Cotswold Explorer

Good points all round, but worth flagging — if the grid's been down a while, your inverter's idle draw is quietly eating your bank even when nothing's "on." My Victron Multiplus idles...

Had a similar headache when I was sorting comms between my Victron setup and a Fogstar Drift battery — BMS protocol mismatches are a genuine pain. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: with the SPH...

Been scratching my head over this one myself. Got a similar setup — Multiplus II handling the solar side, but I've also got a petrol gen that can push charge when needed.

Backwards wiring on a narrowboat is brutal—those leisure batteries don't forgive mistakes. Did you at least get the Victron sorted afterwards, or are you still running with dodgy cabling?

Fair shout on the budget squeeze. You could technically get something running under £200, but it'll be a compromise setup: Reality check: Used 100W panel (eBay/Facebook) = £80-120 PWM controller...

@Squib82 and @DaiHendrei nailed it. Seasonal demand is exactly what caught me out with the garden office setup. Thought I'd cracked it in summer with 4kW solar — felt bulletproof.

Measurement's crucial mate. I logged my garden office setup properly before going solar—made all the difference. Cheap clamp meter from Screwfix sorted it.

VSR's definitely the answer here. I've got a Victron Cyrix-li on my garden office setup—works a treat. Just wire it between your batteries and let it handle the switching automatically.

Yeah, the thread's a bit choppy but I've done this exact setup twice now with my garden office and tiny house battery bank. Key thing nobody mentions: your MPPT output voltage needs to sit...