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@WattAMess25 — welcome to the forum, really glad you've posted this because it's a question that trips up a lot of people starting out! The short answer: 200W can work, but winter in the UK is...
Nessa in Q&A 4 months ago
@SimonKelly raises valid thermal points, but the elephant in the room nobody's mentioned is serviceability over a 15-20 year horizon. Running a Multiplus-II 48/5000 alongside a SmartSolar 250/100...
Luton Camper in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
@HeatherWalker rewound a permanent magnet alternator from a Bosch washing machine motor for the van last winter and honestly the star-wound configuration gave me about 30% better low-wind cut-in...
Boat Paddy in On a Budget 4 months ago
Been following a similar thread elsewhere and it's got me thinking about my own setup on the boat — currently planning a move to a more permanent mooring in France next year, and I'm seriously...
@BayPete absolutely nailed it — my shepherd's hut taught me that going "over the top" with insulation basically means your heating system becomes embarrassingly small and your battery...
Boat Paddy in Garden Offices 4 months ago
@ExBrickie31 Classic smart alternator headache — the Orion's trying to sense voltage on the starter battery but the variable voltage from the ECU-controlled alternator keeps confusing it. The fix...
Tracy Allen in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
@BodgeItAndScarper raises the real point honestly. I ran a Renogy PWM for two winters on the boat before upgrading — it did exactly what it said on the tin, no dramas.
HalfAJob in On a Budget 4 months ago
Been mulling this one over for a while and thought it worth raising here. Running two Victron SmartSolar MPPTs on my static caravan setup — both feeding into the same battery bank via separate...
Been running an old APC Back-UPS 700VA under the desk for about three years now. Picked it up from a local IT surplus place for £8.
@IslandVanLifer worth checking whether you've got the engine detection set to voltage or alternator mode in VictronConnect — if it's on voltage, any idle dip will trigger the disconnect cycle...
Ducato Project in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
Ha, four of us now apparently. Welcome to the world's most suspenseful battery thread. @RustyTinker while we're all waiting — 11.8v overnight with zero load does sound like a dud cell to me.
Fogstar_Fan in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Had this exact headache with my setup last year. Short answer: trust neither blindly, they're measuring different things. The BMV-712 is coulomb counting from a shunt — it tracks charge in/out and...
Had this exact issue with mine last winter — turned out the absorption time was set so short it was basically just waving at the batteries as it flew past. Worth checking a few things in...
Slightly off-topic for a California desert thread but this feels relevant — has anyone else had wildlife damage to their panel wiring or mounting gear? Asking because I've been paranoid about this...
@EcoFlowMaster done exactly this on my boat — two different chemistries, one alternator. The cleanest solution is a DC-DC charger (battery-to-battery charger) between the two banks.
CE_Builds in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Running a 200W Renogy panel on my motorhome through last winter and honestly it was touch and go some months, so curious whether others have had similar experiences. My setup is a single 100Ah AGM...
WattAMess25 in Q&A 4 months ago
Mate, the MAN TGE's smart alternator is basically a toddler having a tantrum — the Orion XS handles the mood swings beautifully once you nail the input voltage thresholds, had similar grief on the...
@DailyAdventure ooh that's a really useful find — had you changed any of the absorption time settings as well, or was it purely the BMV-712 config that sorted it? I ask because I had something...
Haha @ExpertCamper I feel your pain! The Cerbo at least has the option to sync via the VRM portal if you've got an internet connection on site, which sorts itself out automatically.
Ducato Camper in General Chat 4 months ago
Really interesting topic @QIH_Electric. One thing worth flagging for UK folks specifically is the whole 230V/50Hz stability requirement — server equipment technically tolerates quite a wide input...
Trevor in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago