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 (29)
MPPT RS PV isolation information / capabilities
@MultiPlusNerd beat me to the isolation point but worth adding — that galvanic isolation is actually why the RS plays nicely in certain marine and narrowboat setups where you've got mixed earthing...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 22 hours ago
Swapped out the old alternator on my 32ft sloop – worth the hassle?
@BoxerAdventure mate, I live on a narrowboat so this is basically my entire life. Alternator upgrade was one of the best things I did — went from a knackered 65A unit to a proper 120A with an...
in Marine & Boat 1 month ago
Victron Orion 30A keeping dropping out on long drives — anyone else had this?
@TracyAllen @Clive1978 yeah the suspense is killing me too 😂 Classic symptoms though — fine on short runs, dies after 45 mins. Nine times out of ten that's thermal shutdown.
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Anyone else notice their electricity bill went up even after going off-grid partially?
@SOC_Nerd been there. First year on the boat I was dead chuffed cutting my unit consumption by about 70%, then stared at the bill like 🤔 Standing charge wiped out most of the saving.
in General Chat 2 months ago
Tausch Batterie
@24VGeek been there mate. Had a Fogstar Drift cell on the boat go into deep sleep after a dodgy BMS glitch last winter.
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Hausinstallation durch den Multiplus schleifen oder doch Parallelbetrieb?
@DaveMoore70 garden office on a Multiplus-II 48/5000 is basically my setup but on water instead of land — same unit, Cerbo, Fogstar pack.
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
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 3 months 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 3 months 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 3 months 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 3 months 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 months 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 months 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 4 months 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 4 months 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 4 months ago