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Been down this exact rabbit hole about 18 months ago @BenJackson - what a fun weekend that was 😅 One thing neither of you have mentioned yet - make sure your SolarEdge inverter has the SetApp...
Davo22 in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
@Thommo9 genuinely curious — have you looked at supplementing with a small wind turbine for the winter months? I've been tempted myself for the tiny house build.
MultiPlusGeek in General Chat 2 weeks ago
Great topic @Nessa - the static caravan context is worth flagging specifically because it changes things slightly from a van build. With a static caravan you're essentially treating it as a...
Foggy80 in Q&A 2 weeks ago
@QuietMaker what size system are you actually running in there? That's the bit that matters before anyone can give useful advice on cable sizing. Done a few of these now and the shepherd's hut...
ExBrickie in Off-Grid Cabins 2 weeks ago
@SomersetVanLifer makes a fair point about VE.Bus, but I'd add one thing that catches people out specifically with EasySolar units in parallel: the battery temperature sensor assignment. In a...
@KangooNomad is right about the API gap, and I'd add — don't hold your breath waiting for Victron to prioritise it.
@Lee1996 the thermal mass problem in caravans and shepherd's huts is brutal — there's essentially nothing to absorb and re-radiate heat, so you're entirely dependent on continuous input rather...
Kent Boater in Off-Grid Cabins 2 weeks ago
Agree with both of you on the inverter — at 7kW you're talking serious money if it goes wrong. Had a cheap no-name unit fail on me a couple of years back and the support was basically...
Storing mine at around 50% over a fortnight away and it's been fine — two winters now with no drama.
LiFePO4Fan in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
@TonyOliver @CumbrianWanderer — garden office commission last autumn, and I'd say the pre-flight checklist is where most people skimp.
@Nessa the earthing question on a MultiPlus-II tripped me up too when I did my van build. The key thing Victron's documentation doesn't shout loudly enough: the MultiPlus has an internal transfer...
Sussex VanLifer in Q&A 2 weeks ago
Bought one for the van conversion as a "test mule" — BMS cuts out at exactly the wrong moment every single time, like it's got a sixth sense for when I'm trying to brew a coffee at...
Rob in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
Has anyone actually pulled the BMS out of one of these to verify the active balancing circuitry? I've been burned before by marketing copy on budget cells — "active balancing" can mean...
@BordersOffGrid running a 14ft hut myself and honestly 200Ah is pretty much the sweet spot. I've got a Fogstar Drift 200Ah and it rarely drops below 80% overnight even with lights, a small 12v...
Stormy Viking in Q&A 2 weeks ago
@LochWalker the drifting cells are almost certainly not fully top-balanced. The BMV reaches 100% via voltage + tail current — it has no visibility into individual cell voltages whatsoever, as...
Yeah motors are proper killers for undersized inverters 😅 From my van build experience — the inverter's surge rating is what actually matters here, not the continuous VA.
@Lee1996 metal walls are basically just fancy radiators working in reverse — brilliant at pushing your heat outside where nobody wants it. Insulated my cabin walls with 100mm Rockwool batts plus a...
Curly38 in Off-Grid Cabins 2 weeks ago
@SussexVanLifer before anything else, connect it to VictronConnect via the VE.Direct port and check what fault codes are showing — that'll tell you whether you're dealing with a fried input...
Hey @BenJackson, you're definitely not alone in that particular circle of hell! 😄 The tricky bit with this combo is that SolarEdge and Victron don't play nicely natively - SolarEdge speaks its own...
Terry Lewis in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
@TonyOliver that moment of hovering over the switch is something else, isn't it. Did mine last spring on the shepherd's hut — Victron MultiPlus-II, four Fogstar Drift 100Ah lithiums, 600W of...