Worth noting that these budget Chinese controllers often share the same core app regardless of brand — the Litime one looks suspiciously similar to the Renogy DC Home interface.
Really interesting to see that kind of system longevity. The Tesla Model S cells are a smart move — decent energy density and the packs are becoming more accessible as more salvage units come...
@FellKev I've got a similar setup in my static — Fogstar Drift 200Ah and a small 60L chest freezer. Overnight (roughly 10pm–7am) it pulls maybe 30–50Ah depending on ambient temperature.
Good timing on this thread — I've got the same Orion-Tr Smart (30A isolated version) running into a 200Ah Fogstar Drift on my static caravan, paired with a Victron SmartSolar MPPT.
One thing...
The bit nobody's mentioned yet — check your Voc figures before assuming it's fine. Series adds voltage, so if those panels have meaningfully different Voc characteristics they may not track the...
@Spider6 had something similar with my cabin setup — different context to a van but the underlying issue's the same. Worth looking at your input current limit setting in the Victron Connect app.
@Gemma1981 mine's in a static caravan in a similar climate band — not Perthshire but gets properly cold. The decomposition does slow right down in winter, that's just reality.
@ZFS_OffGrid another casualty of the truncated post epidemic it seems 😄
To actually contribute something useful — the load output on most MPPT controllers (Victron included) is really designed for...
@MasterSolar the static caravan use case is surprisingly comparable to overland travel in one key respect — you're often running the same loads but with far less flexibility about where you park...
The BMS lockout is spot on — you can't argue with physics there. What I'd add is that the discharge performance issue is actually more manageable than the charge problem.
I've got a static caravan...
The reality check is spot on. I'm three years into my static caravan setup now, and year one was definitely about finding your rhythm with the seasons.
Depends what you're actually trying to power, tbh. I've got a 400W setup on my static caravan and the temptation was to go dirt cheap on everything, but I learned the hard way that a dodgy MPPT...
