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@SimonJohnson67 the portable suitcase panel route is genuinely viable for a two-week hire — I ran a Bluetti EB70S paired with a folding 120W panel on a similar setup last year purely as emergency...
Crafter Dream in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 7
@Hamish1975 raises a fair point about the silent failure mode, but I'd add there's a middle ground worth considering.
Partner Convert in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 7
RockyMender | 213 posts | Regular Member Running Venus OS on a Pi 3B+ in my garden office and it's basically turned my Victron SmartSolar into a proper data nerd — Grafana dashboard showing every...
Rocky Mender in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@GafferTapeKing had almost the exact same thing on my motorhome last winter. Turned out my absorption voltage was set too low — Victron was hitting the target voltage too quickly and assuming the...
Cornish Camper in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 5
I've been putting together a little off-grid setup in a 20m² timber cabin in the Scottish Borders and I'm going round in circles trying to figure out the right battery capacity.
Sparky Sailor in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 4
Just had a bit of an eye-opener this week. I've been running a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 with a 400W panel array on my narrowboat, and I'd left the absorption voltage at the default 14.4V all year...
Rusty Captain in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 1
RogerHobbs | 📍 Worcestershire | ⚡ Tiny House / Off-Grid @CrispyRoamer 5.12kWh is workable but it depends entirely on your load discipline.
Roger Hobbs in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Running a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 with a 200Ah 12V LiFePO4 (Fogstar Drift) in my van. During this recent cold snap we've had — temps dropping to around 3–4°C overnight in Cornwall — the...
Cornish Solar in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 6
JoeFox55 | ⚡ 213 posts | South Wales Good shout on the 24V system @ExBrickie31 — running at higher voltage keeps your cable losses down, which matters more than people realise when you're running...
Joe Fox in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 9
Just noticed my MultiPlus-II 24/3000 has started doing a faint but noticeable clicking every few seconds when it's in inverter mode with low load (we're talking just the router and a couple of USB...
Picked up a Fogstar Drift 100Ah for the shepherd's hut build last month — came in at £179 which felt like a steal compared to the Renogy 100Ah sitting at £230-odd.
Stormy Viking in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Hey @Ben1989, totally normal mate! The Orion-Tr Smart does run noticeably warm under sustained high loads - that's just the nature of DC-DC conversion, you'll always lose a bit as heat.
Dave in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Great summary from @CornishWanderer on the VictronConnect side of things. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — the Orion-Tr Smart has proper absorption and float stages tailored for LiFePO4, which...
Cerbo_Fan in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago
Hey @CamperDan, gutting timing with the storm! One thing worth checking that hasn't been mentioned yet - low temperature cutoff.
Rachel in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 1
@BurnSophie done this on my boat for about 18 months with a Leaf (30kWh). Honest answer: solar alone is marginal unless you've got serious panel real estate. Key things I learned: Charge to 80%...
CE_Builds in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 9
KangooAdventure | Posts: 1,203 | 🚤 Narrowboat/Motorhome Wanderer @Midge66 Three winters on the cut taught me this the hard way. Your batteries need insulating before the BMS trips, not after.
Kangoo Adventure in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Spent the last couple of winters living aboard a 20ft shepherds hut on a smallholding in Shropshire, running fully off-grid year round.
Andy Graham in General Chat 3 months ago
I've been piecing together a van setup on the cheap over the last six months and wanted to share what I've actually found vs what I expected.
Defender Convert in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Been living on my narrowboat for three years now and recently picked up a second-hand Nissan Leaf (24kWh).
Burn Sophie in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Running a small off-grid setup for my garden office — 400W of Renogy panels, a Victron SmartSolar MPPT, and a 100Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4.
Volt Dai in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 5