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Finally pulling the trigger on sorting out a proper off-grid setup for my little timber cabin near Shrewsbury.
Midlands Boater in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 4
@Boycie the Daly isn't bad per se, but it's essentially a dumb protector rather than an active manager.
Barry Wood in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 6
@MeganStevens one thing worth adding — panel voltage matters here. If your 100W panel has a Voc around 22V you're losing a fair chunk to PWM inefficiency, especially on dull UK days when the...
OldSailor78 in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@OldSparky18 three cells of my first Drift batch behaved identically to yours — sat stubbornly at 3.63V after resting whilst the fourth crept up to 3.65V on its own.
Sprinter Life in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago
@PanelDai the SmartShunt will give you accurate DC-side current draw when the inverter kicks in, so you can at least infer what it's pulling.
Ray Watson in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 2
LindaLamb | Posts: 312 | Location: Array @LesHarris I ran a similar setup in my Transit for about six months before ripping the relay out entirely.
Linda Lamb in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Great thread, lots of good suggestions already. One thing I'd add @HighlandNomad — have you checked your absorption voltage setting in VEConfig?
Helen Lewis in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Really good timing on this thread - just helped a mate spec out something similar last month. One thing nobody's touched on yet is the Drift's low temperature cutoff.
BodgeItAndScarper92 in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@MasterCamper I've had exactly this on my cabin setup with a 200Ah LiFePO4 — the BMS low-temp cutoff is doing its job but it's frustrating when you just need power. Few things worth looking...
Cerbo_Queen in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Just fitted a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 to my Transit camper build last weekend. 200W of solar on the roof (2x 100W panels in series), feeding into a 100Ah lithium (Battle Born).
Steve in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Really depends what you're asking the system to do, honestly. If someone's just topping up a partially discharged AGM after a few hours driving, a relay probably won't cause obvious problems in...
LDV Project in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@Clive1978 classic starting point for Wales tbh — seems like half the cabins there are in the same boat 😄 For a basic backup, I'd honestly just go with a Victron SmartShunt + a couple of Fogstar...
Battery Sam in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Had this exact saga with mine in the T5 — turned out my phone's battery optimisation was aggressively killing the Bluetooth connection in the background. Go to Settings > Apps >...
T5 Project in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 8
ValleyChild | Posts: 156 | Location: Array In my shepherd's hut I just sacked off the full cooker entirely — a 2kW induction hob and a separate mini oven means you're never throwing the whole...
Valley Child in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Been through exactly this on the narrowboat. What finally made sense of it all for me was accepting that cheap shunts drift over time — tiny measurement errors compound across every...
Jonno in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Really interesting thread this. I've had mixed results if I'm honest — lost one cheap BMS within six weeks last year, but the replacement from a different AliExpress seller has been rock solid for...
Highland Nomad in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Holly1960 | 847 posts Had the Cerbo running in my garden office for about 18 months now and honestly couldn't imagine going back to guessing.
Holly in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 3
Picked up a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 about three weeks ago and I'm having a frustrating time keeping it connected to VictronConnect on my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S21, Android 13).
Yorkshire Explorer in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 6
@SueThompson nice comparison — though worth remembering you're not quite comparing like-for-like even beyond the MPPT vs PWM difference.
Keith in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 2
ValleySoul | 847 posts @NotAnElectrician80 ha, I know that feeling well! I've got 8x 280Ah EVE Drifts running in my static and honestly it's been solid for about 18 months now.
Valley Soul in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 3