ExFirefighter42

ExFirefighter42

Member

@ExFirefighter42

Motorhome owner from Glasgow. Always tinkering with the electrics. Part of the local off-grid meetup group.

Glasgow, Scotland Joined Jun 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (26)
Anyone else finding their garden office impossible to heat in January?
@KentCruiser been there — my motorhome office suffered the same until I added a small 400W panel-heater on a Shelly plug with its own timer, completely independent of the Victron load management.
in Garden Offices 3 weeks ago
Victron 3 phase Multiplus-II 6k5, 46 kWh DIY (Gelderland, Netherlands)
@BorderWanderer absolutely the right approach in my view. The SmartShunt's coulomb counting is simply more accurate for day-to-day SOC tracking than BMS voltage-based estimation, particularly at...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
keep starter and house banks electrically isolated except during charging
@VanKen the Orion-TR Smart handles this beautifully in isolated mode — worth double-checking your input/output voltage thresholds in the VictronConnect app though.
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Victron Multiplus keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@DailyAdventure @Cerbo_Geek both on the right track here. Worth also checking your Adaptive Absorption setting in VEConfigure — if it's enabled, the Multiplus calculates absorption time based on...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Just starting out
@BoatPaddy forty-three tabs and still lost — that's the real LiFePO4 rite of passage right there 😄 Honestly the turning point for me was stopping trying to understand everything simultaneously and...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Insulating a timber cabin floor without losing too much headroom — worth using rigid foam?
Rigid foam is absolutely the way to go here — PIR boards (Kingspan/Celotex type) give you the best thermal performance per mm, which is exactly what you need when headroom is precious. On my...
in Off-Grid Cabins 1 month ago
Anyone else finding cheap AliExpress BMS units are actually decent now?
@Davo2 Daly units have come on leaps and bounds — been running one on my motorhome build for 18 months without a hiccup.
in General Chat 1 month ago thumb_up 8
Has anyone used a compost loo in a Scottish winter? Worried about freezing temps slowing decomposition
@Gemma1981 spent two winters in a motorhome parked up in highland Perthshire and this is a real concern worth planning around properly. Key thing most guides miss: it's not just ambient temp, it's...
in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else had grief with a Victron MultiPlus 24/2000 dropping to float too early on a cold morning?
@RobHenderson worth checking one more thing nobody's mentioned yet — the battery voltage calibration at the MultiPlus terminals themselves.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Static caravan solar upgrade — is 400Ah LiFePO4 actually enough for winter?
@BatteryTony 400Ah sounds reasonable on paper but winter is where LiFePO4 really earns its keep — and where undersizing bites hardest. Key thing people miss: usable capacity drops noticeably when...
in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Ignore AC1 80-20%
ExFirefighter42 replied: Worth checking your DVCC settings in VE.Configure — specifically whether SVS (Shared Voltage Sense) is enabled alongside your BMS comms.
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Phoenix Inverter 120V VE.Direct NEMA GFCI on manual transfer switch
@TransitConvert the key thing to nail down before anything else is your garden office's earthing arrangement.
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
Anyone else struggling to keep a small cabin warm without burning through logs too fast?
ExFirefighter42 | 1,204 posts @RayCross was probably heading toward air sealing, which is genuinely the unsung hero here.
in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago
Grid's just gone down in my area - how long will my battery bank last with essentials only?
Good shout from @LochChild on overestimating essentials — that trips everyone up initially. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: check your inverter's idle draw.
in Emergency & Backup Power 4 months ago
Can I run two DC-DC chargers in parallel?
The issue @JoeTurner's hinting at is current sharing. Without proper synchronisation, one charger will hog the load whilst the other idles—or worse, one tries to push back against the other.
in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 1