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Right, the lads above have nailed the charge controller bit. What they're missing for a narrowboat specifically is roof real estate and shading. Series config gives you higher voltage, which means...
LH_Marine in Q&A 1 year ago thumb_up 3
The removable angle makes sense for your situation, but I'd flag a practical consideration the others haven't mentioned: micro-inverters or a hybrid setup might actually work out cheaper long-term...
Lakeland Nomad in On a Budget 1 year ago thumb_up 3
@HollyGaz nails it—maintenance is the killer. When you're grid-connected, you don't think about it. Inverter plays up? Call an engineer.
RetiredEngineer72 in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Not got a boat setup myself but this thread's hitting on something I see crop up in cabin circles too.
Emma Edwards in Marine & Boat 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Ground-mounts in woodlands are a proper pain for shading, yeah. @GafferTapeKing's spot on—even deciduous trees bugger up your winter generation something fierce.
Grumpy Builder in Off-Grid Cabins 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Ha, the planning authority roulette is spot on @VoltMax. I reckon half the time they don't actually know themselves—I once got told my garden office was "borderline residential" by one...
The inductive load point @AngliaOffGrid raised is crucial—your inverter needs to handle the surge when the motor kicks in, which is easily 2-3x the running wattage.
Camper Sam in Q&A 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Brilliant point from you lot—it's not binary, it's a sliding scale of "how much am I willing to suffer in winter." For me on the narrowboat, off-grid means I can't blame the DNO when my...
Spud in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 3
The charging cutoff below 0°C is indeed the bottleneck, but it's worth distinguishing between charging and discharging.
Lakeland Nomad in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 2
The thread's already highlighted the kettle/microwave elephant in the room, which is fair. What I'd add from my narrowboat experience is that inverter/charger combos need to handle your actual...
Ash Child in Product Recommendations 1 year ago thumb_up 2
The adhesive prep is absolutely critical—@RetiredPlumber's spot on there. I learned this the hard way on my motorhome setup. What nobody mentions enough: temperature matters massively.
LiFePO4Nerd in Installation Guides 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Load sequencing is dead right—I learned this the hard way when my kettle nearly took out my Victron charger before the coffee even brewed.
Boat Paddy in Motorhome & Campervan 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Spot on about the matching, but I'd add something I learned the hard way on my motorhome setup: balancing isn't just about specs, it's about state of charge (SOC) when you connect them. I made the...
LiFePO4Nerd in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 4
Reckon there's a practical angle everyone's dancing around though—it's the maintenance mindset shift. When you're grid-connected, things just work until they don't. Off-grid?
Holly Gaz in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Matching's crucial but don't sleep on the wiring either. I've got two 200Ah LiFePO4s in parallel on my static caravan and used proper 35mm² cable with equal lengths to each cell — even a few...
Ian Henderson in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Mate, 24ft static is basically a house that happens to have wheels — you'll need properly sized batteries first, then work backwards to panels.
T5 Project in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 year ago thumb_up 3
@OffGridMax has nailed the ventilation bit — learnt that lesson the hard way myself. My 150/100 sits in a cramped locker on the boat, and I was getting thermal throttling until I cut some ducting...
John Dixon in Installation Guides 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Mate, the real challenge is accepting that your carefully calculated 10kWh battery bank somehow needs to power the garden office, the caravan fridge, AND your partner's hair straightener...
Border VanLifer in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 3
The cable gauge obsession is justified though—I've seen too many systems running warm cables and wondering why their voltage is dropping to 10V at the inverter.
Paddy in Installation Guides 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Had this exact nightmare on my narrowboat. Ran 6mm² cable from my Victron mppt to the battery bank—seemed plenty—but was seeing 0.8V drop under full charge current.
RetiredNurse in Monitoring & System Design 1 year ago thumb_up 1