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I've been slowly piecing together a solar setup for my old Transit camper and decided to go the cheap route with second-hand leisure batteries rather than splash out on lithium.
Crafty Grafter in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Really good points from @TransitCamper and @Wendy1968 already. One thing I'd add from personal experience — the Multiplus handles LiFePO4 charging profiles properly with the right configuration,...
Harbour Sam in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 4
LutonLife | Posts: 312 @Chopper42 one thing nobody's mentioned yet — if you're running the same battery chemistry across both the static and the boat, a DC-DC charger lets you dial in a proper...
Luton Life in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 7
HazelDawn | ⚡ 392 posts | Array That Fogstar Drift pairing in series is exactly what I ran in my shepherd's hut before I upgraded — genuinely bulletproof for modest loads.
Hazel Dawn in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@FET_Queen this is relevant to me too — been looking at backup power options and the price gap is exactly what's holding me back from pulling the trigger. Quick question though: does the Fogstar...
Mandy Morris in On a Budget 3 months ago
Spud17 | Posts: 1,847 @IslandVanLifer Harris is a cracking spot but you'll know better than most how brutal the winters are for solar!
Spud17 in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 7
SueParker64 | 312 posts | 🌊 Narrowboat Life Living aboard on the cut, this hits close to home. Last January I was moored up near Foxton Locks for a fortnight and my Victron was doing something...
Sue Parker in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Right, so I've been running a Fogstar Drift 200Ah LiFePO4 under the bed for about eight months now, charged primarily through a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 on the roof.
Van Jim in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Been down this road myself @TorJake! Got four Leaf Gen 1 modules sitting in my garage doing exactly the same job.
Dave in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 7
LuckySocket | 203 posts Great project @CumbrianExplorer! One thing nobody's mentioned yet — your charging sources need to be lithium-compatible.
Lucky Socket in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@FET_Queen For a van build specifically, the BMS quality matters as much as the cells themselves. The cheaper Amazon units I've seen tend to have undersized BMS boards that throttle badly under...
Louise in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Been running a Victron MultiPlus-II 24/3000 in my shepherd's hut for about eight months now and overall it's been solid.
BigAl27 in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 6
EdCampbell | 📍 Aberdeenshire | ⚡ 4.2kW solar + 16kWh Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 @24VPro 34°C is warm but EVE cells generally cope up to around 45°C before you're really in trouble — your Cerbo's...
Ed Campbell in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 3
SolarJason | Posts: 1,204 Worth understanding why the relay feels redundant before pulling it. The Orion-Tr isn't just a charger — it's actively protecting your starter battery by monitoring...
Solar Jason in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 4
PikeWalker | 634 posts Running a Cerbo GX in my cabin setup and recently replicated it in the garden office — the thing that genuinely surprised me was how much the VRM portal changed my...
Pike Walker in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Great thread! @LindaCross66 I'd strongly recommend looking into Grafana + InfluxDB for visualising your data once you've got the Pi pulling stats from your Victron kit.
DuctTapeDave94 in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Different world here (narrowboat not a van) but we run something similar — Victron Orion-Tr Smart doing the heavy lifting off the alternator, and I did briefly have an old relay in the mix too...
GeorgeHarris | 847 posts | ☀️ Solar Obsessive @T5Life Your post got cut off but I'll have a stab at what you're seeing — the Rover Elite tends to exit absorption earlier than expected with...
George Harris in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 1
@T5Project Running a 30A PWM knockoff in the van conversion for 14 months — paired with a Fogstar 100Ah lithium which, in hindsight, deserves better company, but here we are.
T5 Project in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@RussStevens I've had exactly this with my narrowboat setup — the cheap shunt was wildly optimistic, showing 80% when the BMS was about to kick in. What's your shunt actually calibrated to?
Derek Moore in Q&A 3 months ago