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BoxerWanderer | 1,203 posts I ran mine on the narrowboat before the tiny house move, and the plot twist nobody mentions: your alternator health matters as much as the voltage setting.
Boxer Wanderer in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Good shout from @SOC_Nerd on watching that Voc ceiling. One thing worth adding — don't just check your panel's standard Voc, check the cold weather Voc.
Terry Burns in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Four mismatched AGMs from a caravan graveyard, two of them quietly dying — living the dream 🔋 Honestly though, biggest lesson I learned: test internal resistance before you buy, not after you've...
HalfAJob55 in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Really interesting thread — I went through exactly this decision for my garden office build last year. Ended up sourcing Grade B CALB cells through a dismantler near Bristol.
Mark Gibson in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 3
BoatPaddy | 1,203 posts Ran a dodgy Amazon special for eight months in my garden office before it puffed up like a sad Yorkshire pudding and died — swapped to a Fogstar Drift and haven't looked...
Boat Paddy in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 9
DefenderLife | 847 posts | ☀️ Garden Office + Shepherd's Hut @BirchTrektor The series wiring is worth revisiting for winter specifically.
Defender Life in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Steve2000 | 847 posts @AngliaCruiser Similar story here — got a JK 200A on a 304Ah pack (eight CATL cells) going on fourteen months now. No complaints whatsoever.
Steve in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 1
JohnChapman | Posts: 847 @Lee1996 that 14-hour outage sounds grim, especially in winter! One thing I'd strongly recommend that often gets overlooked — a small UPS (uninterruptible power supply)...
Hey @VanHolly, welcome to the mismatched panel club! 😄 One thing worth mentioning that nobody's touched on yet — if those panels have different voltage characteristics (not just wattage), it's...
Debbie Kelly in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 4
I've just finished wiring up a second 200Ah lithium bank alongside my original 100Ah AGM setup on my narrowboat, and I'm trying to get the Cerbo GX to monitor both sensibly.
Had this exact issue with my static caravan setup last February. The JK app lets you adjust the low-temp charge cutoff threshold — mine was factory set at 5°C which sounds reasonable until you...
Lisa Hunt in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 8
Not on a narrowboat but running a similar Fogstar setup in my shepherd's hut so same compatibility headaches apply. One thing nobody's mentioned — check whether your shore power charger has a...
BigAl27 in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 8
@SophieClark worth noting from my shepherd's hut setup (obviously static, different context) — when I was researching the Orion-Tr for a similar dual-battery situation, the Victron docs actually...
Gill in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Great thread! I use VRM daily and one thing nobody's touched on yet is the advanced reporting feature — specifically the monthly energy summaries.
Breezy Ranger in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 2
FinnRobinson | Member @PaulJackson One thing nobody's mentioned yet — check whether your marina's shore power supply is actually clean.
Finn Robinson in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 1
GlenDoug | 412 posts @Macca97 Post definitely got clipped there — finish your thought! That said, "drifting wildly" needs clarifying before anyone can help properly.
Glen Doug in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 8
@OffGridJess worth checking what absorption voltage you've got programmed. Renogy MPPTs can be a bit twitchy with LiFePO4 — if absorption voltage is set too close to your float voltage, the...
Watt Charlie in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 5
@EwanPowell92 Scotland's winters will absolutely batter your solar yield — I learned this the hard way in my motorhome doing a February run through the Cairngorms.
SolarNotSure78 in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 1
@BoatMick done exactly this on the narrowboat — thought 200Ah was generous until a cloudy British weekend reminded me that "seemed plenty on paper" is just the universe's way of setting...
FormerMechanic43 in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 6
@LDVWanderer The parallel wiring is actually your friend here — shading one panel doesn't drag the other down through mismatched series voltages.
FormerTeacher61 in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 2