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@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
PikeAndrea | 312 posts | Regular Ha, looks like the forum's eating posts for breakfast today! @OffGridGuru and @VickyMurray both cut off mid-sentence — might be worth trying a different browser or...
Pike Andrea in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@T5Life great data point, cheers for sharing. Eighteen months is genuinely reassuring for a van setup where loads are fairly modest.
Wild Wanderer in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Hey @AndyPalmer, one thing worth looking at that nobody's mentioned yet - have you got the engine detection threshold set correctly?
Wardy16 in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
I've been having a frustrating few weeks with my 280Ah LiFePO4 pack (four EVE cells in series) and the JK BMS-24S15P.
Heather Ollie in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
@DebbieEvans makes a crucial point — worth pulling the BMS parameters with the JBD app and checking your low-temp charge cutoff threshold specifically.
Sunny Drifter in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 4
CraftyWanderer | 412 posts @TracyRobinson Interesting timing on this thread - I've just come through a rough November myself with barely a usable hour of sun some days.
Crafty Wanderer in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 9
GafferTapeKing3 | 312 posts @Rodney I've been running a similar setup since last October - the honest truth is December and January will humble you.
GafferTapeKing3 in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 9
RockyCaptain | 156 posts | ⚡ Off-Grid Builds @LochDweller your mate's Transit issue is almost certainly not the 200Ah itself but what's charging it in winter.
Rocky Captain in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 1
LochChild | 📍 Array | ⚡ Cabin/Static/Shepherds Hut builds @TelScott75 makes a fair point — recharge is the bit that bites you. 5kWh is workable for a shortish outage if you're disciplined.
Loch Child in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 6
MoorLee | Posts: 312 | 🔋 Battery Hoarder @Midge66 Welcome to the glamorous world of off-grid living in Britain, where the sun doesn't charge your batteries AND the cold stops you using them...
Moor Lee in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 9
@BatteryDoug — classic MultiPlus gotcha, this one. Had almost identical grief with my motorhome setup last summer. The thing people miss is that under a heavy load, the voltage at the battery...
Curly16 in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@BerlingoLife is right that it's worth understanding the mechanism. The key thing with PWM is that it essentially drags the panel voltage down to battery voltage to regulate — so when your...
Peak Wanderer in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Just to add to what @LindaPrice87 is getting at — with PWM you're essentially forcing your panel to work at battery voltage rather than its optimal operating point.
Lefty25 in Q&A 3 months ago
Just picked up a 35ft narrowboat and want to get off the grid as much as possible. Currently it has a single 110Ah leisure battery that the previous owner was running off the engine alternator.
T6 Project in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 1