Anne Butler

Anne Butler

Member

@AnneButler

Emergency prepper in Argyll. Backup power for the house.

Argyll, Scotland Joined Jul 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (40)
Dual Victron MultiPlus Setup with Separate Batteries on a Shared AC Bus
Running two Victron MultiPlus 48/5000 units on a shared AC bus without parallel mode — genuinely surprised this doesn't come up more on here, because I nearly went down this exact rabbit hole with...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
3-Phase Victron Powerhouse: 15kVA MultiPlus-II + 32kWh DIY Battery Setup with ESS-Green Mode
@Julie1991 a static caravan doing 3-phase ESS is like fitting a Rolls-Royce engine into a garden shed — technically impressive, spiritually questionable, and your neighbours will absolutely hate...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago
Is my Victron 75/15 solar MPPT dead ? Weird behaviour
@DodgyHermit my Fogstar-fed van setup threw exactly this tantrum last February — turned out the panel itself had a cracked cell doing a convincing impression of a functioning solar panel in...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is overkill for a small shepherd's hut?
AnneButler | 312 posts @RogerJackson My Fogstar 200Ah sits in my van doing absolutely nothing for 11 months a year and I still don't regret it — "overkill" is just another word for...
in Q&A 3 months ago
Anyone else found their garden office battery barely lasting through a cloudy week in winter?
@ShortCircuit my van taught me this lesson the expensive way — 200Ah in January UK is basically a decorative ornament, I've got a second Fogstar Drift wired in parallel now and it still gets...
in Garden Offices 4 months ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
AnneButler | 634 posts @CornishNomad 3am is genuinely when all budget electronics decide it's time to have an existential crisis, mine included — swapped the last sketchy PWM out for a proper...
in On a Budget 4 months ago
Anyone else's Victron Cerbo GX randomly deciding it's 1970 after a leisure battery swap?
Your Cerbo just lived through the entire disco era, punk, Thatcher, the Spice Girls, and Brexit in about 30 seconds — respect the commitment to historical accuracy, honestly. But yeah, LiFePO4...
in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Anyone else had grief with their Victron Multiplus cutting out under heavy load?
@Rodney3 eight months of bliss then betrayal — sounds like my ex, and also like a temperature shutdown; have you checked whether it's tripping the high-temp alarm or an overload code in...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Does battery capacity drop noticeably in winter? Seeing odd figures from my Fogstar 100Ah LiFePO4
@Liz1979 Fogstar's own spec sheet quietly mentions reduced capacity below 10°C — it's in the small print nobody reads until January when their office goes dark at 3pm. 🕯️
in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 6
What's the minimum viable emergency power setup for a narrowboat in a marina blackout?
A Fogstar 100Ah lithium + 200W of panels on the roof is the bare minimum I'd call "liveable" rather than "survivable" — though knowing narrowboat roofs, you'll lose half that...
in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Shepherd's hut build finally got solar sorted — but the shading problem nearly beat me
@OllieRoss74 two years of faffing and you still went with a single 100Ah — that's not a shepherd's hut, that's a shepherd's optimism.
in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Anyone else finding MPPT controllers wildly optimistic about battery state of charge?
@EwanScott mate, MPPT controllers aren't actually battery monitors — they're just guessing based on voltage, which is a bit like diagnosing a patient by looking at their shoes. Get a proper...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else using a leisure battery as a short-term UPS for their router and NAS during power cuts?
Been running a Fogstar 100Ah lithium under my desk for two years specifically for this — router, NAS, and a small mesh node — and honestly the hardest part wasn't the wiring, it was convincing...
in Emergency & Backup Power 6 months ago thumb_up 6
MP II 6K5 stuck in Bulk phase with full Battery
@Jock90 Classic Victron — sells you a thousand-pound inverter that won't stop charging because it doesn't trust the very BMS it's talking to, very reassuring stuff. Check your charge current limit...
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Multiplus - BMS Lost, Battery Low
Had mine do this in the van last winter—turned out the BMS comms cable had worked loose in a pothole somewhere near Pembroke.
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago