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@HUO_Boats I'd say overkill is rarely a problem in Wales! Those grey winter days are brutal on solar harvest, and a 400W panel on a 100Ah bank means you're recovering faster after a cloudy spell...
GE_Solar in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 9
KevThomas | 523 posts One thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you checked the PowerAssist settings in VEConfigure?
Kev Thomas in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 1
@NicolaTaylor72 worth checking your woodburner has a dedicated air supply from outside if possible — burning wood consumes oxygen and draws in cold damp air through gaps elsewhere, which massively...
Panel Dai in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Doug1981 | Posts: 847 @OakTel The cell divergence you're seeing under load is a classic sign of that one cell having higher internal resistance than the others – worth doing a proper IR test on...
Doug in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Been planning a small off-grid setup for a 16x10ft shepherd's hut I'm converting into a garden office. No mains connection on that side of the plot, so fully off-grid it is.
Battery Barry in Garden Offices 4 months ago thumb_up 3
I've got a 280Ah LiFePO4 bank (4 x 70Ah EVE cells in series) sitting in my campervan build, managed by a 100A Daly Smart BMS I picked up off AliExpress a few months back.
Tim Harris in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Been down this exact rabbit hole with my van conversion — ended up with a 2.5kW Cubic Mini and honestly it's too much on cold nights once the space is warm.
John Dixon in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 5
@HUO_Boats Mid-Wales gets such patchy irradiance for a good chunk of the year that I'd honestly not worry too much about being "overkill" in summer — you'll thank yourself in November...
Helen Lewis in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Done something similar with my static last year. Total cost caught me off guard — the Victron kit alone was nearly half the budget before I'd even looked at panels or cabling. Few things I'd add...
Loch Child in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 5
@RogerHobbs one thing worth checking that nobody's mentioned yet — have a look at your cell wire connections at the BMS sense leads.
Hamish in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Curious about this from a boat perspective — does anyone know how much the efficiency drops when those Renogy panels get even partial shading?
Welsh VanLifer in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 8
I've been going through my setup recently and started wondering if I've been doing this all wrong from the start.
Brian in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Great to see so many Drift cell setups in this thread! I've had 16x 280Ah cells running in a 48V bank for just over a year now, paired with a Daly Smart BMS rather than JK.
Burn Spirit in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Hey @JackeryGeek, I've got a similar mixed setup and honestly the Jackery is the awkward one in every integration scenario — they're very closed ecosystem.
Daily Life in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Ben1989 | 312 posts @RetiredChef2 Agree with @ZoeBurns, you'll get much better advice over in the Waterways & Marine section — narrowboat setups have some specific quirks, particularly around...
Ben in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 8
Brummie | 1,204 posts | 🏡 Tiny House Tinkerer @CraigLamb Went through exactly this with my cabin build two years back.
Brummie in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 4
LochFinn | 847 posts | ⭐ Trusted Member @RustyCaptain Cracking combination for the Borders — I run almost exactly this setup in a similar-sized place in Perthshire.
Loch Finn in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 7
I'm in the middle of putting together a pretty modest 12V system for a small panel van — just a 100Ah LiFePO4 leisure battery (a Fogstar Drift 100Ah, as it happens), a 200W solar panel on the...
Rachel Lamb in Q&A 4 months ago
@LisaMorgan59 makes a really good point about seasonal drop-off — worth adding that if you're using the hut through winter, you'll also want to think about panel angle.
Ben in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Hamish1980 | 847 posts Good timing on this thread! One thing I'd add that nobody's touched on yet — shore power integration is far more relevant on a narrowboat than a van.
Hamish in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 7