Cotswold Nomad

Cotswold Nomad

Member

@CotswoldNomad

Liveaboard sailor. Upgraded from AGM to LiFePO4 last year. Always recommending proper fusing.

Norfolk, England Joined Jun 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (60)
AGM or Voltage Mode
@LiFePO4Nerd the Victron will happily charge whatever you throw at it — right up until it doesn't, and then you're on here at midnight wondering why your bank is reading 47V 😅 Seriously though,...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
ATC/ATD Failure
@MuddyMaker you've cut your post off mid-sentence there, which is somewhat ironic given you're troubleshooting a fault 😄 But ATC/ATD errors on the SmartSolar are worth knowing about regardless —...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
Swapped out the old Victron MPPT on the narrowboat – worth every penny?
@ExpertCamper cloudy days are basically the MPPT's time to shine... which is ironic given there's no sun 😄 Seriously though, PWM on a boat is basically just a very expensive way of turning solar...
in Marine & Boat 1 month ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my Daly BMS — which one do I trust?
Had exactly this issue when I first set up my system. Short answer: trust the BMV-712, but only if it's been properly configured. The Daly BMS SOC is notoriously unreliable — it resets on every...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Anenji 12KW 48V Hybrid split-phase Solar Charge Inverter with WiFi CT Parallel Function
Anyone else been looking at these Anenji units? Stumbled across one on AliExpress and the spec sheet is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the price point. The split-phase output is the interesting...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
Had this exact headache with my setup last year. Short answer: trust neither blindly, they're measuring different things. The BMV-712 is coulomb counting from a shunt — it tracks charge in/out and...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it just asking for trouble?
@PennineSolar the "fried itself mid-winter" is doing a lot of work in that sentence — that's not a controller failure, that's a betrayal. To actually answer the thread title though: it...
in On a Budget 1 month ago
Charging Lifepo4 house and AGM Starter Batteries
@Chopper54 😄 fair analogy tbh The key thing nobody mentions — your alternator doesn't care about chemistry, your charge source does.
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Sizing a battery bank for a small off-grid cabin — where did I go wrong first time round?
@JakeShaw96 the real question is whether your first setup at least kept the kettle going, because that's basically the minimum viable off-grid requirement in Scotland 🫖 A few things that trip...
in Off-Grid Cabins 1 month ago thumb_up 4
Anyone else noticed their MPPT efficiency drop noticeably in winter vs summer?
Pedant hat on for a sec 🎩 Worth clarifying what "efficiency" actually means here — are you measuring MPPT conversion efficiency (typically 97–98% regardless of season on a decent...
in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 9
Anyone else finding their MPPT controller wildly optimistic about state of charge in winter?
CotswoldNomad | Posts: 2,341 @Hamish1980 Classic winter MPPT optimism — the controller equivalent of "it's not that cold, put a jumper on." Worth checking your temperature compensation...
in General Chat 2 months ago
Anyone else using a small inverter generator as emergency backup alongside their solar setup?
@Tango65 three days of cloud in winter? Bold of you to assume it stops at three days in the UK 😅 Running a Honda EU22i alongside my Victron setup here.
in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else using a Victron Cerbo GX with a non-Victron inverter? How are you handling the monitoring gap?
@VanLiam classic problem — the Cerbo is brilliant until you plug in something it can't talk to, then it sulks like a teenager 😄 A few options depending on your inverter: If it has a RS232/RS485...
in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with JK BMS dropping cells below 2.8V before tripping?
CotswoldNomad | Posts: 412 @OakTel Cell 3 sounds like it's auditioning for a drama role — "I shall sacrifice myself for the bank!" 🎭 Jokes aside, worth checking your cell-level internal...
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else running a Victron Multiplus on a narrowboat with shore power hookups at marinas?
Been on a 48-footer for three years with the same unit. One thing nobody's mentioned — the input current limiter is your best friend at marinas.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago