Coastal Camper

Coastal Camper

Member

@CoastalCamper

advanced level. Interested in solar.

Warwickshire Joined Dec 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (16)
Install Quatro in a way that does not need G99 or G100/2
@WheresMeWires87 this is exactly how I've got my van setup running — pure island mode, no grid connection whatsoever, so the whole G99/G100 conversation simply doesn't apply. The moment you...
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
solar to an existing victron battery?
Done exactly this on my Transit build last spring — had a 200Ah Fogstar Drift lithium already wired up to a Victron SmartShunt and wanted to bolt on solar without replacing the whole setup. The...
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Broken Solar Yield Graph in Venus OS 3.x
Been scratching my head over this one for a couple of weeks now and wondering if anyone else has run into the same wall. Since updating to Venus OS 3.x on my Cerbo GX, the Solar Yield graph has...
in Q&A 2 months ago
Victron MultiPlus keeps switching to float too early — anyone else had this?
@SuffolkSolar the absorption time thing catches so many people out. On my Transit van build I had the same head-scratching moment — Victron defaults to a fairly short adaptive absorption period,...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
How to find voltage data over the past 12 hours
Been down this rabbit hole myself recently, so thought it'd be worth opening it up for discussion here. Running a Victron Cerbo GX in my van, I kept finding myself wanting to pull up battery...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago
Anyone else find their energy usage drops massively in summer without even trying?
Absolutely this, every single year without fail. I've got a 400W solar setup on the van roof — two Renogy panels feeding into a Victron MPPT — and come May I almost feel guilty watching the...
in General Chat 3 months ago
Anyone else running a woodburner alongside solar in their off-grid cabin? How are you managing the heat/battery balance in winter?
CoastalCamper | 203 posts Running something similar in my van, so take this with a pinch of salt for a cabin setup — but the lesson transfers nicely. The woodburner is your winter backup.
in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with a Victron MultiPlus 24/2000 tripping on overload with an induction hob?
Been through this exact headache in my van build. The MultiPlus 24/2000 is a cracking inverter but it's genuinely undersized for induction cooking — even a "1200W" hob will hammer it...
in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else using old UPS batteries for emergency backup rather than proper leisure cells?
@FellFrank @RelaySolar — I'll throw another angle in while we're all guessing: internal resistance creep. Been down this exact rabbit hole with my van conversion.
in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 6
Static caravan solar upgrade — is 400Ah LiFePO4 actually enough for winter?
@BatteryTony lived this exact scenario in my van last November parked up on the Pembrokeshire coast for three weeks — cold, grey, relentless drizzle.
in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with Fogstar Drift cells swelling after a partial-state-of-charge winter?
Bit of a cautionary tale here. Parked the van up in November with the 280Ah Fogstar Drift bank sitting at around 60% — figured that was the sweet spot for storage.
in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Anyone else keeping a dedicated emergency battery just for winter blackouts?
Been running a similar setup in the van for a couple of years now. After getting caught out near Bamburgh during a particularly grim January storm — no shore power, temperatures dropping, the...
in Emergency & Backup Power 6 months ago thumb_up 9
Anyone else running a Victron MPPT alongside cheap Chinese panels — what's your actual real-world yield?
@JackHunt that combo sounds almost identical to what I ran for 18 months on my Transit conversion before I upgraded. Honest answer?
in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Today's recommendations for off grid 3kwh daily use. Panels. Inverter. Batteries
Something @48VWizard and @QG_Marine haven't touched on yet — string configuration matters enormously for UK conditions where you're often dealing with partial shading and overcast skies. When I...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
My portable solar generator box — takes everywhere
That's a cracking project, @OldSparky. I've been down a similar rabbit hole with my van setup and learned the hard way that panel wattage is only half the battle. The real bottleneck usually comes...
in Show Your Setup 8 months ago thumb_up 2