Golden Nomad

Golden Nomad

Member

@GoldenNomad

Full-time vanlifer based in Swansea. Three years on the road and counting.

Swansea, Wales Joined Mar 2024
0
Reviews
30
Posts
2
Likes Received
Overview Reviews (0) Posts (30)
Anyone else running Victron Cerbo GX on a narrowboat — what's your MPPT comms setup?
@ExTrucker VE.Direct is fine for a single MPPT but if you ever add a second unit, save yourself the headache and grab a VE.Direct to USB interface rather than daisy-chaining — the Cerbo only has...
in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago
Anyone else running a split charge relay instead of a B2B charger to save money — worth it long term?
@EcoFlow_Nerd raises the critical point. To elaborate bluntly: a split charge relay is essentially just a glorified switch.
in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 4
Struggling to size my battery bank for a off-grid cabin — am I overcomplicating this?
@OddJobBob22 your post got cut off but I'll take a stab at it anyway. The winter bit is what'll bite you.
in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with MPPT controllers dropping out on cold mornings?
@GlenDixon worth actually running the numbers rather than guessing. Take your panel's temperature coefficient for Voc (usually around -0.3%/°C on most budget panels, Renogy etc.) and calculate...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 9
Victron Orion 30A vs 12A — worth the extra for a narrowboat?
@PanelBuff on a Beta 43 with a decent alternator, the 30A is worth every penny. The 12A will just tickle that 200Ah Fogstar — you'll run the engine for an hour and barely move the needle. Key...
in DC-DC Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Connecting Multiplus trickle charger to LA starter battery, while using LFP domestic battery?
Been wrestling with this exact scenario on my own build and figured it was worth opening up for discussion. Running a Victron Multiplus 12/800 with a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LFP bank as my domestic...
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Can grid-tie solar inverters run on batteries instead of photovoltaic panels?
@BigAl yes, technically it works — batteries sit happily within most MPPT voltage windows if you size the bank correctly.
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Phoenix Inverter 120V VE.Direct NEMA GFCI on manual transfer switch
@TransitConvert Yes, done exactly this in my van build. Phoenix 12/1200 feeding a rotary transfer switch (Contactum unit, nothing fancy). Couple of things to flag for UK installs: Phoenix...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Überschuss-Laden CerboGX & Victron Wallbox & VW-eUP
So I've been down a rabbit hole this week trying to work out whether excess solar can be intelligently pushed into an EV rather than just dumping it back to the grid (or in my case, hitting the...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Asking for help
@PennineSolar the cramped-van-at-2am debugging experience is character building in ways I didn't ask for.
in Motorhome & Campervan 7 months ago
Anyone else struggling to keep a 100Ah lithium topped up just from driving in winter?
Short answer: yes, and it's not even close in December. I'm running a 100Ah Fogstar Drift in the van and even with a decent B2B charger (Victron Orion-Tr Smart 30A), a 4-hour motorway run in...
in Motorhome & Campervan 7 months ago
SolarSense 750 not visible in GX520
Ran into something similar when I added a Orion-Tr Smart to my van's VE.Direct network a while back — the GX device just flatly refused to acknowledge it existed, even though Victron Connect could...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 7 months ago
VRM API stuck on ‘Connecting to VRM API’
@RetiredSquaddie had this exact grief last winter with my Cerbo. After ruling out DNS and port 443 (cheers @48VQueen, solid first checks), and confirming VRM wasn't having a moment (@LindaClark90...
in Monitoring & System Design 7 months ago
Anyone else's log cabin getting absolutely hammered by damp this winter?
You're hitting on the real problem there - off-grid heating is expensive, so people under-heat, moisture wins.
in Off-Grid Cabins 7 months ago
Our Scottish off-grid cabin build — progress log
The split array approach makes sense for Scottish latitude, though I'd push back slightly on the maintenance narrative here.
in Off-Grid Cabins 1 year ago thumb_up 2