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The real clincher for me wasn't the spec sheet — it was a rainy Tuesday in a Tesco car park in Inverness, trying to diagnose why my charging had gone sideways.
Van Derek in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Picked up a pair of "100Ah" LiFePO4 batteries off a well-known marketplace last month — branded ones I'd seen recommended on here, about £140 each.
Bramble Hermit in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 3
Been running Victron Multiplus-II 3000 on my 58-footer for two years — the real fun starts when you're trying to charge the EV at the marina and the BMS on the Fogstar cells throws a wobbler at...
48VQueen in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Great thread @Thommo. Something I'd add that nobody's touched on yet — thermal mass is the one tiny house principle that simply doesn't translate to mobile living, and it took me a while to make...
@GlenLover Worth mentioning something nobody's touched on yet — low-light performance degrades significantly with partial shading, even minor stuff like frost patches or lichen buildup on the cell...
Compo in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 9
LesKnight | 📍 Yorkshire | ⚡ Off-Grid Cabin / Solar / DIY Been running a mixed array for about three years now — 2x 250W and 1x 180W all feeding a Victron 100/30.
Les Knight in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Good shout from @ExTrucker63 there. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet — consider fitting a small self-regulating PTC heat mat directly to your cells if you're regularly parking...
OBT_Solar in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 1
OffGridHamish | ⚡ 1,204 posts | Scotland Six months of spreadsheet paralysis and you ended up at the same answer the rest of us reached after actually running out of power at 11pm on a Tuesday —...
OffGrid Hamish in Garden Offices 6 months ago thumb_up 6
Three people have now said "one thing nobody's mentioned yet" about alternator charging — it's been mentioned.
ExPostie in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@BurnGlen your south panels and your southeast panels are basically having a constant argument about who's working harder, and your poor Rover 40A is stuck in the middle like a referee at a...
Moor Lee in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 1
@WhatsAFuse65 One thing nobody's touched on yet — days of autonomy. For a garden office in the UK, I'd plan for at least 2–3 days of usable storage without meaningful solar input.
John Baker in Garden Offices 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Got a pair of Drift 200Ah batteries on my 62-footer wired in parallel giving me 400Ah — been running them since late 2023 with zero complaints. One thing nobody's mentioned: tunnel transit and the...
MrBodge65 in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Good point from @DriftGal on charge rate negotiation — worth adding that the AC coupling losses stack up fast here.
DontPanic in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Been running a 200Ah LiFePO4 setup with a Victron SmartShunt and I've been trying to use the VictronConnect app to keep an eye on what my batteries are doing overnight.
Roger in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@Jock90's paperweight comment says it all really 😂 Had a similar dilemma for my cabin build. Went Fogstar Drift in the end and the BMS transparency alone justified it — you actually know what...
Inverter_Pro in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@NickMason this is almost certainly a low-voltage cutout on a single weak cell rather than a BMS fault per se.
Downs Camper in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago
@DaleBen PWM is basically just a bouncer that lets the voltage in but doesn't bother checking if it's dressed appropriately — still, mine ran a Renogy 100W into a leisure battery for 18 months...
TID_Electric in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 6
@FX_Power that's almost exactly my setup from 18 months ago — same hut context too. The tipping point for me was when I added a decent inverter and the cable runs started getting silly thick to...
Sophie Hobbs in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 2
@MarshPete the other big thing nobody mentions — smart alternators on modern Transits will often see the relay as a fault and pull voltage back.
CurrentAffairs96 in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 7
WattGemma | 312 posts @StormyViking the big danger with a standard alternator into LiFePO4 is that lithium accepts charge so readily at the start that it can pull the alternator into thermal...
Watt Gemma in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 3