set about plumbing.
I have no sink in the kitchenette. I've got one in the bathroom but the faucet is too low and if lacks a good attachment to the vanity.
The plan as of right now is to have no sinks at all, rather, portable plastic bowls that can be filled, used then emptied down the shower pan.
There will be two 15 gallon drums underneath, one for fresh water and one for waste water. I'm hoping 15 gallons will last a week. If it doesn't, I can add more drums. But I don't want to add too many since full, they're 125lbs.
To extract the water from the drums, I'll use a hand pump.
For hot water, I'll have a 5 gallon container with an element connected to a solar panel with a thermostat set to cut off at 80 or 90. That drum could be underneath the bus and well insulated and possibly accessed via the same pump.
Thoughts?
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If you spend any appreciable time in your bus you may (will?) find your system to be too "manual", for want of a better term. Pumps such as the SHURflo 2088 are inexpensive and don't need much power to run them, not that they're usually on for more than briefly. Water capacity, or lack thereof, is often the determining factor in how long one can stay off-grid - any bus conversion has more than enough weight capacity to carry useful amounts of water and have equivalently-large waste tanks, unlike most RVs that are overloaded if their tanks are full! When have you ever heard of any RVer or bus owner complaining that they have too much water or too large waste tanks, or too much of anything? You're only doing this once, so put in the biggest darn tanks that will fit: you don't have to always fill them completely full.
As for solar water heating, I plan on using my remaining roof space for two such panels. However, the more I read about this, the more I realize that there's a lot more to it than just connecting a panel to your hot water system - there's pumps to consider, drain-back (to prevent freezing and to stop the water boiling if it's not circulating), and a myriad of ways it can be connected to the LPG water heater. It's not as easy as it seems! There's lot of good information out there on how to do it.
If some horrid little Class C RV can have proper plumbing, there's no reason that a full-size bus conversion can't!
John
For water on my sailboat I have 2 foot operated pumps. Works well, new try defender online marine supplies, can be bought used at a used marine supply store or try fleabay. A 5 gal insulated igloo cooler would work for hot water. Put the heating element down from the top to prevent leaks. Sounds like a simple effective solution. Good luck, regards. Phil
Quote from: Iceni John on September 16, 2015, 08:21:15 PM
If you spend any appreciable time in your bus you may (will?) find your system to be too "manual", for want of a better term. Pumps such as the SHURflo 2088 are inexpensive and don't need much power to run them, not that they're usually on for more than briefly. Water capacity, or lack thereof, is often the determining factor in how long one can stay off-grid - any bus conversion has more than enough weight capacity to carry useful amounts of water and have equivalently-large waste tanks, unlike most RVs that are overloaded if their tanks are full! When have you ever heard of any RVer or bus owner complaining that they have too much water or too large waste tanks, or too much of anything? You're only doing this once, so put in the biggest darn tanks that will fit: you don't have to always fill them completely full.
As for solar water heating, I plan on using my remaining roof space for two such panels. However, the more I read about this, the more I realize that there's a lot more to it than just connecting a panel to your hot water system - there's pumps to consider, drain-back (to prevent freezing and to stop the water boiling if it's not circulating), and a myriad of ways it can be connected to the LPG water heater. It's not as easy as it seems! There's lot of good information out there on how to do it.
John
The reason behind the manual pump is twofold. First I can always be assured muscle power will work. Second, I'm not putting in any house batteries.
I wasn't considering the water filled panels. I was thinking more toward pva solar panels and an electric element combined with a thermal preset.
Quote from: Sharkbait on September 16, 2015, 09:51:09 PM
For water on my sailboat I have 2 foot operated pumps. Works well, new try defender online marine supplies, can be bought used at a used marine supply store or try fleabay. A 5 gal insulated igloo cooler would work for hot water. Put the heating element down from the top to prevent leaks. Sounds like a simple effective solution. Good luck, regards. Phil
Those foot pumps sound good. I've got my eye on the Northern Tool mini well pump. That's $40 and looks reasonable. I'll look at your foot pumps though. That would leave my hands free.
The igloo cooler idea had me wondering just why in tarnation I hadn't thought of that. I'd been thinking all around the block on that but it's such a simple solution!
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Quote from: Zephod on September 17, 2015, 07:27:03 AM
I wasn't considering the water filled panels. I was thinking more toward pva solar panels and an electric element combined with a thermal preset.
Interesting. I also have the option of doing exactly that, but for slightly different reasons. Ordinarily it is not recommended to heat water this way because the energy transmission losses are significant, but it can be done if you have enough panels and they're producing good power. The renewable energy folk on the NAWS forum assume that the overall panel-to-AC power derating is about 50%, i.e. 1,000 watts of PV panel nameplate rating (the STC rating, not real-world output which is typically only 80% of STC) after running through the charge controller(s), batteries and inverter will produce only about 500 watts of AC power. This means that you'll need about 2,000 watts of PV to produce about 1,000 watts of AC power. Most smaller electric water heaters, such as the heating element in my Suburban 6-gallon heater, consume just over 1,000 watts. This means that my panels would effectively be producing at full power to just heat water this way! Obviously I can only do this if A) I have already finished charging the batteries for the day, and B) the sun is shining strongly and it's not too hot outside. This will be an opportunity load at best, something to use what would otherwise be wasted potential power during the afternoons. If the batteries take longer to recharge or if the weather isn't cooperating, I won't hold out much hope of heating water this way. This would be just one of several ways that I can heat water, and I have several Plan Bs in case it doesn't work.
2,000 watts of PV panels is eight big grid-tie panels, each about 40" x 64", and this occupies most of my usable roof real estate. You need to be thinking of a significant amount of PV to heat water - a few small panels won't do much at all! Given a choice, it's always more efficient to heat water by direct water-heating solar panels than by PV, but one then encounters the complications that I mentioned before.
John
There are replacement 300W and lower elements. Connecting the panel directly to the element will not damage either though I do recommend a thermal preset to stop the water getting too hot.
I'm going the DIY route. The igloo cooler idea seems great. I'm minded that a square cooler could be slung under the bus and combined with a thermal cutout and a low water cutout. I'm going to have to give thought as to how to implement a water level gauge.
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