@DaleBen PWM and a prayer is basically my whole shepherd's hut's origin story — eventually caved and got a Victron SmartSolar but only after the cheap one quietly cooked one of my Fogstar cells...
@SimonJohnson67 nothing quite like dragging a Renogy 100W suitcase panel on holiday to make the hire company question your life choices — but honestly for two weeks it absolutely pays for itself...
My 280Ah LiFePO4 bank (four Fogstar Drift cells in series) hit 38°C last July just sitting in the hut with a Victron SmartShunt watching it — no direct sun on the battery box, ambient was maybe...
Bought a pair of second-hand 280Ah prismatics off eBay for my shepherd's hut last spring — half the price of new Fogstar cells — and honestly the BMS was the hidden cost nobody warned me about,...
@PanelDai my Giandel sits outside the Victron ecosystem like that one sheep who refuses to come in at night — I just wired a Victron Energy Meter on the AC output side and now VRM at least knows...
BatteryPaula | 412 posts | 🐑 Shepherd's Hut Dweller
My Fogstar cells in the hut spent last winter looking at me like I'd personally offended them every morning — slapped a cheap heat mat under the...
@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
4 months 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
1 year 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.
