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Took delivery of a 16-cell 280Ah LiFePO4 order from Fogstar last week for my Welsh hillside cabin build. Cracked open the boxes to find the cells ranging from about 2.8V all the way up to 3.35V.
Mountain Barry in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago thumb_up 2
Picked up a 200A JK BMS a few months back to run with my 280Ah Eve LiFePO4 cells (4S configuration). Generally been dead happy with it — Bluetooth app works a treat, balancing seems spot on.
Sam White in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago thumb_up 4
Hey @MistyNomad! I've got a similar setup running since early last year and honestly it's been brilliant once properly commissioned.
Ella Davies in General Chat 1 month ago thumb_up 1
Exactly the same setup as you're planning — 200Ah bank in a static caravan. Went Fogstar Drift about a year ago and honestly the peace of mind alone justifies the price difference for a permanent...
OffGrid Dawn in On a Budget 1 month ago thumb_up 2
My 200Ah lithium (LiFePO4) setup has been behaving oddly since the weather turned. Running a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 into a 24V battery bank with two 175W panels on the roof of my Transit...
Barry Crane in Q&A 1 month ago thumb_up 5
Really resonates with me — I went through almost exactly this process when I was sorting out backup power for my garden office a couple of years back. The thing that shifted my thinking was moving...
Nige in Emergency & Backup Power 1 month ago thumb_up 1
Narrowboat winters sorted this out for me sharpish — stuffed mine in an insulated box with a cheap reptile heat mat on a thermostat, because apparently my lithium and my bearded dragon have the...
Stu in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago thumb_up 8
Owen1991 replied: @VivaroProject @CliveKnight is right about the series wiring being your main culprit.
Owen in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago thumb_up 3
We've had a 400W solar setup on our static caravan in Wales for about two years now — two 200W panels, a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15, and a 100Ah lithium (Fogstar Drift).
Ella Dixon in Emergency & Backup Power 1 month ago thumb_up 5
BorderExplorer | Posts: 847 @JulieEvans Snap — I'm on the Scottish Borders and December/January can be genuinely dire for generation.
Border Explorer in Emergency & Backup Power 1 month ago thumb_up 6
@ExBrickie31 running a similar bodged setup here — got a 200W Renogy and a 160W panel I sourced secondhand wired in parallel into a Victron SmartSolar 100/30.
WheresMeWires31 in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago thumb_up 7
My old £8 shunt monitor once told me I was simultaneously at 20% and 87% charge — Schrödinger's battery, basically.
Marine Karen in General Chat 1 month ago thumb_up 8
StormyWarden | 89 posts @Rodney58 Worth adding that temperature throws the readings off badly too — my Daly was consistently optimistic by 15-20% during cold mornings last winter because it wasn't...
Stormy Warden in General Chat 1 month ago thumb_up 2
@BurnSpirit one thing worth adding that nobody's mentioned yet — your battery capacity matters just as much as the panel wattage.
Callum Reid in Garden Offices 1 month ago thumb_up 6
I picked up a pair of 100W monocrystalline panels off Amazon for about £55 each a few months back — no-name brand, but the specs looked reasonable on paper.
Trevor in Q&A 1 month ago thumb_up 6
Genuinely curious about the charging side of this — @SaltyMaker did you have to reconfigure your charge controller settings when you swapped over?
Salty Rigger in Off-Grid Cabins 1 month ago
Finally pulling the trigger on a proper inverter for my garden office after running it off a glorified extension lead for two years.
LK_Solar in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago thumb_up 4
Really feel this thread in my bones! I'm in Cumbria so December is almost a write-off some years — I've learned to treat it as my "grid parity month" where the generator earns its...
Jim in General Chat 1 month ago
@VivaroProject had exact same issue at my cabin before I sorted the wiring. Parallel is the way to go for shading — each panel works independently so one bridge doesn't wipe you out...
Chopper in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago thumb_up 3
Been there with mine on a narrowboat — one thing nobody's mentioned yet is the UPS function setting.
HalfAJob93 in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago thumb_up 2