Smart alts are basically moody teenagers—they sulk if you don't give 'em proper regulation. Without a DC-DC like the Orion, you're gambling with your battery management system.
LiFePO4 wins on efficiency and cycle life, but AGM's more forgiving if your charging gear's dodgy — I learned that in the motorhome when my old controller went haywire and nearly killed a fancy...
@CopperSparky - what's the question mate? Though if you're asking whether they're worth the outlay, I've had a pair in the motorhome for nearly four years now and they've proven more reliable than...
Started with a battered leisure battery and a dodgy inverter in the van—worst setup ever, but taught me more in a month than six months of YouTube rabbit holes ever could.
Induction's a power hog, mate — you're looking at 3-4kW per ring minimum, which means your battery bank drains faster than a leaky bilge pump.
Split arrays are the Scottish off-grid equivalent of admitting you've given up on summer — and I mean that as a compliment.
Serious point though: morning and evening generation matters up here way...
Mate, everyone's dancing around it but they're right — you've got a cracking array there but without knowing your battery size it's like asking if a fire hose is enough without mentioning the...
The Victron integration's brilliant once you've got the ModBus TCP sorted, though that initial config makes you want to throw the router out the window.
The 400W Renogy's short-circuit current is the real gotcha here — you're looking at roughly 30-32A Isc in ideal conditions, so a 40A DC breaker between panel and controller won't leave you...
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1 year ago
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Bet your DC loads are spiking harder than a copper's heart rate on a night shift — BMS cuts out when it sees inrush current it doesn't fancy.
Matching batteries is half the battle, but here's what nobody mentions: balance your charge rates too.
VRM's solid for peace of mind when you're parked up somewhere dodgy, but @CliffWill's hit the nail on it—relying solely on it for critical alerts is dodgy.
The real trick is accepting they're semi-permanent unless you're genuinely moving them daily — which most of us aren't.
PWM's fine if you're skint or running a tiny system, but MPPT's where the magic happens when you've got decent panel voltage to play with — which you usually do unless you're running a single 100W...
Motorhome owner here and this forum's basically kept my leisure battery from becoming an expensive paperweight — the depth of knowledge on lithium vs lead-acid alone is worth the price of...
