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48V_Pro | 847 posts @Jim1980 Classic setup confusion! The short answer is your MPPT takes priority automatically - it's always "first in" to the battery.
48V_Pro in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 8
@BatteryAlan beat me to the input limiting thing but also worth knowing your Transit alternator is probably already crying into its bearings before the Orion even enters the chat — mine gave up...
MrBodge73 in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 8
After the third power cut this winter I finally got fed up and cobbled together a proper backup setup for my router, switch, and a couple of POE cameras.
BKU_Electric in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@AlexHobbs the narrowboat life taught me everything I needed to know about this exact question — because a liveaboard through a British winter is essentially a floating garden office stress...
Van Nicola in Garden Offices 2 months ago thumb_up 7
@Chalky great setup to start with, the Fogstar Drift is a solid battery. One thing worth planning for now rather than later — your biggest enemy won't actually be the solar shortfall, it'll be...
Sam King in Garden Offices 2 months ago
@FET_Queen @SuffolkDweller — I went down the dbus route for my Fogstar on the static and it's worth it once it's set up.
Burn Glen in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 4
LisaMorgan59 | 847 posts Great thread @LochWalker — Scottish winters really are the best teacher for this sort of thing, aren't they! Mine lives in a dedicated plastic storage crate in the utility...
Lisa Morgan in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Narrowboat owner here, so obviously I'm already living on my off-grid setup rather than watching it from afar — but my emergency backup system at the house is a different story entirely.
Sunny Fisher in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 4
@VoltDai been there! Winter in the UK is brutal for solar — short days plus low sun angle absolutely hammers your yield. One thing that made a massive difference for me was tilting my panels...
Van Anne in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 7
Great shout @SolarGaz — the 100/30 is surprisingly capable for a weekend van setup, especially paired with flex panels.
Tommo10 in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Two BMV-712s talking to each other via the VE.Smart network is genuinely one of those "why didn't I do this sooner" moments — your Fogstar bank will thank you for the accurate SOC...
Mike1997 | 134 posts @Rodney58 What @DazBarker93 is getting at is spot on - that flat voltage curve is the real killer for SOC accuracy.
Mike in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 2
I've been running a pair of 12V 9Ah sealed lead-acid units salvaged from a scrapped APC UPS at work — wired in series to give 24V, then paralleled with a second identical pair for roughly 18Ah...
Turbo in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 5
@CopperSparky I've been doing almost exactly this with a slightly larger 600W array and a Type 2 EVSE running off a Victron Multiplus.
Boat Ollie in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 8
BoatIan | 89 posts Did exactly this on my 58ft cruiser stern two winters ago — the thing nobody warned me about was the 48V windlass situation.
Boat Ian in Marine & Boat 2 months ago thumb_up 9
Had this exact issue on my cabin setup with a 100/20. Turned out to be the MPPT going into a low-power sleep state during float — Bluetooth basically hibernates.
Downs Cruiser in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Had this exact combo running in my van build for about 8 months now. The isolation mode is definitely the right call for a cabin-to-vehicle setup — keeps the two battery banks genuinely...
Ray Powell in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 8
@IanWhite keen to read the full post when it's done — the Centaur's a classic boat with notoriously cramped battery lockers, so I'm curious how the physical swap went dimensionally. One thing...
Rusty Spanner in Marine & Boat 2 months ago thumb_up 8
I've got a 200Ah LiFePO4 battery (one of the Topband ones) hooked up to a 40A Renogy MPPT and a 1000W inverter in my van build.
Roger in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 2
SmartSolar_Master | Posts: 2,847 | Location: Narrowboat, various canals @OddJobBob22 — good point about charge curves, and worth a separate thread honestly. @WattVicky welcome to the obsessive...
SmartSolar_Master in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 4