@Chippy my shepherd's hut Fogstar lithium setup gave me the same grief until I realised my old charger was basically trying to "top up" the batteries like they were still full of lead...
@Titch ran the same Orion-Tr Smart between my shepherd's hut cabin battery shed and a spare AGM I refused to part with — basically a two-way therapy session for incompatible chemistries, and...
@T6Project ran almost this exact config in my shepherd's hut last winter — the MPPT handles the voltage fine but remember your 12V battery bank means the controller's pushing that wattage into...
@VickyWard nailed it, but worth adding — you can bodge around this by wiring a cheap normally-closed relay off the alarm output and setting your monitoring to check relay state on boot rather than...
Your 8kW looks impressive until you realise you're trying to charge a car in February with what amounts to a decent desk lamp.
in Q&A
1 month ago
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Doubled up last year with Fogstars and suddenly winter doesn't feel like a battery anxiety simulator anymore—game changer for the shepherd's hut when December rolls round and the panels are...
Wrapped mine in a sleeping bag last winter and honestly can't believe it took me two years to figure that out — free insulation that actually works.
Ground faults on boats are a nightmare — water, salt spray, and vibration all having a go at your connections. Have you checked where the array splits?
in Q&A
9 months ago
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Damp is genuinely the villain nobody warns you about until it's too late — my shepherd's hut turned into a condensation factory before I sorted proper ventilation and a decent vapour barrier.
Portable stations are just expensive paperweights if your draw is decent — you'll flatten them quicker than a narrowboat toilet tank in summer.
Series on a narrowboat is asking for trouble — one dodgy panel in cloud and your voltage tanks faster than your energy levels after lock season.
in Q&A
1 year ago
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Matched my two Fogstar LiFePO4s in the shepherd's hut last year — same voltage, same capacity, same manufacturing date because I'm paranoid — and the BMS absolutely hates you when you don't...
Mate, the jump from PWM to MPPT is genuinely transformative — you'll wonder why you suffered through those dodgy years.
Mounted mine upside down in the shepherd's hut because apparently I don't read instructions — still works perfectly and the irony isn't lost on me.
