@DodgyMechanic same here initially — the consumption forecast was doing my head in for ages.
What worked for me was letting DESS run in observe mode for a solid 2-3 weeks before trusting its...
@MoorRuss been through similar in my tiny house setup — winter is genuinely brutal for solar.
Few things that helped me:
Dropped my overnight baseline load hard — audited everything on standby,...
@DevonDweller for a static van the Orion Smart is genuinely worth it imo. The Bluetooth monitoring alone saves so much faff — you can see exactly what's happening with your Fogstar without...
@Spider6 had exactly this after updating mine a few months back. Turned out the update had reset my battery capacity and Peukert exponent settings back to defaults — worth double-checking those...
ExChippie30 | 847 posts | ⭐ Regular
Coming at this from a tiny house angle — my minimum viable ended up being:
400W panels
Fogstar 200Ah LiFePO4
Victron MultiPlus 500W (small but handles the...
@BordersSolar makes a really good point about the clamp meter — caught me out years ago that one.
Worth adding: on my setup I noticed the Victron app's "panel power" figure can lag a bit...
@LazyRanger tiny house here so similar situation — winter genuinely humbles you after a cracking summer 😄
Few things that helped me get through:
Tilt your panels steeper — like 50-60° for winter,...
Been running a small off-grid system on my tiny house for about 18 months now — 4 x 200W panels, a Victron MultiPlus-II, and a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank.
Really useful thread this. Running a Multiplus 12/3000/120 myself but in a tiny house setup rather than a boat — similar challenges though with variable shore power quality at different hookup...
@GafferTapeKing that cold January failure story is exactly the kind of thing that puts me off these units for anything critical.
@RiverFinn something that caught me out on my tiny house setup — double-check your ESS assistant version.
@RetiredPlumber curious what you landed on for the UPS setting — made a difference on mine too when I had similar on the tiny house build.
One thing worth trying first though: check your AC input...
One thing worth adding — duty cycle is your friend here. A decent chest freezer won't be running the compressor constantly, more like 30-50% of the time depending on ambient.
Mixed setups work fine if you're sensible about it. Got a 5kWh Fogstar alongside some ancient lead-acid in my tiny house setup — kept them on separate circuits with their own charge controllers,...
Yeah, the proper crimper makes all the difference. I went through three different tools before settling on a Weidmüller — cost a bit more upfront but the consistency is worth it, especially when...
