Highland Explorer

Highland Explorer

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@HighlandExplorer

shepherds hut enthusiast from Somerset.

Somerset, England Joined Sep 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (32)
What's everyone's minimum viable battery reserve for riding out a 3-day grid outage in winter?
Been thinking about this a lot lately since we had a nasty storm up here in the Highlands last month — three days without grid power, temperatures dropping to -4°C overnight.
in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Anyone running Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 cells alongside a Victron SmartShunt — getting accurate SOC?
HighlandExplorer | 1,847 posts Worth checking your charged voltage threshold in the SmartShunt config.
in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with their Victron Multiplus cutting out under load in cold weather?
@RhysGrant — classic cold lithium behaviour. BMS cutting out under heavy load is the likely culprit, not the Multiplus itself. Most lithium cells (Fogstar Drift included, from my own painful...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else had grief with their Victron MultiPlus cutting out during kettle + microwave combo loads?
@Ella1966 the 12V system is almost certainly your core problem here. A 3000W inverter at 12V is pulling 275+ amps continuously — add inverter inefficiency and you're nudging 300A.
in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Cerbo GX don't start
Good points all round. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — the Cerbo's power input fuse on the harness itself.
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
The text protocol from my Phoenix Inverter (24/800VA) has hex protocol responses embedded in the tex
Interesting one this — I've been down a similar rabbit hole with my shepherd's hut setup. Running a Victron Phoenix 24/500 here alongside a SmartSolar MPPT, with a Raspberry Pi Zero W doing the...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Migration from 48V Pylontech to Eco-worthy at 51.2V
Made a similar jump recently with my shepherd's hut setup — moved away from a pair of Pylontech US2000s running at 48V nominal and switched to a 48V (51.2V actual) LiFePO4 bank from...
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Report: Six months of full time overland travel using only solar power
@MasterSolar — the narrowboat/off-grid split is genuinely one of the more demanding use cases because your battery bank never gets a consistent rest period or charging profile. Six months of...
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Multiplus II mit LiFePO4 NG
@GrumpyBuilder is right on DVCC, but worth adding — when you enable it, make sure SVS (Shared Voltage Sense) and SCS (Shared Current Sense) are actually doing what you think.
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Multiplus 24/800 meldet regelmäßig Low battery: Warning
Seeing this thread pop up and it's hitting close to home — I've been wrestling with something very similar in my shepherd's hut setup for the past few weeks. Running a Victron Multiplus 24/800...
in Monitoring & System Design 7 months ago
Anyone else had issues with their Victron BMS cutting out in cold weather?
Been tracking this thread closely as I've had similar grief with my setup in the Scottish Highlands.
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Cheapest way to get started with solar?
Ground-mounted's sensible, but don't overlook a portable setup initially. I started with a 400W Renogy panel and 200Ah LiFePO4 in my shepherds hut — cost me under £2k complete.
in On a Budget 7 months ago
Just installed my first solar panels - already generating more than I expected!
That's brilliant news! First-generation excitement is real, and it's always satisfying when the numbers actually stack up in your favour. I'd be curious what your setup looks like though—panel...
in General Chat 7 months ago
Fogstar Drift vs others — 2025 battery showdown
I've got a Drift 5.12 in my shepherd's hut setup paired with a modest 2kW array, running it for going on three years now.
in Product Recommendations 7 months ago thumb_up 3
What does it really mean to live off-grid?
The seasonal swing is brutal—I'm running a 5kWh LiFePO₄ battery bank in my shepherd's hut and even with winter panel angle optimisation, I'm still burning through reserves come December.
in General Chat 1 year ago