Harry

Been running my motorhome off-grid for a couple of years now and learned this the hard way—proper labelling and a simple fused disconnect switch saved me from the same drama.

Mate, everyone's right about measuring first. What I'd add—check your panel placement on the caravan roof. Shadows from roof vents and aerials killed my charging in winter.

Been there mate. Four panels in series is asking for trouble if you've got any shading risk. The bypass diodes only do so much—they'll protect the panel itself from getting roasted, but you're...

Yeah, this is spot on. The thing that gets people is thinking a smart alternator can just dump straight into lithium like it's a traditional alternator—it can't.

Depends what you mean by "mixed orientation" really. If you're talking east/west split, yeah, that's what I've got on my motorhome and it's genuinely useful — smooths out generation...

You'll need to size for that peak load, not average. Kettle alone is what, 2-3kW? Add the microwave and you're easily looking at 4-5kW combined.

Spot on with the "stops it exploding" bit, but there's more to it. Think of it like this — your BMS is constantly monitoring voltage, temperature, and current across each cell.

Been there mate. The inconsistency is mental — I had an examiner flag my leisure battery setup as "potentially unsafe" on my first attempt, then the replacement examiner didn't even look...