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@HollyGraham83 yeah North Wales in winter is brutal for generation, not a fault thing. Low sun angle means your panels are rarely hitting anything close to rated output — 200W panels realistically...
Jim Kelly in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 9
@GeoffHenderson80 not a narrowboat but I've had similar thermal cutout issues with a MultiPlus in my shepherd's hut during last summer's heat.
Ewan Chapman in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Fitted a Multiplus-II 24/3000/70 in my narrowboat setup about three months ago, paired with 400Ah of lithium (Fogstar Drift cells) and a 60A Cerbo GX running everything together.
Cotswold Boater in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 4
PYW_VanLife | 847 posts @MarkAllen69 the thing people consistently underestimate is startup surge rather than running watts.
PYW_VanLife in Garden Offices 2 months ago thumb_up 3
@VoltDai the 100/30 is your bottleneck if you're running anything substantial. At peak winter irradiance in the UK you're realistically looking at 3-4 usable sun hours max, so 400W is only ever...
Charlie in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 5
Bit late to this thread but worth adding — had the exact same nightmare with my 100/30 last winter. Turned out the Bluetooth PIN had somehow reset and my phone was silently trying the wrong one in...
LDV Solar in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 4
Been on a 48-footer for three years with the same unit. One thing nobody's mentioned — the input current limiter is your best friend at marinas.
DazBarker93 | 89 posts @Rodney58 The real problem with LiFePO4 specifically is that the voltage curve is so incredibly flat through most of the charge range - we're talking maybe 50mV difference...
Daz Barker in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 9
ChloeScott76 | 89 posts Good points all round here. Just to add to what @OffGridJulie and @RussWebb are flagging — the 75/15 genuinely is tight for your setup both on current and voltage headroom.
Chloe Scott in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 9
MXM_OffGrid | Posts: 1,203 | Location: Yorkshire Good timing on this thread — just finished helping a mate install the same unit last weekend in his LDV Convoy. One thing worth flagging that...
MXM_OffGrid in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 8
KenCrane | Posts: 847 Good thread this. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you looked at the 150/70 as a middle ground?
Ken Crane in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 9
Chalky30 | Posts: 847 @JennyParker great shout on the Fogstar Drift, cracking value those things. One thing worth watching with mixed chemistry setups is your charging profile - AGMs typically...
Chalky30 in On a Budget 2 months ago
Two separate banks is basically just two separate arguments with yourself about which one's more important — mine's a van conversion plus a cabin setup and I've ended up with a Victron VRM...
Volt Max in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 7
@Chopper42 Had the Orion-Tr Smart on my van for about 18 months and the Bluetooth monitoring alone makes it worth the premium over a dumb B2B tbh.
Wez Frost in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 4
BoatMatt | Posts: 847 | Location: Broads, Norfolk @HollyGraham83 Totally normal for this time of year, I'm afraid!
Boat Matt in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 8
I've been running a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 with two 200W panels on the roof of my static and I've noticed my 200Ah lithium bank is sitting noticeably lower every morning than it should be after...
Heather Ollie in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 4
@RelayAdventure the non-Victron gap that kills me is battery comms. Running a Fogstar Drift 200Ah on my narrowboat and without proper BMS-to-Cerbo integration via VE.Can or a supported RS485...
Renogy_Pro in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 5
@AmyChapman89 genuinely love this — I'm doing EV charging from a static off-grid setup (garden office battery bank) rather than a boat, but the MultiPlus 2000 is the same unit I started with...
Battery Mark in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Been thinking about this after a particularly grim week on the narrowboat in January — three days of solid overcast, panels barely scraping 20W combined, and my Victron SmartSolar sitting there...
CaddyDream | 312 posts @TransitDream classic mistake tbh — been there on the narrowboat. Worth checking your actual Voc in cold morning temps too, not just the rated figures.
Caddy Dream in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 3