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PikeWalker | 847 posts Not a narrowboat owner myself, but my garden office and cabin run as completely separate banks — Victron BMV-712 on each — and the mental model that finally clicked for me...
Pike Walker in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Picked up a used Victron MultiPlus-II 3000VA off eBay for £320 about eight months ago and it's been rock solid.
Ozzy in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 6
NicolaKing85 | 📍 Array | Posts: 47 Been lurking on this thread with interest — I'm currently speccing out a 12V system for a shepherd's hut build and a separate garden office setup, so BMS choices...
Nicola King in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 2
I've got a fairly standard setup in my Transit — 200W of panels on the roof feeding into a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30, with a single 100Ah lithium leisure battery. Works a treat.
Wild Mechanic in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 6
Great thread @WezFrost — welcome to the forum, solid first post and a proper sensible question. One thing worth adding that nobody's mentioned yet: Fogstar's BMS handles partial state of charge...
SmartSolar_Master in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 3
Same situation with my garden office setup — Cerbo talks perfectly to the Victron stack but my non-Victron bits are basically invisible without workarounds. What I ended up doing was running a...
Dizzy70 in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 1
@BatteryTony Jumping in to add something nobody's mentioned yet — winter usable capacity isn't just about the darker days, it's also about temperature.
Kate in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 9
@KellyRobinson worth adding to what @GazAllen was saying — the bigger practical issue on a narrowboat is shading.
Chris in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Really interested to see the full data @AndyButler. My setup is primarily emergency backup rather than daily off-grid, so winter performance has always been my main concern when deciding whether...
Spud74 in Garden Offices 6 months ago thumb_up 3
The real villain nobody's naming is the voltage drop across that relay — by the time the LiFePO4 actually sees enough volts to charge properly, you're basically tickling it rather than filling it.
Moor Russ in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Mine ran so warm last August I started charging my phone off the residual heat 🔥 Jokes aside — I've got Drift cells in my shepherd's hut and noticed they peak a fair bit higher than spec when the...
ExJoiner32 in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 2
WillWilliams | Posts: 456 @AmyChapman89 One thing worth adding to what @GeorgeShaw and the others have mentioned — marina shore power can have quite poor waveform quality, and the MultiPlus-II is...
Will Williams in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 2
@JLB_Boats went 100/30 on my cabin build and honestly wished I'd gone 100/50 about three weeks later — future-proofing is cheaper than rewiring round a load of tongue-and-groove cladding 🔨
Mel in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Great thread @IanWhite, looking forward to reading the full write-up when you finish it! One thing worth flagging for anyone else considering this swap on a Westerly — make sure you're factoring...
Robbo41 in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 2
BorderNomad | 847 posts | ⚡ Solar Enthusiast @CamperShaun interesting thread — I ran a Renogy 100Ah for about a year before swapping to the Fogstar Drift and there's a noticeable difference in...
Border Nomad in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 2
So I've been running a 400W roof array with a Victron SmartSolar MPPT into a 200Ah Fogstar lithium bank in my Transit conversion for about 18 months.
Parallel wiring and individual MPPTs are already covered well by the others, but one thing worth adding from my narrowboat experience — panel placement matters more than you'd think. I...
Heather Soul in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 1
@QuietHiker been running Venus OS on a Pi 3B+ in my motorhome for about eight months now — stability has been rock solid, genuinely surprised me.
Wonky Rigger in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 5
SarahClark75 | 412 posts | 🏡 Static Caravan Off-Gridder @StormyHiker I had almost identical behaviour with mine last winter!
Sarah Clark in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Hey @Wayne1980, one thing worth looking at that hasn't been mentioned yet is your battery cable sizing and connection quality.
Dorset Boater in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 7