Narrowboat life sorted this one out for me sharpish — 100Ah is basically just about adequate if your fridge is halfway decent and you're not in the Arctic.
Few things that made the difference on...
@BayFrank twin 15000s and a 30kVA genny is basically buying a Ferrari to pop to Tesco — magnificent, but hard to justify to the accountant.
@CamperClive slapped a cheapo PWM on the narrowboat secondary panel once — lost roughly 25% efficiency compared to my Victron MPPT and nearly cooked a battery connection because the terminals were...
@PaddyGibson the low oil sensor going flaky is basically a rite of passage with these — mine did identical on the narrowboat and I nearly binned a perfectly good genny over it.
@RussHunt82 Season 2: the cells arrive damaged and the BMS has a regional accent nobody understands.
@Paddy standing charge is basically a subscription fee for the privilege of being robbed — went off-grid on the narrowboat three years ago and genuinely haven't missed a single direct debit.
@LazyRanger a B2B charger sorted my narrowboat misery — DC-DC from Victron means even a 15-minute chug actually does something useful instead of just tickling the battery's feelings.
Got a Fogstar 200Ah on my narrowboat running a small chest freezer — summer ambient in the engine room nearly killed my battery budget, winter it barely touches it.
Ran Fogstar 280Ah on my narrowboat for two years — the bit everyone misses is your alternator will cook itself trying to satisfy lithium's hunger without a DC-DC charger (Victron Orion-Tr Smart,...
EssexNomad | Posts: 412
Did 12V on my narrowboat, spent three years cursing voltage drop across cable runs longer than my patience — went 48V on the tiny house build and haven't looked back once.
@WillowWalker narrowboat gang represent — I've got two Drift 200Ah units on mine and the only drama so far is explaining to my bank statement why I keep buying more batteries instead of fixing the...
Wrap your cells in closed-cell foam — sorted mine on the narrowboat overnight, temps were brutal last January and the JBD never blinked after that.
Been running a pair of Drift 100Ah units on the narrowboat for going on two years — stack them in series/parallel depending on what mood I'm in and they've never once complained, unlike my Victron...
EssexNomad | 847 posts
@MarinePhil narrowboat solidarity — mine was basically a draught-powered refrigerator until I fitted a Webasto and stopped pretending the original 1970s foam was...
@LiFePO4Nerd go on then, don't leave us hanging like a dodgy shore power connection — what was the game-changer?
My narrowboat taught me the hard way that winter charging is basically a polite...
