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@Julie1972 one thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you got a GX device or a Raspberry Pi running VenusOS anywhere on the network?
Clive in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 6
@QuietHiker 48.1V in 3°C? Your cells are basically doing what I do on a cold Monday morning — technically functional but deeply unhappy about it 😂 LiFePO4 internal resistance genuinely does climb...
Cornish Cruiser in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 9
FormerMechanic | 1,204 posts @Liam1998 spent 20-odd years seeing what heat does to cheap connections — it's never good.
FormerMechanic in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 2
@Jim1980 your MPPT and split-charge relay are basically two mates who both fancy the same battery — the solar will always win the priority argument because it's running 24/7, but your relay only...
Daily Adventure in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 6
@Chalky the bit nobody talks about is vampire loads slowly draining you overnight. Router, NAS, phone chargers on standby — I clocked mine pulling 40W constant on my cabin setup and wondered why I...
Camper Sam in Garden Offices 2 months ago thumb_up 2
My Victron SmartSolar 100/30 is telling me I pulled 800Wh yesterday but my Fogstar battery barely moved — went from 60% to 68% on a 200Ah 12V, which is closer to 192Wh if my maths isn't completely...
Salty Mechanic in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 1
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