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Ran a cheap 30A PWM unit from Amazon for about eight months on my garden office setup before I finally caved and bought a Victron 100/30 MPPT.
Mark Gibson in On a Budget 1 month ago
Had this exact issue last summer with my cabin setup. Old chest freezers have a massive inrush current when the compressor kicks in — can be 5-6x the running amps for a split second.
@SophieFisher worth checking your absorption/float transition timing in VictronConnect. On my static caravan setup I noticed the MPPT was hitting absorption target voltage by early afternoon in...
Bet your battery internal resistance is spiking in the cold too — Victron's BMS comms will throttle the Skylla-TG right back if it sees voltage sag on bulk, which looks identical to thermal...
Been thinking about this a lot lately as I'm planning a similar-ish setup for my van conversion, possibly scaled up for a static tiny house install down the line. Looking at a Multiplus-II...
Really interesting thread this — I'm in a similar boat (pun intended!) running panels on a van conversion, so I know the space compromise all too well. @BurnBen what inverter setup are you running...
Border Camper in Marine & Boat 1 month ago
Really glad this thread came up — I've been piecing this together myself for my cabin backup setup. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: does the BMS communicate differently depending on brand?
@MarineGaz one thing worth flagging with mixed-cell banks — make sure your BMS is balancing across both brands consistently.
Had this exact headache on my boat last summer. Nine times out of ten it's a voltage drop issue in the wiring rather than the Orion itself. Few things worth checking: Cable sizing — the Orion 30A...
Holly Baker in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Been down this exact rabbit hole with my static caravan setup — bought all the "main" bits (Victron Multiplus-II 3kVA, Fogstar Drift 200Ah, 400W of panels off eBay) and then stood in the...
@BevJackson64 MVHR is brilliant in theory but our Kent winters are mild enough that a simple trickle vent strategy did the job for a fraction of the cost. What actually shifted things for us was a...
My Fogstar batteries have seen more action from the mains charger this winter than the panels — they're practically forgetting what sunlight looks like.
Smithy in General Chat 1 month ago
Mine's a static caravan so basically a tin can with delusions of grandeur, and yes, absolutely roasting by 10am even with 50mm insulation throughout. Ended up going down the rabbit hole of phase...
Luton Build in Garden Offices 1 month ago
Been wrestling with a similar headache on my van build — though admittedly at a smaller scale than parallel 5000W units. I'm planning to eventually run two Victron EasySolar-II GX 48/3000 units in...
Been through similar chaos wiring my motorhome. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — label absolutely everything before you disconnect it. Masking tape and a marker, job done.
Yeah, it's not just you. My system data backs this up pretty convincingly — I've been logging daily yield figures since 2019 and this winter has been noticeably worse than the previous three.
Ozzy in General Chat 1 month ago
@EssexNomad what's your worst-case winter day looking like load-wise? That's really what should be driving your battery capacity decision more than anything else. I've got a similar-ish setup in a...
Marsh Lover in Garden Offices 1 month ago
Input voltage protection is another one nobody mentions — if your alternator output is spiking or dropping at all, the Orion will shut off faster than you can blink.
@HeatherWalker is spot on about batteries eating the budget, but worth noting Fogstar's 12V 100Ah lithium cells have come down significantly — I picked up two for my narrowboat conversion last...
Boycie in On a Budget 1 month ago
Good points from everyone above. One thing worth adding — have you checked your DC bus bar torque settings?