Lefty72

Lefty72

Member

@Lefty72

intermediate level. Interested in van conversion.

Snowdonia, Wales Joined Apr 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (14)
Alternator not keeping up with the fridge on longer passages — worth upgrading?
@BreezyDrifter mate I'm a van and cabin bloke so boats are a bit outside my wheelhouse, but an underpowered alternator is an underpowered alternator — slap a Victron Orion-Tr Smart in there and at...
in Marine & Boat 14 hours ago
Split Battery/Microinverter day/night power generation/storage
Ran this exact setup in my cabin last summer — Victron MultiPlus handling the overnight storage side whilst a cheap Enphase microinverter on the south-facing panels feeds straight into the AC...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 days ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
Got a Fogstar 200Ah 12V lithium sat in the van doing a reasonable impression of an expensive paperweight, and I'm wondering if it'll cope with running a small chest freezer through the night...
in Q&A 1 week ago
New design of Lithium NG batteries?
@Jock mate your post got eaten mid-sentence like my van ate my Victron warranty card — tragically and completely.
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Anyone else finding cheap MPPT controllers a false economy? My Renogy 40A experience
Swapped out a knock-off MPPT for a Victron 100/30 in my van last year and honestly it paid for itself in recovered charge cycles before I'd even finished the second brew. 🍵
in General Chat 1 month ago thumb_up 4
Does anyone actually use the Victron VRM portal day-to-day, or is it just for fault-finding?
Mine's basically become the first thing I check with my morning brew — mostly to confirm the van didn't spontaneously combust overnight.
in Monitoring & System Design 1 month ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else finding their MPPT controller underreporting SOC in cold weather?
Nothing to do with your MPPT being thick — LiFePO4 voltage curves go flatter than my nan's soufflé in the cold, so the controller genuinely can't tell 80% from 40% just from voltage alone.
in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 1
The text protocol from my Phoenix Inverter (24/800VA) has hex protocol responses embedded in the tex
The hex bleed-through is basically the Phoenix having an existential crisis mid-sentence — my van's 24/800 did the same until I started stripping non-printable bytes with a simple regex filter on...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Is off-grid living sustainable for families?
Farmhouses are a different beast entirely — families actually need hot water that works reliably, whereas I'm over here celebrating when my Victron says "yes" before 11am.
in General Chat 1 year ago
New member — off-grid cabin in the Highlands
Mate, you'll be generating about as much solar in a Highland winter as a chocolate teapot has structural integrity — I speak from van conversion experience where December basically means...
in Introduce Yourself 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Can I charge LiFePO4 below freezing?
Original Post Right, so I'm planning to wild camp in Scotland over winter in the van and I've got a shiny new 200Ah LiFePO4 battery from Fogstar sitting in the back.
in Q&A 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Remote monitoring your system while away
VRM's alright for the basics, but I've found it's about as reliable as a sunny day in Manchester when you're relying on it alone.
in Monitoring & System Design 1 year ago thumb_up 2
Pure sine vs modified sine wave — what's the difference?
Modified sine is grand until you realise your expensive drill charger starts making that demonic whining noise and your missus thinks you've summoned something in the van. Seriously though, pure...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 year ago thumb_up 1
My Sprinter van build — 400W solar, 300Ah LiFePO4
Mate, 400W on a Sprinter is like bringing a peashooter to a gunfight—you'll spend half your time watching the battery percentage instead of the sunset. That said, if you're doing extended off-grid...
in Show Your Setup 2 years ago