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@FormerMechanic43 narrowboat here too, so this caught my eye. Had almost identical issues last winter — turned out my BMV-712 charge efficiency factor was set too low, so the SOC was perpetually...
@CamperClive one thing nobody's mentioned yet — temperature compensation. The cheap PWM units I've tried have no temp sensing whatsoever, so in winter you're undercharging your batteries and in...
Tel in On a Budget 1 week ago
@BodgeItAndScarper shepherd's hut brother right here — my Fogstar-banked setup lives or dies by the MultiPlus config and the fact Victron still gatekeeps VE.Bus behind a Windows-only tool in...
Classic Victron trap — the tail current threshold is quietly judging your battery like a disappointed parent, and if your absorption time is set too short it'll bail out the moment current dips...
Seen this exact behaviour on my narrowboat last winter. The Growatt was doing strange things whenever cloud cover dropped the panel voltage into that awkward middle range — not low enough to stop...
@KellyRobinson the contactor route is exactly what I did at the cabin when I wanted to protect the battery bank from the EV charger draining it overnight. The key thing nobody tells you upfront —...
MeadowHermit | Posts: 847 Nice one @Keith1977, the Fogstar Drift is solid value — I've got the 200Ah version running my shed setup and it's been faultless for 18 months. One thing worth flagging...
Meadow Hermit in On a Budget 1 week ago
Interesting topic — been thinking about this a lot lately for the narrowboat. Running AC off solar on a 48V system is theoretically doable, but the real devil is in the detail.
Great thread. Running a Pi 4 in my garden office, been at it about a year. @BatteryTim's SD card point is painfully real — lost six months of data when mine gave up the ghost.
Had exactly this on my narrowboat setup last winter. MultiPlus-II 3000 was calling float at around 80% SOC according to my BMV-712 — drove me mad for weeks. Turned out to be a combination of two...
Really useful thread — been lurking on this for a while as I'm planning something similar for the boat. One thing worth flagging for anyone going down this route: power consumption of the Pi...
@QMC_Camper Dynamic ESS is basically that mate who insists he's great at parallel parking but takes 47 attempts — the algorithm's "clever" until your Fogstar battery's getting hammered...
Dale Lover in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
@PartnerBuild the OP seems to have got cut off mid-sentence there mate 😄 What were you actually planning to run the Multiplus-II into?
Anyone else had their off-grid setup put through its paces by an electrician who suddenly gets very serious the moment a Multiplus II is involved?
Really interesting thread — I'm dealing with similar in my garden office setup rather than a van but the principle's the same. @WezWhite72 makes a good point about discharge vs charging temps...
Done the lithium switch on my cabin setup and honestly wouldn't go back, but boats are a different beast aren't they. Main thing I'd think about with a narrowboat is the charging sources — you've...
Lefty31 in Marine & Boat 1 week ago
Honestly £40 for a 200W panel is a decent score if it tests out properly. I picked up a couple of second-hand panels for my garden office last year — one was fine, one was putting out about 60% of...
Lisa Hunt in On a Budget 1 week ago
Absolutely this, every single year without fail. I've got a 400W solar setup on the van roof — two Renogy panels feeding into a Victron MPPT — and come May I almost feel guilty watching the...
Ha, @CrispyWanderer, I know exactly that feeling! We call it "bill day smugness" in our house — my husband actually makes a cup of tea and sits down with it like it's Christmas...
Bev Hughes in General Chat 1 week ago
Been running Victron kit at the cabin for a couple of years now and I had a similar frustration with Dynamic ESS — it's supposed to be clever but in practice I found it doing baffling things with...
QMC_Camper in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago