Switches & Switch Panels
Overview
Overview
Switches & Switch Panels Overview
About Switches & Switch Panels
About Switches & Switch Panels
A switch decides whether something is on. A panel decides whether you can find it.
Both matter, and they are different problems. A single toggle by the light it controls is fine for the light. It is not fine for the pump, the fan, the compressor and the strip under the awning, because that is four switches in four places, and by the third night nobody remembers which is which.
So the range here runs both ways. Single toggles and round switches with a built-in indicator, for the circuit that lives on its own and wants a switch beside it. Flush panels that put one switch in a wall cleanly. And multi-panels that gather several switches with the outlets and a voltmeter, for the spot where the vehicle is run from.
The rating matters more than the look. A switch carries the full current of its circuit, and one rated below that draw runs warm and fails, usually shut. Check the rating against the circuit before wiring it.
Then label everything. A switch that is not labelled is a switch that gets flicked to find out, and the one that gets flicked to find out is usually the pump with the tank empty.
Put the panel where the vehicle is run from. By the door on a caravan, by the tailgate on a canopy, near the bed if that is where the lights get turned off. A panel in the right place gets used. One behind a cupboard door gets bypassed with a switch taped to the wall beside it.




