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@LizWalker nice setup — Fogstar Drift are solid cells for the money. For a 240Ah LiFePO4 bank the usual rule of thumb is charging at 0.2C minimum, so you're looking at ~48A ideally.
Wonky Mender in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 2
@JLB_Boats not directly relevant but I run a similar setup on a static caravan — 2x 200W feeding a Victron SmartSolar 100/30, and honestly the 100/30 is probably overkill for 400W at 12V but I'd...
Ed Hamilton in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 8
PennineVanLifer | 1,204 posts | ⭐ Trusted Member Something nobody's mentioned yet — check whether your phone is aggressively killing background apps.
Pennine VanLifer in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 7
@BatteryWez the "going round in circles" feeling is so familiar — I spent three weeks on spreadsheets before just committing and learning from reality. 200Ah sounds reasonable on paper...
Exmoor VanLifer in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 3
DustyHiker | 847 posts @Macca97 the garden office logic does carry over pretty well, but narrowboats throw in a few extra wrinkles worth considering.
Dusty Hiker in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
SuffolkOffGrid | Posts: 847 | Location: Suffolk Eight months is decent real-world time, @CrafterDream.
Suffolk OffGrid in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 4
NotAnElectrician48 | 847 posts @VickyWard funny you should ask — I've got a Drift 200Ah on the boat and a 100Ah wedged behind the passenger seat in the Transit.
NotAnElectrician48 in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Woke up on the boat this morning to -4°C and my Victron SmartSolar 100/30 had basically gone into a sulk — showing 0W input despite the panels being frost-free and hitting decent sun by 9am.
Just trying to nail down which MultiPlus to go for in my tiny house build. I'm looking at either the MultiPlus-II 24/3000 or pushing up to the 24/5000, and honestly I'm going back and forth on it.
Been thinking about this after last week's power cut knocked us out for about 6 hours. We're already running a small solar setup (2x 200W panels, Victron MPPT 75/15, and a 100Ah Fogstar Drift...
Panel Paula in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 5
Reply by ExJoiner6: @Rachel1995 This is a really common one on boats, especially once you get past the equinox.
ExJoiner6 in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 5
AngliaOffGrid | 2,847 posts @BatteryTim welcome to the forum — good first post, this is exactly the kind of detail that gets you useful answers. One thing nobody's touched on: what absorption...
Anglia OffGrid in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 9
@JimWilliams71 had exactly this with my van build last winter. Turned out my MPPT was positioned about 2 metres from the battery bank with fairly thin cable runs — that voltage drop was reading...
OddJobBob in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 4
@SolarGeorge yeah December is brutal, no two ways about it. My 400W array (two Renogy 200W monos) barely scrapes 200Wh on a good day up here in Scotland — which is basically nothing. Honestly it...
Hamish in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 8
Good thread, @DuctTapeDave60. One thing worth mentioning that nobody's touched on yet — if your AGMs are secondhand, do a proper capacity test before trusting your whole setup to them.
Island Dweller in On a Budget 2 months ago
WildMechanic | 🔧 1,203 posts @SuffolkExplorer @Curly63 and @CopperWarden have touched on the electrical side, but worth mentioning the practicalities of a 48V migration on a narrowboat...
Wild Mechanic in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
Something that caught me out — the SmartSolar's temperature compensation only works properly if you've actually got a temperature sensor connected (the VE.Direct one or via a BMV).
Ducato Project in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Dizzy83 | 312 posts | ☀️ Off-Grid Convert @DuctTapeDave62 Worth checking your tail current setting in the VictronConnect app - this is what I'd look at first before anything else.
Dizzy83 in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 5
MandyPalmer56 | Posts: 423 @RobRobinson78 Just to add to what @HamishTaylor87 is saying about VictronConnect - make sure you're also checking the battery voltage compensation settings on the MPPT...
Mandy Palmer in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 2
DuctTapeDave | 312 posts Mine did this constantly in the garden office until I realised my phone's battery optimisation was killing the Bluetooth stack in the background — Android is absolutely...
DuctTapeDave in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 5