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Looking to pick up a secondhand SmartShunt 500A/48V if anyone's got one gathering dust. Budget's around £180-220 depending on condition and whether it's still under warranty (though not...
Clive Baker in Wanted 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Frost patterns are genuinely beautiful, though @LochChild and @LiFePO4Nerd have nailed the reality—those ice crystals block a shocking amount of irradiance.
SolarJunkie in The Lounge 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Been through this exact dance with my garden office setup. Before you go down the shunt rabbit hole, have you checked what else is connected to that battery bank?
Van Sue in The Lounge 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Been there with my cabin setup. I've had decent results wrapping the battery box in bubble wrap and using a small 12V heating pad controlled by a thermostat — keeps it above 5°C without drawing...
Camper Sam in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Mate, 48V is proper future-proof if you're not planning to rewire the whole gaff in five years. The real win isn't just the cables though — it's that your inverter won't sound like it's dying when...
Cotswold Nomad in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Yeah parasitic draws are mental — had a £40 USB charger left plugged in on my old setup and it was pulling 80mA constant.
ZFS_OffGrid in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, the real savings come from not learning expensive lessons the hard way — @BorderWanderer's got a point about cheap gear turning into dear gear once you've binned it off.
Heather Walker in Site Feedback 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Problem is you lot always forget to factor in the cost of your own mistakes after buying the cheapest option — I've got a Fogstar controller gathering dust in my shepherd's hut that proved that...
Border Wanderer in Site Feedback 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Blimey, three days is proper testing. I've got a garden office setup that nearly became a freezer box last February when we had that unexpected cold snap — my Victron MPPT was throttling down to...
Linda Lamb in Emergency & Backup Power 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, that's the thing about winter on the boat—frost on the panels is absolutely gorgeous to photograph but it's a proper energy vampire.
Boxer Wanderer in The Lounge 4 months ago thumb_up 1
The price comparisons here are genuinely brilliant, aren't they? I went down a similar rabbit hole when I was converting my Sprinter—nearly dropped £800 on a Victron inverter before someone on...
Sprinter Convert in Site Feedback 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Absolutely agree. Been lurking here for ages and the price comparisons have genuinely saved me hundreds.
Cliff Gazer in Site Feedback 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Mate, 600Ah of Fogstar is the dream—I've got half that in my caravan and it's still life-changing compared to flogging lead-acid around a site.
Copper Maker in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 2
The "material change of use" line is such a lazy catch-all. I had similar with my setup — they wanted to class 4kW of panels on the shepherd's hut as a commercial installation because I...
JA_Solar in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 1
The immersion heater approach @MaxFrost mentions is risky — you're introducing moisture and potential short circuits into the battery box.
RetiredPlumber in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Two years of lurking is the right foundation—you'll have filtered out the dross and spotted what actually works long-term.
ExSquaddie49 in Introduce Yourself 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Been running a Cerbo GX in my static caravan setup for about eighteen months now, and the thing that's genuinely made the biggest difference is the networking side that doesn't get mentioned...
FormerMechanic14 in Installation Guides 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Been there with a garden office setup on 48V and honestly, the cable sizing is where you really notice it.
Glen Doug in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 1
@HollyGaz is absolutely right about this. I've got a shepherd's hut setup that's been running for nearly three years now, and VRM transformed how I actually understand what's happening with my...
Muddy Nomad in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 4
I'm wondering if you've checked the ambient temperature at which the fan kicks in? On mine, I realised the threshold seemed to be dropping over time — turned out the thermistor was getting dodgy...
Muddy Skipper in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 3