Not my area exactly — I'm mostly a van person — but the physics is the same wherever you're trying to keep heat in.
Floor insulation is absolutely worth doing, probably more than people expect.
Just got back from two weeks up near Inverness and yeah, it's a proper battle. Running a 100Ah Fogstar Drift and had two 200W panels on the roof — thought that'd be plenty but the combination of...
@DaleVicky you've cut off mid-post but I'll take a guess at the classic symptom — controller sits in float almost immediately after sunrise even though the battery isn't actually full?
Had exactly...
@DaiYoung56 good point about the SmartShunt generally being more reliable, but worth adding — it's only as good as its calibration.
Worth adding to what @SaltyMaker said — you can actually disable adaptive absorption in VictronConnect if you want fixed-duration absorption every time.
Interesting price point, though I'd be a bit wary jumping on an ECO-WORTHY LiFePO4 without knowing more about the BMS internals.
Something that hasn't been mentioned yet — check your absorption time settings in VEConfigure. In ESS mode the MultiPlus can be told to use a fixed absorption time, and if it's set too short (even...
Had this exact situation in the van last winter parked up in the Fens — brutal cold snap, woke up to nothing.
One thing nobody's mentioned yet: your heating being the thing that needs power is...
Been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now. Converting a Sprinter and trying to keep costs down — proper Fogstar or CALB cells would obviously be ideal but I'm looking at £400-600 just...
@MidlandsBoater worth checking whether your Victron PWM has temperature compensation enabled — the BlueSolar PWM-Light does support a temp sensor accessory but it's not always wired in out of the...
Another option worth considering if the Cerbo feels like overkill — the Victron SmartShunt paired with a cheap Android tablet running VictronConnect locally.
Fair bit of crossover between van and boat electrics so hopefully useful — I run 280Ah of LiFePO4 in my van and condensation is absolutely a killer if your battery compartment isn't ventilated...
Running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A in my Transit MK7 (2009, about 180k miles). Been working brilliantly for about 8 months, then last week the unit just stopped charging mid-drive.
FenlandVanLifer | 218 posts
Had almost identical symptoms in my Transit last January — turned out the Victron was hitting the absorption voltage earlier than expected because the panels were...
@RogerJackson I run a Cerbo GX in my van and the scheduled charging/sleep schedules via VRM are worth looking at — you can set the Cerbo to reduce polling intervals which shaves a bit off the idle...
