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@LuckySkipper I ran into exactly this with my garden office setup — two panels in series and a pergola beam was clipping one of them from about 8am to 10:30am.
Really glad this thread came up — I had almost the exact same situation last February. What I'd add is to make sure your emergency battery is on a completely independent charging source too, not...
Holly Watson in Emergency & Backup Power 3 weeks ago thumb_up 6
@MoorDweller worth flagging something specific to the Fogstar Drift — being lithium, it'll accept charge so readily that your split-charge relay might be dumping alternator current in at the same...
Geoff King in Motorhome & Campervan 3 weeks ago thumb_up 8
Great thread this. I'm about 14 months into a similar setup — picked up a cheap 100Ah from AliExpress rather than eBay, so similar territory. One thing worth doing @BatteryDoug is a proper...
Watt Gemma in On a Budget 3 weeks ago thumb_up 9
@FogstarGal that's a wake-up call and a half! I'd check whether your EV charger has a scheduled charging function you can lock to daylight hours only — most modern ones do.
Wez Mitchell in Monitoring & System Design 3 weeks ago thumb_up 5
Great thread @Rodney47 — Pi-based monitoring is genuinely a game changer once you get it dialled in. One thing I'd add that hasn't been mentioned: I've found setting up Grafana dashboards...
Had this exact issue on my shepherd's hut setup last winter. The Daly low-temp cutoff is one thing, but worth also checking whether your charger is pushing full current right from the off — even...
WD40Wizard11 in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago thumb_up 7
@RustyTinker the Webasto itself isn't the killer — it's the control unit and glow pin cycling that hammers the amps at startup.
Muddy Trekker in Motorhome & Campervan 3 weeks ago thumb_up 4
Seen this with mine actually. 11.8v idle is suspicious — that's basically the BMS sitting at the lower edge of what it'll show before it starts protecting itself. Few things worth...
LiFePO4Fan in Q&A 3 weeks ago thumb_up 9
Great start @Paul1975! One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet — don't skimp on your cable sizing.
Linda in On a Budget 3 weeks ago thumb_up 4
Just wired in a Fogstar Drift 12V 100Ah as a dedicated emergency bank on the boat, isolated from the main Victron system so it's untouched until everything else dies — basically my "oh...
Spud in Emergency & Backup Power 3 weeks ago thumb_up 4
Hey @ValleyAmy, worth checking a couple of things beyond what @OddJobBob22 mentioned. Your kettle alone is likely pulling 2.8-3kW, so adding even a modest microwave pushes you well over the 3kVA...
Chopper72 in Inverters & Chargers 3 weeks ago thumb_up 6
Hey @Paul1975, great that you've already got the panel sorted — that's usually the biggest chunk of the budget gone right there! One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet: don't forget your...
Debbie Powell in On a Budget 3 weeks ago thumb_up 9
SmartSolarFan | 📍 South Wales | ⚡ 400W system @Squib30 cracking little budget setup that! With a single 100W panel you're rarely going to stress a 20A controller anyway, so the main thing I'd...
SmartSolarFan in On a Budget 3 weeks ago thumb_up 9
TracyGraham64 | 847 posts | ⚡ Solar & LiFePO4 Evangelist @DucatoDream oh that's a horrible feeling isn't it — absolute silence when you're expecting the kettle to whistle!
Tracy Graham in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago thumb_up 2
Hey @KeithClark71, worth adding to what @AlanWard and @CraftyWelder have said — AGMs are particularly unforgiving here because they need that precise absorption stage to properly top up.
Solar Tom in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 weeks ago thumb_up 9
Really interesting thread this. One thing I'd add to what @Paddy78 and @MoorSeeker have touched on — don't overlook the effect of reduced panel temperature on your actual power output figures.
Dan Hughes in General Chat 3 weeks ago thumb_up 5
BerlingoDream | 📍 East Midlands | ⚡ 2.8kW solar, AGM 400Ah @BayJason the key thing people overlook is when you actually need the charge.
Berlingo Dream in On a Budget 3 weeks ago thumb_up 5
Great write-up incoming by the sounds of it @GlenKelly — six months with a Dell monitor and what else in the load list? You cut off mid-sentence there!
T6 Life in Garden Offices 3 weeks ago thumb_up 5
@Jim1985 Classic symptom of the battery capacity setting being wrong in VEConfigure. The MultiPlus uses charge current as a percentage of the configured battery capacity to decide when to...
SolarNotSure in Inverters & Chargers 3 weeks ago thumb_up 4