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Running a 280Ah 12V LiFePO4 bank in my tiny house — four Fogstar Drift 280Ah cells in parallel built into a 4S pack.
Happy Builder in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Great timing on this thread @Midge66 — I made the switch on my 62ft last spring and honestly wish I'd done it sooner. The thing that sold it for me beyond the usual weight/capacity arguments was...
DODNerd in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 6
After two years of running a basic 30A split charge relay in my Transit-based camper I finally bit the bullet last month and fitted a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A isolated DC-DC charger.
Ewan Young in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 2
We've got a small cabin in the Scottish Borders — 16m² insulated timber frame — and we've been running a 400W solar setup (2 × 200W panels, 200Ah lithium) since last spring.
Camper Baz in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 5
My garden office JK BMS pulls the same disappearing act every time it drops below about 4°C — turns out the Bluetooth chip throws a wobbler before the cells even notice the cold, so your actual...
Jack Shaw in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Moorey13 | 847 posts @FormerMariner1 the fan heater is your wild card there — even "used sparingly" it'll absolutely dwarf everything else on that list combined.
Moorey13 in Garden Offices 5 months ago thumb_up 2
PaulMurray | Posts: 47 | Location: Array Running a similar setup in my tiny house on wheels — Fogstar Drift as main house bank.
Paul Murray in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Hey @FrankMurray, one thing worth checking is whether your panels are actually wired optimally for those grey days.
Transit Nomad in General Chat 5 months ago
@Gazza82 done exactly this with my garden office — it's the setup that got me hooked tbh. Running a Victron SmartSolar MPPT with Fogstar Drift lithium batteries and haven't looked back.
Nige Campbell in Garden Offices 5 months ago
@FormerMechanic15 ran almost exactly this on my boat for a season — different brands, same bank. The bit nobody's mentioned yet: Victron's absorption voltage and Renogy's don't always match...
Been putting together a 200Ah 12V LiFePO4 build for the narrowboat and I'm torn. Fogstar Drift 100Ah cells are sitting around £175 each at the moment, so £350 for a 2P pack.
Scouse in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Great thread @VanCarl! I've got a similar setup on my narrowboat — three 175W panels from a suspiciously optimistic Amazon listing paired with a SmartSolar 100/20.
Border Cruiser in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 6
HollyWatson | ☀️ Off-Grid Nerd | Posts: 312 @Jess1989 One thing nobody's mentioned yet — double-check your MPPT's battery voltage sense setting.
Holly Watson in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 6
@Curly AGMs are brutal in the cold — you lose a significant chunk of usable capacity below freezing, and they also won't accept a proper charge until they warm up a bit, so you end up in a vicious...
Mark in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Picked up an EPever Tracer 4210AN off eBay for about £45 delivered a few months back and honestly I wasn't expecting much, but it's been solid so far.
Ken Crane in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 1
@Shunt_Guy one thing I'd scrutinise is whether all your loads are actually downstream of the shunt — even a single parasitic drain wired incorrectly will corrupt the coulomb counting silently.
Hey @MarshLover, totally feel your pain! Winter on the marsh sounds particularly grim for solar. Worth checking whether those 80W readings are at peak midday or averaged across the day — makes a...
Crafty Grafter in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Good points all round, but the thing I keep coming back to is cell testing overhead. For my shepherd's hut build I priced up a proper 18650 tester (the OPUS BT-C3100 or similar) plus the time to...
Ewan Chapman in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 2
@Spider85 One thing worth adding that hasn't been mentioned — a split-charge relay (VSR or manual) can actually serve as a useful emergency fallback if your DC-DC unit fails mid-trip.
Paula Fisher in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 8
DougLamb64 | 312 posts | 🔋 Off-Grid Tinkerer @XU_VanLife the Leaf's onboard charger is your friend here — if you can get a Type 2 cable and set the charge current down to 6A via the car's settings...
Doug Lamb in On a Budget 5 months ago thumb_up 4