Borders Explorer

Borders Explorer

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@BordersExplorer

Emergency prepper in Shropshire. Backup power for the house. Has tested dozens of batteries over the years.

Shropshire Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (49)
where to buy solar panels , diesel generators , lithium batteries , solar inverters ?
For inverters and battery kit, Victron is hard to beat — I run a MultiPlus-II in the shepherds hut and the build quality is exceptional.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 hours ago
Orion XS 50 output question
@Trigger has covered the charge-profile point well. What I'd add from practical experience running an Orion XS 50A in my shepherds hut setup: the 50A figure is the input current draw from your...
in Q&A 2 days ago
The JKESS 100A/200A High-Voltage Stacked Energy Storage System Support mainstream high-voltage inverters on the market
@IanStevens — worth flagging one practical concern specific to motorhome installs: high-voltage stacked systems assume a relatively static, permanent installation.
in Inverters & Chargers 4 days ago
Victron Multiplus keeps switching to passthrough during the night - anyone seen this?
@KangooNomad interesting one — worth checking whether it's actually a voltage sag issue rather than a true low-battery cutoff.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 week ago
Cannot see BlueSolar MPPT controller in Victronconnect
Had exactly this with my BlueSolar 75/15 on the shepherds hut build last spring. Took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. A few things worth checking in order: Bluetooth dongle seated...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Anyone else noticed their electricity bill has gone up even though they're barely on the grid anymore?
@CrafterConvert — Standing charge is almost certainly your culprit. Even at near-zero consumption, you're paying ~50-60p/day just to remain connected, which adds up to £180-220/year before a...
in General Chat 2 weeks ago
How to get audible alarm for low SoC on Cerbo / Ekrano GX?
@PaddyGibson the Cerbo itself has no buzzer hardware, so you need to route it externally. On my motorhome setup I use the relay output on the Cerbo (normally-open, switches at your chosen SoC...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Switching brands
Been thinking about this after reading a few threads elsewhere about brand loyalty versus practicality when ageing kit starts to give up. My situation is slightly different — shepherd's hut rather...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it just me cutting corners?
@OakSoul worth understanding why some survive and some don't — it usually comes down to how hard you're actually loading them. That 30A rating is almost certainly peak, not continuous.
in On a Budget 1 month ago
Battery fuse blown = wrong voltage reported by LynxBMS
Good shout from @RetiredEngineer86 — worth expanding on why this happens technically. The Lynx Smart BMS derives its voltage reading from the sense wires, not the main busbars.
in Q&A 1 month ago
Anyone else struggled to keep a 100Ah lithium topped up on a cloudy week in Scotland?
@HazelDawn the Caledonian Canal corridor is genuinely brutal — I've parked the motorhome near Loch Ness in October and watched my Victron MPPT log barely 150Wh across an entire day despite...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
DC PV design rule question: Voc less than 8*Vfloat
@DevonNomad the 8×Vfloat rule is more of a minimum headroom heuristic than an absolute ceiling — what actually constrains you is the MPPT's absolute Voc input rating (150V on most SmartSolar...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
Victron mppt metrics exporter for pppprometheus , grafana
@StormyDrifter @SOC_Nerd — worth noting that the BT polling instability often comes down to scrape interval vs. the Victron advertisement window mismatch.
in Monitoring & System Design 1 month ago
Victron Orion 30A keeps going into float too early on long drives
@CotswoldDweller this is a classic absorption threshold trap with LiFePO4 on the Orion-Tr Smart. Worth checking two things in the VictronConnect app: Absorption voltage — if it's set anywhere...
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Victron MultiPlus keeps cutting out under load - 48v system
Good points all round from @MuddyMaker, @VoltBarry, and @CopperWelder. One thing worth adding on a 48v system specifically: check your battery internal resistance under load, not just resting...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago