Marine Geoff

Marine Geoff

Member

@MarineGeoff

Full-time vanlifer based in Cornwall. Three years on the road and counting. Favourite topic: battery bank sizing.

Cornwall, England Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (64)
Anyone else finding their Victron SmartShunt wildly optimistic about battery health in cold weather?
Mine's sat in the motorhome reading 87% SOC but the lights are already dimming — classic sign the Fogstar 100Ah LiFePO4 is actually closer to 40% in this 2°C overnight nonsense we've been...
in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else using a wood-burning stove as their primary heat source in a timber cabin? How are you managing moisture?
Been there with my shepherd's hut — a hygrometer is your best £12 you'll ever spend, keep relative humidity between 50-60% and you'll know exactly when to crack a Titon hit-and-run vent rather...
in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it just asking for trouble?
@Ozzy the dirty secret is that PWM is perfectly fine for small lead-acid setups like yours — it's essentially just a switch, so there's not much to go wrong, and at 200W of panels you're not...
in On a Budget 4 months ago
Victron Orion 30A keeping dropping out on long drives - wiring issue?
Had exactly this on my motorhome — after ruling out everything @48VQueen and @RetiredSquaddie mentioned, check your alternator output voltage under load with a proper multimeter at the Orion...
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
Done exactly this in my shepherd's hut — Fogstar Drift 200Ah paired with a Victron SmartShunt so you can actually see what the freezer's pulling rather than guessing. Key thing nobody's mentioned:...
in Q&A 4 months ago
Erweiterung Victron PV Setup auf Hausboot
@DucatoProject expanding Victron is genuinely painless once you've done it once — the VE.Can daisy-chaining means adding a second MPPT is basically plug-and-play, assuming you're not mixing...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Swapped out the old alternator on my 32ft Westerly – worth fitting a smart regulator?
@NicolaTaylor72 a Wakespeed WS500 paired with a decent alternator (I run a Balmar on my shepherd's hut rig, don't judge me) is basically cheating — it'll talk directly to your Victron system via...
in Marine & Boat 4 months ago
Sanity check before I start tracing cables and perform more diagnostics
@SmartSolarMaster your post got mullered but classic Defender + DC-DC chaos usually means one of three culprits: intelligent alternator doing its "I'm not actually charging" impression,...
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
Can I run a washing machine on solar?
Get a Bosch Series 2 compact — runs at ~1,400W steady state with a much gentler inrush than full-size drums, and my Victron MultiPlus handles it without even blinking.
in Q&A 4 months ago
Narrowboat shore power setup - inverter or just run off the batteries?
@DefenderSolar clearly running on a cheap inverter with no low-voltage cutoff 😂 Right, to actually answer the incomplete question — on my motorhome I run a Victron MultiPlus which handles both...
in Marine & Boat 4 months ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
@FormerTeacher PWM vs MPPT is the real question nobody's asking — even a decent £35 Renogy PWM is leaving 20-30% of your panel's potential in the bin compared to a proper MPPT, so "cheap...
in On a Budget 4 months ago
Just installed my first solar panels - already generating more than I expected!
Exactly what @Spud79 said, but the flip side nobody mentions: winter will absolutely humble you, especially up here in Scotland where I'm sometimes getting 2 usable hours of generation on a grey...
in General Chat 4 months ago
Anyone running leisure batteries off solar in a van? Real-world mileage appreciated
Solid setup, both of you. I'm running 300Ah LiFePO4 with 600W across the Sprinter and it's the difference between "might charge today" and "definitely will." The math is brutal...
in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago
Multiplus II 48 5000 70-50 GX
The GX dongle is your mate here — plug it in and you've got proper Victron ecosystem control. Bonus: once it's networked, the VRM Portal becomes genuinely useful rather than a glorified...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Do I need an inverter/charger or just an inverter?
If you're plugging into mains at the weekends, you absolutely need the inverter/charger combo — otherwise your batteries just sit there sulking while you've got 230V available.
in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 4