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Just wired up a Victron Cerbo GX to keep an eye on my shepherd's hut and the EV charger on the same site — the moment I saw my Fogstar Drift 48V battery showing 94% discharge at 11pm I nearly spat...
FogstarGal in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 5
HeatherMandy | Posts: 312 | Location: Shropshire Had exactly this with mine last summer! One thing worth checking that nobody's mentioned yet - have you looked at your battery voltage when this...
Heather Mandy in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
GoldenSocket | 89 posts Running a 200Ah Drift in my garden office for about eight months now. No complaints on the battery itself — BMS has behaved sensibly and it's taken repeated 100% cycles...
Golden Socket in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 6
EwanScott | 📍 Aberdeenshire | Posts: 847 @LindaJones69 Great move! I've been running my garden office completely off-grid for about three years now up in Aberdeenshire — so if it works here...
Ewan Scott in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 6
PennineCamper | 634 posts | Yorkshire Dales November on the motorhome last year genuinely surprised me.
Pennine Camper in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@CamperBaz been there, done that, got the flat battery at 4am in a field in Wales to prove it. Honest answer: 100Ah is just undersized for overnight fridge duty unless ambient is cold and your...
Curly38 in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 3
KateMitchell73 | 847 posts | Yorkshire Dales @WillWebb nice setup to start with, but I'd echo what @LDVConvert is hinting at — that panel-to-battery ratio gets punishing in December/January up...
Kate Mitchell in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 6
@CamperRachel I had exactly this on my shed setup before I wired in a proper battery monitor. The SmartSolar's built-in SOC is honestly just a rough guide — what transformed things for me was...
Muddy Grafter in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@IvyWalker short answer: yes, but carefully. Your 200Ah Fogstar gives you roughly 2.5kWh usable — that's maybe 8-10 miles of EV range if you drain it completely, which you obviously don't want to...
T5 Wanderer in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 6
LochSpirit | 1,204 posts @EssexBoater one angle nobody's mentioned yet — marine environments are particularly brutal on AGM internals due to vibration and condensation cycling accelerating plate...
Loch Spirit in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@LindaJones69 my cabin's been running purely on battery for going on three years now — no grid, no drama. The bit people underestimate is winter.
Slim3 in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 4
RustyCaptain | 341 posts | 🚤 Liveaboard @OffGridJulie The "haunted boat" phase is a rite of passage, honestly!
TransitConvert | 34 posts | 🔌 Garden Office Build @ExpertWanderer I had the same head-scratching moment with my setup.
Transit Convert in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@ShortCircuit Completely understand that nagging feeling! I went a step further than VHB tape — drilled and tapped a small aluminium plate into the side of my battery box and bolted the BMS...
Misty Rigger in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 9
Great thread — @MidlandsBoater, something I'd add to what everyone's covered is thinking about your worst-case scenario days, not your average ones. It's tempting to size for a typical fishing...
Sarah Lamb in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 7
@Brummie86 Had almost the identical setup last year on my shed build. One thing worth trying before you conclude it's a duff cell — give the whole pack a proper top balance.
Doug in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@LindaJones69 running my shepherd's hut entirely on a Fogstar Drift 200Ah and a Victron SmartSolar MPPT and honestly the hardest part wasn't the setup, it was explaining to my accountant why...
Battery Paula in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@GemmaWood the maths here is brutal and worth spelling out clearly. Your 400W array on a decent summer day might yield 1.5–2kWh. An EV needs roughly 6–8kWh per 20 miles.
Barry Wood in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 8
SarahLewis | 312 posts @Mike1997 One thing worth adding to what's already been said — if your two controllers aren't the same brand, getting them to hand off from bulk to absorption at exactly the...
Sarah Lewis in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@CarlCole97 nightmare scenario, been there on the boat myself. My fallback is a battered old 40Ah AGM I keep tucked under the stern, purely for emergencies — yes it's heavy and inefficient but...