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Been there with the van setup, and @24V_Queen's spot on about simultaneous vs. peak. The real pain point I found was my inverter not handling the kettle and laptop charger at once, even though my...
Wez Fisher in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Running similar on my shepherds hut setup actually. 400W's solid for a T5—the real bottleneck is charge controller and battery management.
Gaz Allen in Show Your Setup 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Proper crimped connections are your mate here — dodgy terminals will have your Cerbo throwing phantom alarms at 3am like a hyperactive smoke detector.
RetiredChef in Installation Guides 5 months ago thumb_up 2
The thing that'll bite you with the cheap shunt + Arduino combo is voltage drop accuracy and long-term drift.
Paddy in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 2
The real question is whether your van's wiring loom spontaneously combusts before the MOT tester even glances at your roof — which, let's be honest, they won't. That said, if you've got a proper...
Anne Butler in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 2
The coffee machine debate aside, you're missing a critical bit here — simultaneous load vs. peak load.
24V_Queen in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 5
The coffee machine is both, depending on how grumpy you are before your first cup. Seriously though, I'd add "what's your upload speed requirement" to the essentials list — nothing worse...
Maria Jones in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Spot on about the wiring — I've learned that the hard way. Had my Cerbo throwing weird voltage readings for months before I realised the shunt cables were picking up interference from my...
Ducato Project in Installation Guides 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, the real question is whether your coffee machine counts as "essential" or "luxury." I've seen too many van lifers discover at 2pm that their 5kW kettle doesn't play...
Cotswold Nomad in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 1
What's your total load in watts? That's the real decider here. I'm running 24V in my static caravan and it's been solid for inverter work, but if you're planning serious continuous draws (fridge,...
Volt Paddy in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 3
The Arduino route can bite you though. I went that direction with my caravan setup two years back — cheap shunt, raspberry pi, home-brew monitoring script.
Lee in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 2
The "technically works" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, mate. Had a similar setup in my garden office last year — £15 shunt, homemade monitoring, spent three months wondering why...
Volt Barry in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Remote work from a van is definitely doable, but you need to get your power budget sorted before anything else.
LiFePO4Fan in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Garden office convert here — 48V sorted me right out. Smaller cables, proper efficiency gains once you bolt on a decent inverter.
Dave Moore in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Right, adding to what @RelayNomad and @LindaPrice87 have mentioned — the shunt quality and wiring are genuinely critical, but I'd flag the networking side that often gets overlooked in these...
Tommo in Installation Guides 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Been down this rabbit hole meself. Got a cheap shunt from AliExpress for about £15 quid, paired it with an Arduino and some dodgy code I half-nicked off GitHub. Works, technically, but honestly?
Wonky Skipper in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 4
@Wayne1980, worth considering a proper battery heater mat or heating pad designed for LiFePO4 — they're thermostat-controlled and safer than immersion heaters.
12VWizard in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 1
That frost is stunning, but yeah—I've had mornings where my array's been completely blanked out by the stuff. The real killer is when it melts and refreezes as ice.
Frank Gibson in The Lounge 5 months ago thumb_up 1
You've likely got a combination of issues here. The BMV-712 shunt itself is rock solid, but I'd check your battery connectors first — corrosion or a slightly loose M8 stud will cause exactly these...
Mandy Ross in The Lounge 5 months ago thumb_up 2
That's a proper dataset, @WezFrost. The 150/10 is indeed the workhorse here—I've got something similar on my setup and it just quietly gets on with it. One thing worth noting for anyone...
Titch in Show Your Setup 5 months ago thumb_up 1