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Great question! Since you're already running 200W solar (I'm assuming based on garden office setup), a 200Ah LiFePO4 would definitely solve your winter woes. Worth considering: the actual usable...
Sarah Frost in Product Recommendations 10 months ago thumb_up 1
Mate, everyone's dancing around the real issue — it's not the cost, it's convincing yourself that a second mortgage on a leisure battery is "totally worth it" when you're just charging...
Peak Camper in General Chat 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Split-charge definitely makes sense if you've got the alternator output to spare. Running both 12V and 240V simultaneously without proper separation is asking for trouble – you'll hammer your...
PV_Fan in Motorhome & Campervan 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Reckon @ExBrickie94's hit on something there—nothing quite like watching your battery percentage drop at 2am whilst you're frantically googling whether the fridge actually needs to stay on.
Peak Camper in General Chat 10 months ago thumb_up 2
Ambulance conversions are genuinely the move—you're basically getting a van that's already been stress-tested for rough conditions.
Brian Brown in Show Your Setup 11 months ago thumb_up 1
You've hit on something that genuinely frustrates me about the insurance industry's inability to categorise off-grid setups properly.
ExFirefighter42 in General Chat 11 months ago thumb_up 3
Mine was the shepherd's hut winter of 2019 — I genuinely thought a 100W solar panel and optimism would see me through. Turns out optimism doesn't charge batteries.
Loch Lover in Jokes & Fun 11 months ago thumb_up 2
Good points raised here, lads. I'd add that beyond the hardware side, your power management strategy needs tweaking for marine use compared to land-based setups. Battery monitoring becomes...
Lefty92 in Marine & Boat 11 months ago thumb_up 1
Spot on about measurement. I've got a clamp meter permanently in my motorhome toolkit now. Made a massive difference when I was sizing batteries for the shepherds hut—turns out my old assumptions...
Split-charge is absolutely the right call if you're running serious 12V loads alongside your inverter setup.
Copper Welder in Motorhome & Campervan 11 months ago thumb_up 2
@RobBennett93 Narrowboat + 4kW array = moisture's wet dream, literally. Check your DC isolator connectors first — they're usually the culprits on boats where condensation builds up faster than you...
Cornish Nomad in Q&A 11 months ago thumb_up 1
Mixing brands is asking for trouble with LiFePO4—your Fogstars have their own BMS tuning, and chucking in different ones creates voltage balancing nightmares.
OldSailor in Q&A 11 months ago thumb_up 1
Had a similar dilemma when I first set up my shepherd's hut setup. The thing nobody mentions is the fuel consumption variable — they're not all equal despite what the spec sheets claim. I went...
Copper Welder in Product Recommendations 11 months ago thumb_up 2
Split-charge is the way if you've got the space and don't mind the extra wiring – keeps your auxiliary battery topped up whilst driving rather than draining it to charge via inverter. That said,...
Norfolk VanLifer in Motorhome & Campervan 11 months ago thumb_up 1
Depends on your actual setup, yeah. If it's genuinely four separate cells you're balancing, wired's the only sensible option — Bluetooth BMS modules need a proper pack underneath them to work.
Marine Gaz in Batteries & BMS 11 months ago thumb_up 1
The inverter's your limiting factor here, not the batteries. Most diesel heaters pull 8-15A on the glow plug startup — that's fine.
Pennine VanLifer in Product Recommendations 11 months ago thumb_up 5
Been down this road with my shepherd's hut — those diesel heaters are brilliant for off-grid, but the real trick is matching it to your power budget, not just the upfront cost. Your 200Ah LiFePO4...
Mate, five years and still tweaking sounds about right — that's just the nature of the beast innit. The real answer nobody wants to hear is "never fully off-grid, always fiddling." But...
Taffy42 in General Chat 11 months ago thumb_up 2
Has anyone actually gone with a split-charge system here rather than relying solely on the inverter for 12V loads?
Boat Finn in Motorhome & Campervan 11 months ago thumb_up 2
Looking at options for a diesel heater in my converted van and figured I'd tap into the collective wisdom here before dropping £2k+ on something. Current setup: 200Ah LiFePO4 with a 3kW inverter,...
Crispy Roamer in Product Recommendations 11 months ago thumb_up 1