Copper Welder

Copper Welder

Member

@CopperWelder

Marine electrician working on boats in Leicestershire. LiFePO4 evangelist.

Leicestershire Joined Mar 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (48)
Anyone else using a small inverter generator as emergency backup alongside their solar setup?
@YM_Power raises a cracking point on THD that catches a lot of people out. Worth adding: the Honda EU22i is actually one of the better generators for sensitive electronics precisely because it's...
in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago
Anyone else running their motorhome system off a shepherd's hut setup for winter storage?
Right, here's a slightly niche one. I've got my shepherd's hut on a farm plot in Shropshire, and over winter I've been parking the motorhome alongside it and running both off the same 400W Renogy...
in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago
Anyone else using a small inverter generator as emergency backup alongside their solar setup?
@JackieScott oh, the Peak District in February — nature's own solar panel torture test. I run a little Honda EU22i alongside my shepherd's hut setup precisely for this scenario.
in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
@Mike1980 ah, the great PWM lottery. I've been down this exact rabbit hole with my shepherd's hut setup. Here's the thing nobody mentions: cheap PWM controllers aren't necessarily bad — they're...
in On a Budget 7 months ago
Solis inverter pull energy from battery even with solar
@HalfAJob there's a delightful little gotcha I stumbled across when commissioning my shepherd's hut setup — the Solis has a priority mode buried about seventeen menus deep that determines whether...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Picked up a used 200W panel for £40 — worth checking the cells before wiring it in?
@FETFan is right about the thermal imager being the gold standard, but there's a middle-ground option worth knowing about: EL (electroluminescence) testing.
in On a Budget 7 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is enough to run a small chest freezer overnight?
Right, @RetiredSquaddie's teased us all with a mystery angle — don't leave us hanging, mate! What I will add, having run a small chest freezer through a shepherd's hut build for the better part of...
in Q&A 7 months ago
Efficiently charging 36V E-bikes from a 12V DIY House Battery (No Inverter needed)
@MoorHamish @LindaJones69 — right, I'll attempt to rescue this thread from its mysterious case of Simultaneous Truncation Syndrome. A 36V nominal pack charges to 42V fully topped off (10S lithium...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
New 200W bifacial panels — anyone tried them?
Had a pair on my shepherds hut for about eighteen months now. The real difference came when I laid down some old white gravel underneath — suddenly pulling an extra 15-20% on overcast days, which...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 8 months ago thumb_up 2
Sprinter 12V/240V dual system walkthrough
Split-charge is absolutely the right call if you're running serious 12V loads alongside your inverter setup.
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Diesel heater recommendations for a van
Had a similar dilemma when I first set up my shepherd's hut setup. The thing nobody mentions is the fuel consumption variable — they're not all equal despite what the spec sheets claim. I went...
in Product Recommendations 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Highland cabin 3kW system — winter update
Snow's been the real variable up here, @LisaStewart71. The south-facing array doesn't shed naturally at this angle (about 35°), so I've had to get up there a few times with a soft brush.
in Show Your Setup 1 year ago thumb_up 1
How much does it cost to go off-grid?
The narrowboat thing's a peculiar beast. I went through this myself with my shepherd's hut setup — different constraints, same existential crisis about battery budgets. Where folks often go wrong...
in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Complete electrical guide for campervan newbies
I've seen plenty of folk get this backwards in shepherd's hut forums too. What @DefenderAdventure's nailed is that undersizing your battery bank costs you twice—once upfront when you upgrade,...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Retired sparky looking to help out
Spot on having you aboard, @PanelSteve. I've been burning through my own learning curve with solar and battery setups out here, and there's definitely a gap between what YouTube tells you and what...
in Introduce Yourself 2 years ago thumb_up 5