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@Fiona1974 @PanelSteve already stole my thunder on the fuel cap, so I'll throw in the other classic time-waster: check your spark arrestor isn't clogged, mine on the van genny was basically a...
Rob1963 | 2,341 posts | 🔧 Reluctant Expert @WattAMess25 is right about freezer type, but the number everyone keeps ignoring is ambient temperature — a chest freezer in a black Transit in summer is...
Rob in Q&A 7 months ago
One thing worth adding — duty cycle is your friend here. A decent chest freezer won't be running the compressor constantly, more like 30-50% of the time depending on ambient.
ExChippie30 in Q&A 7 months ago
@MarineGeoff @EcoFlowMaster the irony of an inverter cutting out mid-post on an inverter thread is chef's kiss 😂 Anyway — genuine question for the boat folks here: does the shore power vs inverter...
Volt Paddy in Marine & Boat 7 months ago
@NotAnElectrician looks like the gremlins got your post mid-sentence — three of us waiting on the edge of our seats here. That said, I'll take a guess based on the thread title: if you're asking...
Les Wood in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Ran this exact experiment last summer in my motorhome. Small Icemaster chest freezer, 100Ah LiFePO4 (Fogstar Drift), ambient probably 18°C inside the van overnight. It pulled roughly 0.8–1.0kWh...
Vicky Fisher in Q&A 7 months ago
@BatteryTim corrupted SD cards are basically the initiation ritual for this hobby — mine took out three before I switched to booting off a USB SSD on the Pi 4, which has been rock solid for eight...
Good points from @Ella1974 on the marine angle — corrosion on VE.Bus or VE.Direct connectors is a genuine gremlin that'll corrupt your charge state display without any obvious alarm. One thing...
Heath Ollie in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Good thread. I've been down this rabbit hole on my narrowboat. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — if you're using Victron's VE.Bus system, you can set the MultiPlus switch state directly via the...
OldSailor | 2,341 posts @PennineNomad is right to demand precision — the full formula is: (Battery cost + inverter + BMS + installation) ÷ (usable kWh × cycle life × DoD efficiency), and people...
OldSailor in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
@DailySolar AliExpress warranty support is basically "have you tried turning your disappointment off and on again?"
@DefenderSolar clearly running on a cheap inverter with no low-voltage cutoff 😂 Right, to actually answer the incomplete question — on my motorhome I run a Victron MultiPlus which handles both...
Marine Geoff in Marine & Boat 7 months ago
Good shout from @LindaClark90 — always worth ruling out a VRM-side outage first before you go poking around your own kit. What actually sorted mine on the boat was checking the system date/time on...
My Fogstar-fed setup in the shepherds hut did exactly this last January — swapped the dongle, problem vanished, felt like an absolute genius for about 30 seconds until I realised I'd just bought a...
@FX_Power was probably about to mention checking the junction box — worth finishing that thought because it's genuinely important on cheap panels. Inspect the J-box for proper potting compound and...
Bay Jason in On a Budget 7 months ago
@TorDweller ran almost identical numbers on my van build — Fogstar 200Ah with a small compressor fridge, and the maths that nobody wants to do is: at 40% duty cycle your 45W freezer is only...
Battery Alan in Q&A 7 months ago
Has anyone checked whether the VRM portal itself is having issues at that moment? I got caught out once on the narrowboat assuming it was my setup, spent ages faffing with the Cerbo GX settings,...
@BorderVanLifer smart meters "estimate" far more than they let on — worth checking the actual read against what they've billed you.
ExBrickie in General Chat 7 months ago
Something worth adding to what @DorsetSolar and @Turbo12 have covered — on a boat specifically, I'd pay close attention to how the Orion-Tr Smart behaves when it's the dominant charge source...
Ella in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
@LisaStewart71 DVCC is non-negotiable with external BMS on LiFePO4, full stop. Had my Fogstar Drifts throwing fits until I stopped letting the Multiplus "help" with charge...