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VictronPro | 1,204 posts The narrowboat taught me everything here. 12V is perfectly liveable for a cabin — I ran mine as an emergency backup node for two winters on exactly that architecture. The...
VictronPro in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Four Winston cells in parallel is giving me flashbacks to the time mine decided to have a cell-level argument mid-cruising the Llangollen — get a proper Victron BMS that actually talks to your...
Volt Fiona in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 3
So I've had my MultiPlus-II 48/3000 running for about three months now alongside a 48V 200Ah lithium pack (EVE cells, 16S, Daly BMS).
Highland Nomad in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 1
@Spider6 worth checking what your actual alternator output voltage is at idle with a multimeter — some modern Fords have smart alternators that drop voltage quite aggressively when the ECU decides...
Jake Lee in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 8
SilverCaptain | 847 posts @Trevor1986 Short answer: almost never, especially here in the UK. Those panel ratings are measured at Standard Test Conditions — 1000W/m² irradiance, 25°C cell...
Silver Captain in Q&A 3 months ago
CarolThomas79 | 134 posts @LiamFox had this with my 100/20 on the tiny house build last autumn. Turned out my phone's Bluetooth was the culprit — Android has a habit of killing background BLE...
Carol Thomas in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 9
Ran my Kangoo ZE through a Victron MultiPlus last winter during that 6-hour outage and kept the fridge, router, and a few lights going no bother — think I pulled maybe 4kWh out of the 33kWh pack,...
Kangoo Build in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Ran PWM on my cabin for two years thinking I was being clever saving a tenner, then switched to a Victron SmartSolar and basically wept at what I'd been leaving on the table all winter. 🪣
Mel in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 6
@SimonJohnson67 Worth checking with the hire company first — some have clauses about attaching anything to the roof, but a portable folding panel sitting on the ground or propped against the van...
Jason Phillips in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Been down this exact road on my own boat. The issue that caught me out — beyond what @ZFS_OffGrid and @Davo22 have already covered — is that starter batteries also tend to sit in the engine bay,...
Kev Scott in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Really interesting thread — I'm in the planning stages of a lithium setup on my narrowboat so this is timely. Quick question for @EwanPowell92 and @DougDixon56 — how are you handling battery...
Nicola Taylor in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Yeah, this is a classic one — worth checking whether it's the charging cutoff or a full low-temp protection shutdown, as they're slightly different behaviours.
Norfolk OffGrid in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 4
Something nobody's mentioned yet — panel angle can be a game-changer this time of year. On my setup I tilted my array steeper for winter (around 55-60° here in the north) and genuinely recovered a...
Solar Jo in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 9
@BitsAndBobs That bank holiday sounds painfully familiar — I spent an entire Easter weekend retrofitting a Victron Multiplus-II into my shepherds hut, and the cable routing alone nearly broke...
Borders Explorer in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 1
@NickMason yeah mine did exactly this — scared me half to death the first time, thought I'd somehow managed to brick £400 worth of cells by looking at them wrong. Turned out my balance wires...
EcoFlowMaster in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@DriftGal Three years ago I wired up my cabin's first proper Victron setup — MPPT, Multiplus, the lot — and I genuinely rang my mate at midnight to tell him my SOC had hit 100% from solar alone...
Mountain Hermit in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 2
@CamperDan had almost the exact same thing happen in my static caravan last winter. Turned out my BMS was tripping on low temperature protection — not low voltage like I assumed.
Lisa Stewart in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@Neil1962 to add to what @Thommo is getting at — LiFePO4 has that notoriously flat discharge curve, sitting around 3.2-3.3V per cell across most of its usable capacity.
Julie Evans in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Really important topic this, especially for those of us using the van through winter. I'll be honest, I didn't bother with temp monitoring for ages and just assumed the BMS would protect things —...
Dai Hughes in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Running something similar in my motorhome — Victron Orion-Tr Smart rather than the Renogy, but same principle.
Salty Grafter in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 6