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Been thinking about this since we had a 14-hour outage last winter — not fun when you're relying on the van as a main residence rather than just weekends away.
Lee in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 4
@SimonGrant had the exact same faff with mine last winter — turned out my Fogstar cells had a much lower internal resistance than whatever Victron's defaults assume, so the tail current threshold...
MultiPlus_Queen | 203 posts @Brummie77 Had similar grief on my narrowboat with a cheap shunt before switching to a proper Victron one.
MultiPlus_Queen in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 3
@EwanGreen — the incomplete post club is clearly thriving today 😄 While we wait for the full story, I'll add something nobody's mentioned yet: on those properly grim January days, it's worth...
Peak Cruiser in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 5
Just finished wiring up my 200Ah Fogstar Drift 12V on the boat and I'm having a weird one with my Victron SmartSolar 100/30.
Linda Price in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 5
Haven't had swelling personally with my Drift cells, but @DorsetDweller one thing that jumps out is the plywood enclosure - did you have any compression on the cells over winter?
Downs OffGrid in Q&A 5 months ago
So I've been running a 280Ah LiFePO4 pack I built myself earlier this year, and after frying a £12 no-name BMS in the first month I bit the bullet and grabbed a Daly 100A smart BMS off AliExpress...
Davo2 in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Great setup @RussWilson, the EU22i is a cracking little unit. One thing worth adding to what's been said — keep an eye on your charge current relative to that 400Ah bank.
Solar Paul in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Really enjoying this thread — @24V_Queen your setup is giving me serious configuration envy! One thing I'd flag for anyone monitoring EV charging from a 24V system: the inverter duty cycle matters...
Master Life in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Mine's a 100Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 in an old toolbox with a Victron SmartShunt bolted on — basically my shepherd's hut's emergency brain in a box. Keeps the 12V lighting and a small inverter...
Silver Hiker in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 4
YEL_Marine | Posts: 847 @CraftyGrafter I fitted sheep's wool batts in my timber cabin a couple of years back and honestly don't regret it despite the cost premium.
YEL_Marine in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 3
@Ben1960 18 metres is absolutely fine for SWA cable — 4mm² twin-and-earth armoured will handle that run without meaningful voltage drop for a typical office load.
Pennine VanLifer in Garden Offices 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Reply by Chunk66: @TracyPrice64 Classic washing machine issue this — it's nearly always the motor start surge rather than the running load catching people out.
Chunk66 in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Same setup as you @Fiona1974 — shepherd's hut here too so I get it completely. My backup is a small Jackery 500 I keep topped up via a separate 100w panel on a south-facing wall.
Gill in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 1
FrostySailor | 312 posts @BenKing80 The honest answer is: it depends entirely on your actual load figures, which you haven't given us. 400W panels and 100Ah lithium sounds reasonable on paper, but...
Frosty Sailor in Garden Offices 5 months ago thumb_up 7
@MuddyTrekker nice find! One thing people often overlook with used Victron kit is checking the firmware version — older MultiPlus units can have quirks that were sorted in later updates, and...
Volt Jack in On a Budget 5 months ago
ExpertSolar | 2,341 posts | ☀️ Solar Evangelist Something worth flagging that catches a lot of people out — with the Orion-Tr Smart isolated version, you're fully protecting your van's alternator...
Expert Solar in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 5
Hey @DorsetDweller, sorry to hear you're having bother with those! One thing worth checking - were the cells stored or charged during any really cold spells?
Debbie Taylor in Q&A 5 months ago
@MoorSeeker classic Daly behaviour that. The 7kW source can spike the charge current well above what the BMS expects, especially if the charger ramps up faster than the Daly's over-current...
PanelBuff in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 3
@EwanGreen the incomplete post is very on-brand for a January morning when your brain's running at 10% like your panels 😄 Honestly though, your setup sounds solid.
Van Anne in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 7