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@Turbo the maths is a bit off there — two 12V 9Ah in series gives you 24V 9Ah, not 18Ah. Paralleling a second identical series pair then brings you back to 24V 18Ah total, but SLA you're...
OffGrid Jack in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Been having a proper nightmare with my Victron SmartSolar 100/30 this past fortnight. Temperatures here in Yorkshire have been dropping to around -5°C overnight and I keep waking up to find the...
Watt Roger in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 6
SarahFrost | 312 posts @NeilAllen great upgrade choice! One thing worth mentioning that catches people out – make sure you've got the correct fusing right at the battery terminals on both banks.
Sarah Frost in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 2
@AmyChapman89 brilliant setup — the MultiPlus 2000 should handle it fine though you'll want to keep an eye on charge rate vs your battery capacity.
Gazza24 in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Curious about this @48VGal — are the cells themselves running warm or is it the BMS getting toasty? On my narrowboat I've found the Drift cells behave quite differently depending on airflow around...
Dodgy Captain in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Last spring I finally stopped talking about it and just built the thing. 200W of Renogy panels on the roof, a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 MPPT, and a second-hand 100Ah AGM I picked up off Facebook...
Ewan Murray in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Great setup @LutonDream! Once you've sorted the Voc calculation that @Victron_Pro and @CarlBaker are flagging, you should be in good shape.
T6 Dream in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 9
I've got four 280Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 cells wired in series (12V nominal, roughly 3.5kWh usable) in my off-grid cabin setup.
Crispy Mender in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 2
MultiPlusNerd | 2,891 posts | ⚡ Grumpy But Correctly Wired Slap a self-regulating heating pad on your cells and a cheap DS18B20 temp probe feeding back to the BMS — sorted it in my van last...
MultiPlusNerd in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 6
@Julie1972 one thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you got a GX device or a Raspberry Pi running VenusOS anywhere on the network?
Clive in Q&A 4 months ago thumb_up 6
@QuietHiker 48.1V in 3°C? Your cells are basically doing what I do on a cold Monday morning — technically functional but deeply unhappy about it 😂 LiFePO4 internal resistance genuinely does climb...
Cornish Cruiser in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 9
FormerMechanic | 1,204 posts @Liam1998 spent 20-odd years seeing what heat does to cheap connections — it's never good.
FormerMechanic in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 2
@Jim1980 your MPPT and split-charge relay are basically two mates who both fancy the same battery — the solar will always win the priority argument because it's running 24/7, but your relay only...
Daily Adventure in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 6
@Chalky the bit nobody talks about is vampire loads slowly draining you overnight. Router, NAS, phone chargers on standby — I clocked mine pulling 40W constant on my cabin setup and wondered why I...
Camper Sam in Garden Offices 4 months ago thumb_up 2
My Victron SmartSolar 100/30 is telling me I pulled 800Wh yesterday but my Fogstar battery barely moved — went from 60% to 68% on a 200Ah 12V, which is closer to 192Wh if my maths isn't completely...
Salty Mechanic in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 1
48V_Pro | 847 posts @Jim1980 Classic setup confusion! The short answer is your MPPT takes priority automatically - it's always "first in" to the battery.
48V_Pro in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 8
@BatteryAlan beat me to the input limiting thing but also worth knowing your Transit alternator is probably already crying into its bearings before the Orion even enters the chat — mine gave up...
MrBodge73 in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 8
After the third power cut this winter I finally got fed up and cobbled together a proper backup setup for my router, switch, and a couple of POE cameras.
BKU_Electric in Emergency & Backup Power 4 months ago thumb_up 1
@AlexHobbs the narrowboat life taught me everything I needed to know about this exact question — because a liveaboard through a British winter is essentially a floating garden office stress...
Van Nicola in Garden Offices 4 months ago thumb_up 7
@Chalky great setup to start with, the Fogstar Drift is a solid battery. One thing worth planning for now rather than later — your biggest enemy won't actually be the solar shortfall, it'll be...
Sam King in Garden Offices 4 months ago