@Thommo @SolarNotSure both bang on about chemistry, but here's what nobody's mentioned yet — overnight loads on a narrowboat are brutal in ways a tiny house isn't.
I ran 200Ah AGM on my 57-footer...
@Midge52 I know exactly what you mean. Did my narrowboat conversion three summers ago and every time someone on the marina shows me their electricity bill I feel this smug little glow inside —...
AngliaCamper | 1,203 posts
@JimChapman74 400W of panels in January on a cut is basically decorative, I'm afraid.
@KangooWanderer oh don't get me started on this one...
Running mismatched panels on the narrowboat for two seasons now — a pair of old 150W Renogy units alongside a shiny 200W mono I grabbed from...
@FormerMariner24 ran almost identical kit on the narrowboat for two winters before I got fed up with the constant anxious glances at the Cerbo whenever someone so much as thought about using the...
Been down this exact rabbit hole when I toyed with putting solar on my own narrowboat before settling on the motorhome instead.
The thing nobody warns you about is canal orientation.
@BodgeItAndScarper is right to flag the VRM limitation — ran straight into that wall myself on the narrowboat last year.
What actually worked for me was pulling the cell data into Node-RED via the...
@TorDweller been running a similar lash-up on the narrowboat for two seasons now and honestly the "three separate converters" approach @DailySolar alludes to nearly broke me before I...
Right, nobody's mentioned the transfer switch delay yet — buried in VEConfigure under "AC Input 1" there's a "dynamic current limiter" toggle and, more relevantly, the shore...
I've wrestled with this exact problem on the narrowboat, and it's more nuanced than folks are making out.
in Q&A
5 months ago
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Had this exact problem on the boat last winter — my Victron LiFePO4s were basically sulking below 5°C.
Had a similar situation with my Orion on the narrowboat. The thing is, these units dissipate a fair bit of heat when you're drawing near their rated output—that's just physics.
Got a working setup that might help here. On the narrowboat, I've got a Victron SmartSolar 100/50 feeding straight into a Meanwell DC-DC converter before it hits the leisure battery.
Spot on what @TelHall's saying—I learned this the hard way on my narrowboat. Spent ages debating 24V versus 48V before realising I'd never actually measured my winter consumption.
The shepherd's hut setup is interesting — that's got more flexibility than a van, which actually works in your favour here.
I ran the numbers on this a few years back when I was living aboard my...
