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I've had the opposite journey to most — started with the SmartShunt in the motorhome, then added a BMV-712 when I got serious about understanding what was actually happening. Here's the thing: the...
Stacey in Monitoring & System Design 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Been down this road with my motorhome setup. The real question isn't what panels you need—it's what you're actually burning through. I logged mine for three months before finalising anything.
Mountain Hermit in Monitoring & System Design 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Running a single Drift in my boat's cabin setup alongside a Victron Multiplus, and I've been struck by how stable the voltage curve is—no weird dips when the kettle's on.
Callum Hobbs in Batteries & BMS 10 months ago thumb_up 3
The "light commercial" classification is a lazy catch-all when insurers can't be bothered to understand what they're actually covering.
FET_Queen in General Chat 10 months ago thumb_up 3
Solid setup, @MarineGaz! That 10kWh LiFePO4 bank should see you through most winter scenarios. How are you finding the Fogstar cells reliability-wise?
Tracy Robinson in Emergency & Backup Power 10 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, the kettle tax is real. Mine was running a 3kW immersion heater in the van thinking the 200W solar would chip away at it during winter.
Dales Cruiser in Jokes & Fun 10 months ago thumb_up 3
The BMS complexity is exactly where I got caught out with my cabin setup. Spent a fortune on a Victron Smartshunt trying to make sense of mismatched cell voltages from a Tesla module I'd sourced...
Relay Nomad in Batteries & BMS 10 months ago thumb_up 2
You lot are making me look good here—I've been running the same Victron SmartSolar in my van for five years now and it's basically become part of the furniture at this point.
DuctTapeDave in On a Budget 10 months ago thumb_up 1
Had similar grief with mine last year. Turned out to be dodgy Anderson connectors getting corroded — worth inspecting those contacts closely.
Battery Ray in Batteries & BMS 10 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, proper impressive for a fiver! The PWM route is definitely the budget sweet spot—yeah, you'll notice the clouds, but for a T5 that's mainly used weekends or short breaks, it's perfectly...
Tom in Show Your Setup 10 months ago thumb_up 3
@EdHamilton — whereabouts are you located? That'll affect winter generation massively. Also, what's your inverter spec? 5kW panels into an undersized inverter defeats the object.
Panel Julie in Monitoring & System Design 10 months ago thumb_up 1
Series on a narrowboat is asking for trouble tbh. You'll hit voltage limits with your Victron kit, and one leaf on a panel tanks your whole string.
Cotswold Nomad in Q&A 10 months ago thumb_up 3
The winter reality is brutal, but it's actually forced me to redesign my whole energy strategy rather than just throwing more panels at the problem.
SolarJunkie in General Chat 10 months ago thumb_up 4
Victron's isolation transformer is the real differentiator if you've got a dodgy alternator or solar array playing silly buggers with your earth reference—Renogy's cheaper but assumes your DC...
Boat Paddy in DC-DC Chargers 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Got both setups running here—AGM in the static caravan, LiFePO4 in the cabin. Real difference comes down to depth of discharge.
Fell Kev in Batteries & BMS 10 months ago thumb_up 1
The Orion-Tr is brilliant for this exact reason. What most people don't realise until they've lived with a smart alternator is that they're essentially dumb without feedback—they'll happily pulse...
Solar Jason in DC-DC Chargers 10 months ago thumb_up 4
Mixed panels work, but @FormerMariner1's got the right question. Without actual consumption data you're flying blind.
Smudge78 in Monitoring & System Design 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Been down this road with the narrowboat setup. What @LH_Marine said about consumption vs generation is spot on — I added up my actual winter usage (heating, water pump, occasional kettle) and...
Copper Roamer in Motorhome & Campervan 10 months ago thumb_up 1
@BayTim's got the fundamentals spot on. Worth adding: track your actual consumption for a fortnight first—most people guess optimistically.
LH_Marine in Monitoring & System Design 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Narrowboat's the killer here — you're constrained by cable runs and roof space. Series works if you've got zero shading, but honestly, parallel gives you better fault tolerance.
Van Gill in Q&A 10 months ago thumb_up 3