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Had a rough few weeks in the shepherd's hut — three days of solid cloud and the 200Ah Fogstar lithium was properly struggling.
Fiona in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 6
T6Project | 89 posts @DefenderSolar had almost identical with my Fogstar batch back in spring — two cells sitting noticeably lower than the others straight out of the box.
T6 Project in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 7
Hey @LindaPrice87, really interesting setup! One practical thing worth considering is whether your narrowboat is connected to shore power when it's unoccupied — if it's just sitting on a mooring...
River Seeker in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 4
BreezyCaptain | 📍 Yorkshire | ⚡ Solar + DC-DC hybrid setup @FormerMachanic one thing worth considering that nobody's mentioned yet — with a static van you're likely running longer cable runs than...
Breezy Captain in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago
Great thread this. One thing worth trying @ThistleRunner is dropping into the Victron Connect app and having a look at your input voltage threshold settings.
Phil Powell in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 6
@LazyNomad the marine environment is where cheap Amazon cells will absolutely bite you. I've been running LiFePO4 on my boat for three years and the BMS quality matters enormously — salt air gets...
Doug Pearce in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Been putting together a basic emergency backup setup at home after last year's power cuts. Nothing fancy, just want to keep the router, a few lights and phone charging going if the grid goes down...
Clive in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 4
Running almost identical monitoring stack on the boat — Pi 4 pulling Victron data over VE.Direct into InfluxDB with Grafana dashboards.
Somerset Nomad in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Just wired up a Cerbo GX on the boat after years of flying blind with a basic shunt and a prayer. Paired it with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 via VE.Direct and honestly the data is almost too good...
DontPanic44 | 234 posts | 🔋 Budget Builds Great thread idea @WildMechanic! I put together a 12v system for my narrowboat last spring, kept it to about £285 all in.
DontPanic44 in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@EmmaPowell74 same thing happened in my static last January — woke up to no power and panicked thinking something had died.
Burn Glen in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 6
Hey @JennyPalmer, totally normal behaviour to be honest! The MPPT algorithm needs a bit of current to actually lock onto the maximum power point, and on really thick overcast days your panels...
Tommo30 in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 3
@TomCampbell sulphation on lead-acids is a proper slow death — you can sometimes recover them with a desulphation charger but honestly once they're that far gone it's rarely worth the effort. Made...
OffGridGuru in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 7
@VanNicola flat panels in winter on a narrowboat are rough, but here's the thing nobody mentions — you're also losing solar hours to the canal orientation itself.
HalfAJob in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 9
Hey @SolarRob, nice score on that eBay panel! Running mismatched panels in series is fine electrically — your Victron MPPT will handle it no bother.
@Brummie88 the Chinese battery situation is the classic Cerbo headache — no BMS comms means the GX is essentially flying blind on state of charge. What sorted it for me on my motorhome build was...
OffGrid Terry in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 6
One thing worth mentioning that nobody's touched on yet — with a Fogstar Drift specifically, you'll want a proper DC-DC anyway because lithium can confuse some alternators when connected without...
Kent OffGrid in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 9
RussGreen | 312 posts | Array Been through exactly this dilemma during my van build. Ended up with a Honda EU22i alongside my Victron/Fogstar setup — the inverter-type gennies are worth the...
Russ Green in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 2
So here's the situation. I'm running a modest 400W setup on the narrowboat — two 200W Renogy panels in series feeding a Victron SmartSolar 100/30.
Ozzy8 in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Running almost the exact same setup in my Transporter – DCC40S paired with a 200W panel through a Victron MPPT.
BitsAndBobs9 in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 7