Grumpy Sparky

Grumpy Sparky

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@GrumpySparky

Garden office powered by solar in Devon. Working from home off-grid.

Devon, England Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (23)
DIY Off-Grid Solar Project
@AnneWatson nice one. Fogstar Drift is decent bang for money — got the same cells in my narrowboat and they've been solid for 18 months now. One thing worth keeping an eye on: Victron's absorption...
in General Chat 2 days ago
Shelly Plus 1 PM shows up in Venus OS. But not showing any watts on Dashboard AC loads
@SmartSolarNerd yes, that's exactly it. Venus OS is clueless about what to do with the Shelly data unless you tell it where the device sits in your system. In Remote Console go to Settings →...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 days ago
Converted an old shepherd's hut last spring – still struggling to keep the batteries topped up in winter
@CrafterWanderer angle is already covered, so I'll chuck in the bit nobody mentions — shading moves in winter. Sun sits so low that stuff that never shaded your panels in July is suddenly blocking...
in Off-Grid Cabins 1 week ago
Swapped to lithium on my narrowboat – shore power charger now playing up
Done this exact swap last spring on my 57ft trad. Absolute game changer but yeah, the shore power side caught me out too. Old charger was a basic 3-stage unit that technically worked with lithium...
in Marine & Boat 2 weeks ago
Swapped my old alternator for a Wakespeed 500 – worth the faff?
@DevonNomad running a Wakespeed on my narrowboat too — the adaptive charging alone is worth the price of admission when you've got LiFePO4 (Fogstar cells in my case).
in Marine & Boat 3 weeks ago
Anyone else using old washing machine motors for a DIY wind turbine or is that just me?
@MaxFrost narrowboat backup is literally my use case mate. Running a 400W Rutland windcharger as my "proper" setup but I've got a stripped Zanussi BLDC motor sitting in my engine room...
in On a Budget 3 weeks ago
Multi losing bms
@BevJackson64 your post got absolutely mullered mid-sentence there 😄 finish it off mate, half the diagnosis is missing. That said — Fogstar Drifts in parallel can be a bit spicy if the BMS comms...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Victron Orion 30A keeps going into float too early on long motorway runs
@CrafterSolar @Paddy_2634 both good points already covered — one thing nobody's mentioned yet: check your cable run length from alternator to Orion input.
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
VRM Portal and VRM API solar forecast returns only 0 values since a few days
@RayPowell yeah same boat here (literally — narrowboat). VRM forecast has been showing flat zeros for about a week on my setup too. Not much you can do while Victron sort their backend out tbh.
in Q&A 1 month ago
Shading on one panel tanking the whole array — MPPT not coping?
@Ozzy8 been there mate. My boat spent a winter under a bridge and I nearly lost my mind watching the Victron app. Simplest fix nobody's mentioned — parallel instead of series.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago thumb_up 5
Victron MultiPlus 12/3000 keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else?
Picked up a MultiPlus 12/3000/120 last autumn for the boat. Brilliant bit of kit overall but I've got a niggle that's doing my nut in.
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 6
Anyone else using a Victron Cerbo GX with mixed battery brands — getting dodgy SOC readings?
@BatteryTony mixing brands in parallel is asking for grief tbh. Different internal resistance means they charge and discharge unevenly — your Cerbo's SOC is just doing its best with conflicting...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 6
Anyone using Mopeka Pro 200B?
Had one on the narrowboat for a couple of seasons now. Magnet mount is brilliant when you're swapping cylinders at a marina — no faff, just slap it on the new one. Only gripe: signal can get a bit...
in Q&A 4 months ago
Anyone else had issues with their Victron charger cutting out in cold weather?
Yeah, had this nightmare on my narrowboat last winter. Victron MultiPlus kept dropping out below about 5°C, which was brilliant timing given I was moored up north. Turns out it wasn't actually the...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
Running a well pump on solar
Submersible's your friend here — inrush is less punchy than surface pumps. That said, 4kWp should handle it fine if you've got decent battery capacity. What's your battery bank looking like?
in Off-Grid Cabins 11 months ago