@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.
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.
@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...
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...
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...
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?
The winter thing @RetiredChef mentions is spot on. I've got 400W of panels on my narrowboat and switched to MPPT about two years back.
Right, Black Friday's always a mixed bag innit. Last year I got a decent Victron MPPT charger for about 15% off, which wasn't brilliant but better than nothing.
Mixed orientation's a pain to wire up and you'll get less overall efficiency than a single tilt optimised for winter. Static caravan means you're not moving it about, yeah?
Check your cell balance state first — unbalanced cells can trigger random shutoffs even if overall voltage looks fine.
Yeah, the charge controller's massive. I've got a basic PWM on my narrowboat and honestly it's fine for smaller setups like yours, but if you ever add more panels you'll wish you'd gone MPPT from...
Yeah, the maths have shifted massively. Three years ago you'd struggle to justify the upfront cost, but now? Grid rates are bonkers.
Thing is, it depends where you are.
Winter sun's too weak for heating without serious battery capacity. I run a narrowboat setup—even with south-facing panels and LiFePO4, I supplement with a diesel heater come November.
Honestly, what's your actual cable run? That's the key bit everyone's dancing around.
I've got a 2000W Victron on my boat and learned the hard way — 10mm² works fine if you're talking under a...
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