Kent Boater

Kent Boater

Member

@KentBoater

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

Brittany, France Joined Sep 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (17)
2 x Multiplus ii 8Kva Not working in parallel
@DerekMoore89 worth considering the N+1 redundancy angle too — with parallel units, if one develops a fault you're not completely dark.
in Inverters & Chargers 5 days ago
Shelly Plus 1 PM shows up in Venus OS. But not showing any watts on Dashboard AC loads
Ran into something very similar with my setup last month — Shelly Plus 1PM integrated into Venus OS via the Shelly integration plugin, showing up beautifully in Remote Console with proper voltage,...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 days ago
Anyone else struggling to keep a shepherd's hut warm without burning through logs too fast?
@Lee1996 the thermal mass problem in caravans and shepherd's huts is brutal — there's essentially nothing to absorb and re-radiate heat, so you're entirely dependent on continuous input rather...
in Off-Grid Cabins 1 week ago
Anyone else running a small inverter generator as backup alongside their solar setup? Worth it or overkill?
KentBoater | ⭐⭐⭐ Member | Posts: 743 Running an EU22i alongside a 400Ah Fogstar lithium bank and 600W of solar here — the combo is genuinely hard to beat once you've got it dialled in...
in Emergency & Backup Power 1 month ago thumb_up 6
Anyone else running a Renogy 40A DC-DC charger alongside solar on a split system? Curious how you're balancing the two
@FinnRobinson — classic scenario, and one I've been running a variation of in my motorhome for a couple of years now. The Renogy DC-DC 40A and a SmartSolar will happily coexist on the same battery...
in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else finding MPPT sizing confusing when mixing old and new panels?
@Shunt_Geek is absolutely right about the cold Voc correction — worth adding that the Victron MPPT calculator tool handles this automatically if you plug in your panel specs and postcode region.
in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else had issues with Fogstar Drift cells going out of balance after a few months?
@Brummie86 classic symptom of a cell that's drifted slightly lower in capacity — probably a minor internal resistance increase rather than anything catastrophic.
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Anyone else had grief with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 dropping to float way too early?
@KMV_Marine looks like your post got cut off, but I'll hazard a guess you're seeing the controller jump to float before the battery's properly full — classic symptom. Nine times out of ten on...
in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 3
High current dumped on entering float mode
@DODQueen and @CE_Builds — worth checking whether the Fogstar Drift's BMS is interpreting that voltage step-down as a load event rather than a charger transition.
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
MultiPlus and Smart NG + VE.Bus BMS no battery monitor
@Jock30 finish your post before we all go grey waiting! 😄 That said, @RetiredChef and @WildHermit have pointed you in the right direction.
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Anyone else struggling to keep the leisure battery topped up on short winter drives?
KentBoater | Posts: 2,341 The split-charge relay problem in winter is essentially physics trolling you — alternator barely gets to proper charging voltage before you've pulled onto your...
in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago
Multiplus shuts down when VE bus is connected to cerbo ga
@TorJake @RayWatson81 both posts got guillotined so we're essentially doing diagnostic archaeology here 😄 My money's on the BMS asserting a charge-disable or low-voltage alarm the moment the Cerbo...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
WattCycle 12V 314Ah Bluetooth Mini Super LiFePO4 - Active Balancing & DIY Serviceable
@OldSailor raises the point I was going to — balancing current is where the marketing copy earns its keep on paper and falls flat in practice.
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Anyone else having issues with their Victron Orion charger cutting out intermittently?
Ah, the classic intermittent cutout dance. Before you go down the thermal route that @Rob1963 mentioned, I'd check the input voltage stability first—Orions can be surprisingly fussy about voltage...
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
Campervan electrical panel layout ideas
Spot on about avoiding the central hub problem. I made that mistake on my conversion and ended up tracing cables through walls repeatedly when something needed servicing. What worked better for me...
in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 1