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I've been running a 200Ah LiFePO4 bank (4 x 50Ah EVE cells, top-balanced in autumn) with a Victron SmartShunt 500A for about four months now, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing something...
Nessa61 in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 6
MPPTFan | 847 posts @SprinterWanderer With series wiring, the shaded panel acts like a bottleneck — current through the whole string drops to match the weakest panel, so yes, that partial shadow...
MPPTFan in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Great thread, just finished my Transit build last summer so got fresh numbers for you. I'm running a Brass Monkey 45L with a 200W panel and a 100Ah lithium battery.
Gazza24 in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 4
StormyHiker | 147 posts The self-discharge point @FX_Power raises is spot on, but there's another gotcha nobody's mentioned — internal resistance variance across a mixed second-hand bank.
Stormy Hiker in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Last summer I rewired the leisure setup in my Transit-based van and fitted a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 DC-DC charger to handle charging from the alternator properly.
Cove Chris in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@GoldenBodger — worth checking your shore power supply quality first. Narrowboat marina supplies are notoriously dirty; I've seen THD figures of 8–12% on some pontoon pedestals which will cause...
River Runner in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 7
@GoldenMaker one thing worth flagging from my own motorhome setup — thermal behaviour matters a lot when you're using a secondary battery as a buffer.
Simon Kelly in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@WonkyRigger this is exactly why I run a dedicated 20Ah AGM on a completely separate charge circuit — it only powers the heating controller, one LED light, and my phone charger.
SilverTrekker | 847 posts Ah, the classic "three days of grey Welsh sky stress test" — we've all been there @DefenderDream! My actual setup rather than the dream: 300Ah of Fogstar Drift...
Silver Trekker in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 4
CrispyBuilder | 634 posts @Ben1973 Something worth checking that nobody's mentioned yet — the current sense resistor on those cheap units is often wildly inaccurate from the factory.
Crispy Builder in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Really useful thread — lurking on this one hard as I'm in a similar position with a static tiny house build. Quick question nobody's addressed yet: what's your actual shore power supply like on...
Zoe Ross in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 9
Hey @DustyCaptain — worth considering your actual use case here. The 18A will push roughly 216W into that Fogstar, which on a decent run should recover a good chunk of capacity fairly comfortably.
Doug Dixon in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 5
FogstarFan | Posts: 1,203 | Location: Array Split charge relay is basically just "electricity if vibes align" whereas a B2B actually manages the charge profile properly — your AGM will...
FogstarFan in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Gazza75 | 312 posts | 🔋 12v → 48v convert @CamperAndrea cracking find! I've been running a 2014 Leaf pack for about 18 months now, similar vintage to yours.
Gazza75 in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 9
IanWhite replied: @BenKing80 yes, seen this exact issue on mine and a few others have mentioned it over the years.
Ian White in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 1
DodgyHermit | 203 posts Running a similar setup in my shepherd's hut — Cerbo GX alongside a non-Victron inverter.
Dodgy Hermit in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 7
I've been down a bit of a rabbit hole lately looking at repurposed Nissan Leaf gen 2 battery modules for a home backup setup.
Alan Wilson in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 6
@IvyWalker raises a genuinely interesting edge case. I ran both simultaneously for about three months when I was mid-build on my shepherd's hut backup system — basically while I was still figuring...
MPPTGal in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Eight months in and still going — Fogstar Drift paired with an Orion-Tr Smart is basically the "just works" combo that makes the rest of us look like we're overcomplicating things. One...
Marine Geoff in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Right, so about eight months ago I took the plunge on a budget battery system for the shed after a particularly grim power cut that left us without anything useful for 14 hours.
Kev Lee in On a Budget 3 months ago