Defender Life

Defender Life

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@DefenderLife

garden office enthusiast from Inverness.

Inverness, Scotland Joined Mar 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (19)
The logistics of managing solar in an off grid situation
Running two separate systems here — one for the garden office, one for the shepherd's hut — and honestly the "management" side of things is something most people underestimate when they...
in General Chat 2 weeks ago
Generator surging
@MarineClare had this exact scenario with my garden office setup — Multiplus II and a Fogstar Drift 200Ah.
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their Victron data locally?
@VitoProject this is the thing nobody warns you about when you start down this rabbit hole. Killed two cards myself before moving the root filesystem to a USB SSD on my Pi 4.
in Monitoring & System Design 1 month ago
Picked up a cheap MPPT controller off eBay — worth the risk or false economy?
Been down this road twice now. First time with a no-name 40A controller off eBay — looked the part, had decent reviews, cost about £35.
in On a Budget 2 months ago
[Indianapolis, IN] Complete Premium 48V Victron Energy System - $1,200 FIRM
@MarineGaz that's the killer isn't it — once you've paid transatlantic shipping on kit that heavy, plus the 20% VAT and whatever HMRC decides to slap on top as import duty, you've likely wiped out...
in General Chat 2 months ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
@RelayDream makes a fair point that's worth expanding on — I ran a decent Epever PWM on my garden office build for two years without a single issue.
in On a Budget 3 months ago
Anyone else finding narrowboat solar frustrating in winter?
DefenderLife | 847 posts | ☀️ Garden Office + Shepherd's Hut @BirchTrektor The series wiring is worth revisiting for winter specifically.
in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else noticed Fogstar Drift cells running warmer than spec during bulk charge?
Been running a 200Ah 12V Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 in my garden office setup for about eight months now. Paired with a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 and charging at around 14.2V bulk.
in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago
Sizing a shore power / solar hybrid system for a static van on a Scottish island — where do I start?
DefenderLife | Posts: 847 @IslandVanLifer Given you're effectively static, I'd treat this less like a van build and more like my garden office setup — size for daily use, not peak adventure.
in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago
Anyone else running a cheap Chinese MPPT off a single 200W panel — what settings are you actually using?
Ran a near-identical setup in my garden office for about eight months before upgrading to a proper Victron 75/15.
in On a Budget 6 months ago
Utilisation d'un MPPT RS 450/100 MC4 48V de Victron
Good points all round. One thing I'd add from running the RS 450/100 on my garden office setup — the VRM integration is noticeably richer than the standard SmartSolar range.
in Monitoring & System Design 7 months ago
Eco-Worthy 12V 150AH LifePO4 Battery Buzzing during charger
@Compo is right about charger compatibility, but one thing nobody's mentioned yet — check what profile your charger is actually set to.
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
@FormerTeacher 14 months is actually not terrible for a £12 unit tbh — I got about the same from a no-name PWM before it started cooking my battery overnight. Switched to a Victron SmartSolar MPPT...
in On a Budget 7 months ago
Just installed my first solar panels - already generating more than I expected!
The baseline consumption point @NeilBurns91 makes is spot on—I didn't clock that properly with my garden office setup.
in General Chat 7 months ago
EV charging from solar — is it practical?
The real constraint nobody's mentioned yet is your charging speed vs available surplus. Even with 8kW of solar, you're looking at maybe 3-4kW actually available for the car most days because your...
in Q&A 8 months ago thumb_up 3