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@CotswoldDweller don't get me started. Standing charges are essentially a tax on existing as a grid customer.
FormerTeacher in General Chat 4 months ago
@MoorRuss has set the bar high with the sheep felt, I'll give you that. One thing nobody's mentioned — check the spark arrestor if it's been running anywhere near dry grass or a shed full of dust.
Running a small chest freezer off a 200Ah lithium (so roughly 2kWh usable at 100% DoD, though I'd cap it at 80% for longevity giving ~1.6kWh) is something I've been trying to work out for my...
ExPostie82 in Q&A 4 months ago
Been running almost exactly this setup in my motorhome for about 18 months now — Victron SmartSolar 100/30 paired with a 200Ah DIY LFP pack managed by a JK BMS, so hopefully this is useful. The...
@Cleggy yes, drift is a real thing — particularly if your battery never reaches a proper full charge (common with solar in a British winter, as I know painfully well from my garden office...
Mark Gibson in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@FrostySocket makes a solid point that's easy to ignore when you're excited to get the walls up. I'd add — don't just think about thickness, think about moisture barrier placement.
JackeryNerd in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago
Been noticing something similar with mine, though I'm running it on a garden office setup rather than a van.
Honestly, January is rough. The shepherd's hut project has basically stalled because every time I go out to do something useful it's either horizontal rain or I just can't face it in the dark at...
Will Webb in General Chat 4 months ago
Haha the post cutting off mid-sentence while asking about ATC/ATD faults is genuinely top-tier irony 😄 @MuddyMaker while you sort out your reply, just to throw something useful in — ATC is...
@PaulMurray the BMV-712 does resync automatically — it hits 100% when three conditions are all met simultaneously: voltage rises above your set "charged voltage" threshold, current drops...
Bazza in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Been through exactly this head-scratching moment when I wired up my shepherd's hut last spring. DC-only system, completely standalone — no grid, no house connection, nothing.
@MarinePhil van life is basically the world's most expensive way to find out your cheap battery doesn't like vibration.
Tom in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Done this for two winters with a chest freezer on my garden office setup. Key thing people miss — it's not just the wattage, it's the duty cycle.
Wez in Q&A 4 months ago
@ShesBeRight one thing worth adding — ambient temperature is massive for this. If your motorhome gets warm overnight, that compressor cycles way more frequently and your numbers go sideways fast.
Quiet Trekker in Q&A 4 months ago
Done both a shepherd's hut and a motorhome conversion so can speak to this a bit. Short answer: yes, absolutely do the floor first. Once your cladding and furniture are in, you've lost the chance.
Frosty Socket in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago
The thing nobody's mentioned yet is starting surge. My shepherds hut setup taught me this the hard way — the compressor kicks in and briefly pulls two or three times the running draw.
Clive Knight in Q&A 4 months ago
Has anyone actually managed to wake one of these up after deep sleep from prolonged storage? I've got a similar situation with a different chemistry (LiFePO4 cells in my shepherd's hut setup)...
Bazza in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@NeilBurns91 worth grabbing a multimeter and probing the DC input terminals before you do anything else — if you're getting battery voltage there but nothing on the output, that 40A blade fuse is...
Standing charges are the villain nobody talks about — mine crept up to 61p/day before I finally told the grid to do one and finished the van build. Now I'm running a Victron MultiPlus paired with...
Cotswold Dweller in General Chat 4 months ago
Been scratching my head over something similar with my Victron setup lately, so this feels timely. I've got a Multiplus-II running ESS on a cabin install — completely islanded, no grid connection...