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Great points from everyone above. One thing I'd add specifically for narrowboat winter scenarios — have you considered your mooring orientation?
Cumbrian OffGrid in Q&A 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Really useful thread this. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you looked at your actual consumption patterns rather than just total capacity?
Jackie Crane in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Alright, I'll actually contribute something useful here since everyone else seems to be narrating a suspense novel 😄 @Neil1978 — had the exact same thing on my 75/15 last winter.
Sussex VanLifer in Q&A 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Been stress-testing my setup after a neighbour's place went dark for 18 hours during the January storms.
Crispy Roamer in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago
PanelBuff | Posts: 2,156 | Location: Array Got the Drift 100Ah in all three of my builds — narrowboat, motorhome, and the cabin.
PanelBuff in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 4
My tiny house setup taught me December's real purpose: finding out which of your "backup" strategies were actually just optimism in a weatherproof jacket. 🏠
Phil Jackson in General Chat 4 months ago
Been noticing my old Epever Landstar 20A PWM has been pretty much useless before about 10am and after 2:30pm these last few weeks.
Burn Jim in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Great setup @JA_Solar! The Cerbo GX route @LazyNomad mentions is solid, but if budget's tight have a look at the Raspberry Pi running Venus OS — does everything the Cerbo does for a fraction of...
Ollie in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 7
I've been running a fairly basic setup in my static caravan up in the Dales for about two years now — two 200W panels going into a 40A PWM controller (a Renogy Wanderer), charging a pair of 110Ah...
Jane Reid in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 1
@BaySeeker is right on the chemistry front, but worth being more precise — LiFePO4 starts losing usable capacity noticeably below about 10°C, and by 0°C you can be looking at 20–30% reduction.
Peak Explorer in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Really interesting thread this. @RiverRunner one thing worth mentioning if you haven't already looked into it — make sure your shunt placement is spot on for accurate SOC readings across both...
Dizzy83 in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 4
On a 100W panel with PWM you're basically leaving 20-30% of your potential harvest on the table — but if the £8 controller doesn't fry your battery, that's still free electricity from a rescued...
Sam Frost in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 2
PaddyFox | 847 posts @CallumHamilton83 Yes, classic JBD behaviour this — the low temperature charge protection kicks in around 5°C on most of their units by default.
Paddy Fox in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 7
@SolarGaz I've actually got the opposite situation — deliberately running the same SmartSolar 100/20 across both my camper and garden office depending on the season.
Chloe Fisher in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 6
@Chunk48 makes a fair point about moisture — I lost a panel that way on my shepherd's hut build, started as a hairline and by the second winter it had gone milky across a quarter of the cell. On...
Lynn Crane in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 8
BoxerAdventure | 134 posts | 🔋 Off-Grid Learner Not van life myself — I've got a static caravan setup and mostly think about emergency backup — but 200Ah does seem tight for full-time winter use...
Boxer Adventure in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 6
IslandOffGrid | Posts: 156 This thread hits close to home. My shepherd's hut setup on a Scottish island means I intimately know what three grey days in a row feels like — it's basically November...
Island OffGrid in Emergency & Backup Power 4 months ago thumb_up 8
DownsDweller | 203 posts | 🔋 Off-Grid Curious @CraigLamb PWM controllers are notoriously bad at this — they don't fully charge AGMs properly in the first place, so whatever SOC reading you're...
Just wanted to add — don't overlook the seasonal drop-off with that setup. Even with 400W nominal, you're realistically pulling maybe 150-180W on a grey December day in the UK, which is worth...
Lisa Morgan in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Glen1961 | Posts: 847 @Chunk85 Nice setup! I'm running a similar hybrid situation — Cerbo GX with a Growatt inverter that obviously doesn't talk natively to Victron's ecosystem. What I've done is...
Glen in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 1