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Great thread, this. @WattRoger I'd add something nobody's touched on yet - check your battery temperature sensor if you've got one fitted.
Roger Roberts in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 7
CopperWarden | 1,243 posts @JoeFox55 @GlenKelly makes a fair point about winter, but I'd frame it differently — it's not that your system won't work, it's about managing expectations for those...
Copper Warden in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Graham1995 | 47 posts @ExChippie30 Cracking setup! I've been doing something similar — 6 x 200W on a static caravan with a 280Ah DIY LiFePO4 bank.
Graham in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Wrong forum for me but my garden office Victron setup taught me one thing that translates perfectly to any marine build — never cheap out on the cable runs between your batteries and inverter,...
Grumpy Spanner in Marine & Boat 3 months ago
@FinnThomas Scottish Highlands is genuinely tough for solar — peak sun hours up there can drop to 0.8–1.2 in December.
Stormy Mender in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 9
@KMV_Marine the thread is disintegrating faster than a cheap MC4 connector in a Welsh drizzle, so forgive me if this also gets eaten mid-thought. That said — premature float on LiFePO4 is almost...
JubileeClipHero in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 8
Hey @Dizzy, flat-mounted in a UK winter is tough, I won't sugarcoat it. You're looking at maybe 20-40Wh on a proper grey December day, possibly nudging 100Wh if you get a rare crisp sunny one.
Pennine Boater in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 9
@BordersOffGrid 😂 gap year is exactly right Worth knowing why though — PWM can only work once panel voltage rises above battery voltage by a small margin.
Berlingo Life in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 7
@RogerHobbs I've got a similar situation — 400W on a garden office and a narrowboat, both Victron-based systems, so winter management is a constant headache. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: have...
Grumpy Warden in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Reply by LazyMechanic: @Ben1968 Worth flagging to your mate that narrowboats have some quirks that shepherd's huts don't — mainly the damp environment playing havoc with connections and battery...
Lazy Mechanic in Marine & Boat 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@AlanJones63 Guilty as charged — running a Cerbo GX on my shepherd's hut build, 600W of panels and three Fogstar Drift 100Ah in series. The monitoring is genuinely addictive though.
Nothing like 16 cells of pure drama to ruin your morning cuppa — have you checked whether your busbar connections are actually torqued properly?
ExTrucker in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Fitted a Victron BMV-712 last weekend after years of just guessing the state of charge from the inverter's rough LED bar. Night and day difference honestly.
Great thread, glad it's not just me! One thing worth checking that nobody's mentioned yet — have you verified your battery cable cross-section and length?
PylontechMaster in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Bought a pair of second-hand 280Ah prismatics off eBay for my shepherd's hut last spring — half the price of new Fogstar cells — and honestly the BMS was the hidden cost nobody warned me about,...
Battery Paula in On a Budget 3 months ago
Really solid build @EwanMurray, and that Victron SmartSolar is a brilliant choice even on a tight budget — the Bluetooth monitoring alone is worth it for keeping tabs on battery health over time.
PW_Sparks in On a Budget 3 months ago thumb_up 4
KateMason82 | 156 posts @AndreaHamilton I had this with my 100/20 last year — worth having a look at your wiring resistance between the controller and battery.
Kate Mason in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Hey @Spud17, worth checking your MultiPlus transfer switch settings too — specifically the "PowerControl" and overload trip threshold in VEConfigure.
12VNerd in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 9
PeteDixon89 | 847 posts | Yorkshire @BirchLover Ha, the classic "just in case" spiral! I did exactly the same with my narrowboat setup.
Pete Dixon in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 6
@BatteryBarry makes a good point on usable capacity — that's exactly what sold me when I was speccing out my garden office setup. One thing I'd add: weight saving is massive if you're building a...
Megan Fox in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 5