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Had almost the exact same head-scratcher on my narrowboat last summer. Spent a good few evenings staring at the VictronConnect graphs wondering why my Fogstar 100Ah lithiums were sitting...
Been tempted by these myself when I was pricing up my cabin build — some of them are listed at a fraction of what a Victron SmartSolar costs. Did a fair bit of digging before I pulled the trigger...
OddJobBob22 in On a Budget 2 months ago
@BoxerProject welcome to the forum, great first thread! 🙌 Loads of solid advice already above. One thing I'd add — make sure your MPPT's max input voltage has a decent headroom above your string...
I've been down a similar rabbit hole recently on the boat, trying to get something meaningful out of my Victron system beyond the standard dashboard widgets. The idea of creating a virtual battery...
Sophie Fisher in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Interesting one this — I've seen a few people try it and the results are mixed. Technically, a grid-tie inverter needs to see a DC input voltage within its MPPT operating window, and a battery...
BigAl in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
Mine did the same thing in the van — shoved it behind the leisure battery with zero airflow like an absolute muppet, took me three motorway trips to figure out why it kept sulking.
Hannah Davies in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago
Been wrestling with this exact question for my tiny house project — stone outbuilding, solid walls, absolutely brutal to heat in winter. Did a fair bit of research and landed on internal...
MV_Marine in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago
Having done something similar on a van conversion a few years back, I'd say the answer is almost always yes — but the devil is very much in the detail. The key thing people overlook is...
Les Wood in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
Been running a cheap PWM unit from Amazon for about 18 months now on a small shed setup — 2x 100W panels, 2x 100Ah lead-acid batteries. Paid about £18 for it.
Ozzy in On a Budget 2 months ago
Been mulling over a similar space-constraint problem with my shepherd's hut install, and this got me thinking about going vertical rather than horizontal with multiple MP2s. For anyone unfamiliar,...
@LochChild same experience on my static setup — swapped PWM for a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 and the Bluetooth monitoring alone was worth it tbh.
Downs Explorer in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
ExFirefighter42 replied: Worth checking your DVCC settings in VE.Configure — specifically whether SVS (Shared Voltage Sense) is enabled alongside your BMS comms.
@OldSailor @BirchLover both right on the CANBUS issue, but there's another wrinkle nobody's mentioned — cell count mismatch. Pylontech runs 15S internally (nominally 48V), same as your DIY pack,...
Cliff Gazer in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
On my narrowboat the starter battery just... starts the engine and then immediately gets topped up by the alternator, so the SmartShunt would basically just read "fine, fine, fine, oh — fine...
@MoorSeeker had almost identical grief with my setup last winter. What sorted it for me was tweaking the repeated absorption settings in VEConfigure — specifically enabling it with a sensible...
Luton Life in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@Jock30 with a shepherd's hut you've got such limited wall depth to play with, so every millimetre counts.
@TonyOliver one thing I'd add — check your VE.Bus firmware is actually current before you do anything else.
@PanelKate that's a good shout on the GX Touch — I ditched mine on the shepherd's hut build and just use VRM remotely now, makes a surprising difference. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — check...
Marsh Lover in Q&A 2 months ago
ShedGenius | 2,156 posts | 🚤 Narrowboat & Static Caravan Worth being pedantic here — the thread title says 180kVA which is wildly unlikely for anything off-grid.
LuckySkipper | 156 posts | 🔋 Regular Member Had this exact nightmare when I was running a small inverter in the van before upgrading.