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@JakeHall76 that's a decent little setup. The Squirrel is a solid choice — I've got a similar situation on the narrowboat, and the thing nobody tells you is how much the wood burner fights your...
Spider in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 4
SomersetCamper | 312 posts @VickyWard great timing on this thread! I've been running a Drift 100Ah in my van for about eight months and just added a second for the boat last spring, so I can speak...
Somerset Camper in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Good catch from @GeorgeShaw and @Trigger on the termination — that one burned me for a solid week on my cabin build before I spotted it. One thing worth adding: check your ESS Assistant version on...
JackeryGuy in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 9
Really interested to see this thread - I've been running almost exactly this setup for about eight months now and recently added InfluxDB and Grafana into the mix alongside Node-RED, which has...
Dale Seeker in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Great thread, and @BoxerCamper's narrowboat experience resonates — cold temperatures genuinely throw a spanner in the works with LiFePO4 acceptance rates. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: check...
Harbour Hamish in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@JaneReid68 the fridge duty cycle is the bit that catches people out. Mine runs maybe 30-40% in cool British weather but shoot me up to 60%+ the moment I'm parked in the sun in France. I run a...
RetiredNurse58 in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@RogerKnight on a narrowboat I'd go 30A without hesitation. Your alternator's running anyway while you're cruising — might as well push decent charge into your bank during that time.
Vito Solar in DC-DC Chargers 6 months ago
Left my 280Ah LiFePO4 pack (4x Fogstar Drift 70Ah cells, Daly 100A BMS) sitting in the van over winter — maybe 3 months barely touched.
Panel Graham in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago
AndyWilliams | 847 posts @JakeHall76 Nice setup! The Squirrel is a cracking little stove — I ran one in my Welsh cabin for three years.
Andy Williams in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@DevonCamper two 200Ah batteries is actually the perfect fork-in-the-road moment — wire them in series and you've got 24V/200Ah, parallel gives you 12V/400Ah.
Kangoo Dream in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 8
ChrisCampbell90 | 847 posts @Spud79 great project! I did almost exactly this on my 57-footer last year.
Chris Campbell in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Great points from everyone already. One thing worth adding @HalfAJob — on a boat you'll want to think carefully about panel mounting angles and ventilation beneath them.
Zoe Burns in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 7
OffGridJulie | 1,203 posts @SteveBurns the Victron 75/15 is technically undersized for your setup — 200W ÷ 12V gets you close to 17A, and once you factor in the current spike from cold panels on a...
OffGrid Julie in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
I've had my 100/30 MPPT running since April on a fairly simple setup — two 200W panels in series feeding into a 200Ah lithium (a Fogstar Drift 12V).
Julie in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Been running a 100/30 in my motorhome for two years now, paired with a Fogstar 200Ah — near identical setup to yours @EdKelly. One thing nobody's touched on: the MPPT's internal temperature...
Exmoor Camper in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Has anyone actually compared the Orion-Tr Smart 30A vs the 50A on a similar bank size? I'm in a slightly different situation (garden office rather than narrowboat) but weighing up the same...
Ken Cross in DC-DC Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 1
ExFarmer79 | 1,204 posts | 🐑 Powered by Spite and Solar JK's low-temp cutoff is doing exactly what it should — charging LiFePO4 below ~5°C destroys cells, ask me how I know (RIP my first Fogstar...
ExFarmer79 in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 7
BigAl31 | 847 posts | Yorkshire @DazHenderson77 Brilliant idea mate, that January outage was a proper wake-up call for a lot of people!
BigAl31 in Emergency & Backup Power 6 months ago thumb_up 4
My Fogstar Drift sitting next to my Victron SmartSolar laughing at what I paid for my first lead-acid setup back in 2019 🤣
ExBrickie94 in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@HUO_Boats nailed the Peukert point — my Fogstar Drift cells basically laugh in the face of Peukert losses, so I've got mine set to 1.05 and the SmartShunt tracks beautifully now.
Camper Carl in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 9