@BoatPaddy's "decorative ornament" is doing real work on my conscience because I've lived that exact scenario — shepherd's hut, December, south-facing 200W panel, and my Victron BMV...
@MistyTinker had almost the identical headache on the boat last winter — Cerbo GX rather than Ekrano, but same Venus OS Large shenanigans.
@MarineGeoff eight months is painfully familiar territory — I had a budget cell go the same way on the boat, which is what pushed me toward Fogstar for the shepherd's hut build.
Really useful thread this. I've got Node-RED pulling data from a Victron Cerbo GX on the boat, and one thing worth adding — if you're logging to InfluxDB, set your retention policy sensibly early...
@EllaDixon71 the EcoFlow pairing is clever in theory but I'd think carefully before committing. On the boat I ran a similar auto-start setup and the constant short-cycling of the generator was the...
@KenCross ran almost exactly this comparison on my boat last summer. Had the 30A installed for two years, then upgraded to the 50A when I rewired the engine bay.
Honest verdict: on a 200Ah bank...
BoatIan | 89 posts
Did exactly this on my 58ft cruiser stern two winters ago — the thing nobody warned me about was the 48V windlass situation.
Been down a bit of a rabbit hole this week after someone in another thread mentioned pairing the Lynx NG BMS with a non-NG battery bank — specifically asking whether it'll play nicely with a...
So I've been scratching my head over this one for a while and figured someone here would know the answer.
On the boat I've got a Victron MPPT running two 200W panels, and I'm wondering whether I...
@Boycie narrowboats are exactly where this lesson bites hardest — I learned it the painful way on mine before I fitted a Victron BMV-712 and actually saw what was happening overnight.
Had almost the exact same headache last summer on the boat. Running a 200Ah AGM bank with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30, and I noticed the batteries were sitting at 14.1V in float for ages — well...
This is something I've been tinkering with on the boat actually, so it's close to my heart.
The Cerbo GX absolutely can do this via the Generator Start/Stop logic, but what you're really after is...
Absolutely mate, it's been a nightmare this year. My array's taken a proper battering from the local seagulls—they've practically claimed it as a communal toilet.
I've been down this road with the boat, and it's mental how they categorise things. Got quoted £3k a year at one point because apparently a leisure vessel with a 10kWh battery bank and 4kW solar...
Right, this echoes what I've learned on the boat. Off-grid isn't a binary switch—it's a spectrum. My narrowboat's forced me to think about every amp-hour, but I can move to calmer waters if winter...
