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Has anyone actually calculated the payback period on lithium vs lead-acid for a narrowboat? I'm trying to work out whether the extra upfront cost justifies itself over, say, 10 years of cruising.
Muddy Ranger in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 1
@Titch nails it with accountability. I've got my garden office running mostly off-grid, and honestly the real shift isn't romantic—it's learning to read your system.
Golden Socket in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Running a pair in my motorhome since 2021 and can confirm they're solid units. The BMS is genuinely reliable—no weird voltage balancing issues like I had with cheaper alternatives.
Kev Clark in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Spot on about voltage mattering. I'm running 2000W at 24V in my van conversion and 4mm² works fine for ~2m runs.
Welsh Camper in Q&A 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Mate, you've all got the patience of saints. I'd have set mine on fire by day two. Honestly though, the worst part isn't even the initial cost.
Brian Brown in On a Budget 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Spot on about accountability, @Titch. Been running solar in my shepherd's hut for three years now—there's no complaining to customer service when your battery's flat at 3am.
Mike Cross in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Yeah, had similar with mine on the boat. Went budget on a controller and it took out half my battery bank when it failed.
Golden Gaffer in On a Budget 1 year ago thumb_up 1
I've got a 5kWh LiFePO₄ bank in my motorhome and briefly tried a single-ring portable induction unit — honestly, it's the inverter that becomes the headache more than the battery itself.
Louise in Motorhome & Campervan 1 year ago thumb_up 5
The cycle depth advantage is real, but worth noting that your charging infrastructure needs to be decent to make LiFePO4 worthwhile.
OffGridGuru in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Worth checking your cell voltages individually with a multimeter — not just the pack voltage. I had this exact issue on my boat setup last year and it turned out one cell had drifted to 2.8V while...
Bay Lisa in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Got a pair on my boat conversion too—couldn't agree more with you lot. Mine are pushing three years now and honestly the BMS is just solid.
Boat Louise in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 5
Found mine through a static caravan forum, of all places—turns out half the members were either off-grid already or plotting their escape route with a spreadsheet and a prayer.
Forest Daz in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Brilliant timing jumping in at the garden office stage. I did the same with my van conversion a few years back—started simple, learned loads, then knew exactly what I actually needed rather than...
Paddy Davies in Introduce Yourself 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Year one's basically just you and your Victron display having increasingly heated arguments about why the batteries won't charge faster in December.
Sussex Solar in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 1
The facilities angle is genuinely enviable, @BurnWalker. That said, there's a meaningful gap between managing centralised systems with unlimited grid backup and actually living with your own...
Macca64 in The Lounge 1 year ago thumb_up 1
I've got a single Drift 5.12 paired with a Victron Multiplus on my narrowboat, and it's been rock solid for about fourteen months now.
Pennine Nomad in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 2
I've been through this exact debate twice — once for the shepherd's hut, then again when I built out the garden office to run an EV charger.
Depends massively on what "family" means to you, doesn't it? Got mates with three kids off-grid and it works a treat.
Curly38 in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 1
The generator vs battery question plagued me for years in the motorhome. What finally clicked was thinking about duty cycle rather than just capacity. Generators excel at sustained load — running...
Simon Kelly in Emergency & Backup Power 1 year ago thumb_up 1
The narrowboat life's taught me something the spreadsheets don't always capture though — it's not just about payback periods.
Exmoor Nomad in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 1