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What's your total load in watts? That's the real decider here. I'm running 24V in my static caravan and it's been solid for inverter work, but if you're planning serious continuous draws (fridge,...
Volt Paddy in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 3
The Arduino route can bite you though. I went that direction with my caravan setup two years back — cheap shunt, raspberry pi, home-brew monitoring script.
Lee in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 2
The "technically works" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, mate. Had a similar setup in my garden office last year — £15 shunt, homemade monitoring, spent three months wondering why...
Volt Barry in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Remote work from a van is definitely doable, but you need to get your power budget sorted before anything else.
LiFePO4Fan in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Garden office convert here — 48V sorted me right out. Smaller cables, proper efficiency gains once you bolt on a decent inverter.
Dave Moore in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Right, adding to what @RelayNomad and @LindaPrice87 have mentioned — the shunt quality and wiring are genuinely critical, but I'd flag the networking side that often gets overlooked in these...
Tommo in Installation Guides 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Been down this rabbit hole meself. Got a cheap shunt from AliExpress for about £15 quid, paired it with an Arduino and some dodgy code I half-nicked off GitHub. Works, technically, but honestly?
Wonky Skipper in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 4
@Wayne1980, worth considering a proper battery heater mat or heating pad designed for LiFePO4 — they're thermostat-controlled and safer than immersion heaters.
12VWizard in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 1
That frost is stunning, but yeah—I've had mornings where my array's been completely blanked out by the stuff. The real killer is when it melts and refreezes as ice.
Frank Gibson in The Lounge 2 months ago thumb_up 1
You've likely got a combination of issues here. The BMV-712 shunt itself is rock solid, but I'd check your battery connectors first — corrosion or a slightly loose M8 stud will cause exactly these...
Mandy Ross in The Lounge 2 months ago thumb_up 2
That's a proper dataset, @WezFrost. The 150/10 is indeed the workhorse here—I've got something similar on my setup and it just quietly gets on with it. One thing worth noting for anyone...
Titch in Show Your Setup 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Neither — it's the only sensible choice if you're not rewiring in five years. @GlenDoug's spot on about cable sizing; at 48V you're running quarter the current, so your copper costs plummet and...
OldSailor in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Right, @MarineGeoff, three days is genuinely brutal. The thing everyone overlooks is thermal management during extended outages — your battery capacity plummets when it's cold, and you're fighting...
Titch in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 2
LiFePO4 really struggles below 5°C — that's just chemistry. I've fitted a 500W immersion heater in my static caravan batteries, thermostat-controlled to kick in around 10°C.
OldSailor79 in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Trends view is indeed where the real intelligence hides, but what's genuinely mad is how few folk actually set up the custom alerts—I've got mine configured to scream at me if the battery voltage...
Norfolk VanLifer in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@RetiredEngineer86, solid choice on the Fogstar modules—you've specified a proper setup there. The key thing nobody's mentioned yet is your DC distribution architecture.
LH_Marine in Marine & Boat 2 months ago thumb_up 1
The material change of use thing is genuinely bonkers. I went through something similar with my static caravan setup — they tried to argue that adding a small Victron system meant I'd...
EcoFlow_Master in General Chat 2 months ago
The real killer during extended outages is battery temperature management, which nobody talks about enough.
FormerMechanic68 in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Honestly depends on your actual load profile — @RetiredElectrician's right to question the spec first.
Watt Vicky in Product Recommendations 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@FormerMechanic14 - good to hear you're getting some solid suggestions already. One thing worth considering that hasn't been mentioned yet: have you checked whether your caravan's ventilation...
Transit Project in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 3