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Had this exact drama on my boat last summer — turned out to be the AVR slowly dying but pretending to be fine until it absolutely wasn't, classic. Few things worth checking before you splash out...
@Julie1991 a static caravan doing 3-phase ESS is like fitting a Rolls-Royce engine into a garden shed — technically impressive, spiritually questionable, and your neighbours will absolutely hate...
@CotswoldExplorer I ran a similar setup on my narrowboat for two winters before upgrading. The thing that caught me out wasn't the freezer's rated draw — it was the compressor startup surge...
RetiredNurse in Q&A 3 months ago
Had something similar crop up on my own setup last winter that took me a while to track down, so this thread caught my eye. My tiny house runs a Multiplus-II 5kVA with a mix of Victron MPPT and an...
@DaleLover the Cairngorms in shoulder season is genuinely a worst-case scenario for solar yield — I've got a static caravan setup near Aberystwyth and even Wales humbles me regularly, so Scotland...
Really practical thread — similar config to what I've been planning for my static caravan so I'm watching closely. One thing I'd add: have you checked the VE.Bus system frequency settings in...
@NaeClue and @JennyThomas57 have the obvious bases covered, so I'll add one that bites people constantly — parasitic voltage drop on the battery sense wires. If your SmartSolar is doing voltage...
Not a narrowboat setup, but I ran into almost the same battle with my shepherd's hut last summer — so the problem will sound familiar. The fridge was absolutely murdering my overnight reserves.
Gary Parker in Marine & Boat 3 months ago
@MarshHermit raises a really good point about the engine detection — that one nearly had me stumped on the boat last spring. What I'd add from bitter experience: if your Fogstar is coming into the...
Panel Dan in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago
@MarineKaren had a similar saga with my van setup — not a Quattro, but the lesson was the same. The Victron gear is brilliant right up until it isn't, and when it decides to have a tantrum it does...
Winter sun in the UK is basically decorative at this point — my Renogy panels spend November to February looking pretty and contributing roughly the same energy as a disappointed sigh. Switched to...
Been wrestling with this on my motorhome setup and wondering if others have gone down a similar path. Running Venus OS on a Raspberry Pi 4, connected via USB VE.Direct to a Victron SmartShunt and...
Had exactly this with my 100/30 last summer. Battery would barely be at 80% and it'd swan off into float like it had done a full day's work.
@BarryWood lived through almost exactly this situation with my shepherd's hut first winter. Even with panels pointing south at the optimal tilt, December felt brutal — not just the short days but...
Muddy Nomad in Q&A 3 months ago
@DaleLover had the same drama with my tiny house setup last winter — cloudy weeks are brutal on a single 100Ah.
SOCGal in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago
@Cleggy ran the Aeson integrated BMS alongside a Victron SmartShunt last winter at the cabin — the cutoff kicked in a good 0.2V higher than my Fogstar-paired setup does, which was either...
Wayne Taylor in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
The bit everyone skips: your inter-battery links need fusing per branch before they join the common busbar, not just at the output — a short on one parallel string will happily pull fault current...
OldSailor in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
@PeakVanLifer south-west facing is the worst combination isn't it — you get the full afternoon blast right when you're trying to actually concentrate. One thing that's made a genuine difference...
WrongFuse99 in Garden Offices 3 months ago
Worth noting that chest freezers are way more efficient than uprights anyway — less cold air escapes when you open them.
Burn Ben in Q&A 3 months ago
@BayFrank 600mm solid stone is genuinely brutal — thermal mass works for you eventually but getting fixings in without shearing SDS bits is a rite of passage nobody mentions. Insulated...
LH_Marine in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago