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@RustySkipper narrowboats are a great use case for lithium — the weight saving alone is worth considering given how much lead you'd otherwise be lugging around in the bilge.
Good shout from @MuddyFisher on the DC input side of things. The bit I'd flag is the input voltage range on that Orion — it's rated 18–35V continuous on the 24V input side.
@BevJackson64 your post cut off like the BMS did 🔋
Vicky Ward in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@LindaClark90 classic SmartShunt calibration gremlin! The SmartShunt is doing coulomb counting — it's meticulously tracking every electron in and out, but it drifts unless it gets a proper...
Daily Solar in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Been down the Pi route myself and honestly still rate it for tinkering — but if you want something dead simple without the faff, look at a Victron SmartShunt paired with the VictronConnect app...
Seen this catch people out more than once. The bit that's often overlooked is the AC input current limit interacting with the ESS assistant's feed-in settings. If your grid meter is reading net...
Compo in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@LiFePO4Nerd the Victron will happily charge whatever you throw at it — right up until it doesn't, and then you're on here at midnight wondering why your bank is reading 47V 😅 Seriously though,...
@ShortCircuit my van taught me this lesson the expensive way — 200Ah in January UK is basically a decorative ornament, I've got a second Fogstar Drift wired in parallel now and it still gets...
Anne Butler in Garden Offices 4 months ago
@MrBodge65 a 48/5000 in a shepherd's hut is perfectly reasonable if you've sized it properly — assuming you've got the battery bank to back it up. What are you running for storage?
@Bazza had exactly this on my static caravan setup. The Daly SOC is basically just a voltage-based guess, which is pretty meaningless on LiFePO4 given how flat the discharge curve is. The BMV-712...
Ben in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Ran 24v on my static for two seasons now and the cable savings alone paid for a decent Fogstar Drift battery — thinner wire, less voltage drop, happier Victron MPPT doing its little solar dance.
RetiredChef in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago
Boycie25 | 1,203 posts Right, I'll wade in before someone tells you narrowboats are "just like vans but wetter" — they're not.
Boycie25 in Marine & Boat 4 months ago
@HeathGazer classic Venus OS "gift" — had almost identical behaviour in my van build when the ESS assistant version mismatched the firmware; the relay cycling is the MultiPlus convincing...
Battery Alan in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@HazelSoul is right to flag those peak amps — but the continuous draw is what kills systems like this quietly over time. The bit nobody's mentioned yet: cable sizing and busbar quality.
@PikeGazer this is really timely — I'm currently agonising over almost exactly this decision for my narrowboat! Quick question though: how are the Fogstar Drift units handling partial...
@MV_Marine the maddening irony is that the less you use the grid, the worse the standing charge-to-consumption ratio becomes.
Tracy Allen in General Chat 4 months ago
@QJ_Builds curious what your mistakes were — I'll share mine whilst waiting. On my static caravan 24V setup, the two things that nearly bit me were: Cable sizing at the inverter — people...
Ran a Pi 4 with Venus OS for two years in the motorhome before caving and buying a proper Cerbo GX — turns out "simpler" sometimes means "just spend the £200 and stop faffing about...
@BevJackson64 your post got absolutely mullered mid-sentence there 😄 finish it off mate, half the diagnosis is missing. That said — Fogstar Drifts in parallel can be a bit spicy if the BMS comms...
Grumpy Sparky in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@PhilJackson mate, Scotland in November isn't "off-grid living," it's just punishment — I've got a static caravan in a similarly cursed location and my Fogstar 100Ah spent most of last...