Thank you guys for all the support. It means a lot to me.
Also, I appreciate the offers for the help. I'm ok for now, and tight on space, but I will keep you guys in mind if I find myself in a real bind.
Yes, its difficult to get on here regularly, power is of course scarce and I have to be picky and choosy about what I use when. Tomorrow is looking like a decent day of sun, so I may be a able to get on here and give some more of the details of day to day life. The job prospect is looking up just a bit tho, so my luck will of course be that the two will collide, and of course, well, priorities.
I will go ahead and address the concern that is apparently on more than one of your minds; the oil lamp. I actually have 3 devices that use combustion to operate. A stove, heater, and the lamp. The van "came with" a carbon monoxide detector, so I'm good there. I don't run anything without the windows open to some degree anyway, and I don't go to sleep with them on either. As for the smoke detector, not sure why this would be necessary since I would always be awake and present when using these devices...? Unless someone can think of something I'm missing. If I'm still in the van when winter comes, I will preheat the van with the heater and then use the overwhelming supply of blankets and such that also came with the van.
The only other reason I can think of to have a smoke detector is for the wiring, but that doesn't seem prudent either; fuses are appropriately placed with the exception of one right at the SLA. It's fuse is downstream a couple of feet in the meter box, but is the first thing the battery sees when it gets there. There are also several diodes in place (primarily as isolation to prevent cross charging/discharging), but of course have the effect of keeping shorts isolated too. And they are rated 6A, so if something were to go wrong and they were the weakest link for whatever reason, there's a good chance that they would explode and disconnect the problem before it gets worse. Not necessarily, but probable.
Well that's it for the moment. I'm using my phone to type this, which can be frustrating to say the least, but when I have enough surplus power, I'll get on with the laptop and do some more updates, as well as the day to day stuff. I also have a couple new toys I'll share.
I can be found on IRC more often than replying on the forum because I have an IRC client installed on the phone, and the chat is shorter and easier (tho slower than a computer) to yap with.
Until next time,
Steve