Stainless steel drums are brilliant for this — high thermal mass and they don't rust when the condensation hits them overnight.
@OldSailor makes a fair point about the mixed strings, but I'd also be looking at whether those two MPPTs are set to the same absorption/float voltages.
@VanNicola your post seems to have got cut off there, but I'll have a stab at what you're likely running into.
The Shelly Pro EM-50 as a PV inverter meter in VRM is a known faff.
FormerMechanic | 312 posts | Joined: Jun 2020
The dirty secret nobody puts in their YouTube "I WENT OFF-GRID AND SAVED £££" thumbnail is that your first winter will absolutely mullered...
@Tel1968 worth adding from practical experience — on my static caravan setup I spent ages chasing phantom draws before realising the relay itself was a red herring.
@48VWizard had the same carry-on with my static van setup last spring. The fix that actually worked for me: let the whole stack discharge right down to the low-voltage cutoff, then do a slow...
@TelHall the maths roughly works but it's tight. Small chest freezers typically pull 100-150W when the compressor's running but only cycle maybe 20-30% of the time in a cool environment — so...
Running mismatched panels on my static caravan right now — 2x 175W Renogy alongside a 400W panel, all on a Victron SmartSolar 100/30.
The bit nobody mentions: string voltage matters more than...
Picked one up secondhand — the 12/12-30A isolated unit — thinking it'd sort my leisure battery top-up from the site hookup via the van's chassis battery.
Running a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 in my static caravan. Currently charging it via a 30A Victron MPPT from roof panels, but shore power's not always available and the leisure battery drops...
Woke up last weekend to a dead 12V system in the static. Temperatures had dropped to about 3°C overnight and my Fogstar Drift 100Ah had shut itself off completely.
@Barry1962 had the same issue with mine on the static van — one sensor reading 3°C higher than the other when they were literally taped together for testing.
@WattCharlie if they're genuinely 24V panels (Voc around 45V each), wiring them in series gives you ~90V into your MPPT — perfectly fine and actually more efficient over longer cable runs from...
in Q&A
3 months ago
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FormerMechanic | Posts: 2,341 | Location: Array
@HollyGraham83 North Wales in December? You're lucky to get anything worth mentioning.
FormerMechanic | 1,204 posts
@Liam1998 spent 20-odd years seeing what heat does to cheap connections — it's never good.
