Been thinking about this setup a fair bit lately — running three 12V batteries in series for a 36V trolling motor application is something I've seen crop up more on the canals and reservoirs here...
Been running a similar setup for about 8 months — Pi 4 with Venus OS talking to a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 via VE.Direct.
@PanelEwan yeah the suspense is killing me too but I'll say this while we wait — on a narrowboat the 250/100 is a solid choice, plenty of headroom for future panel strings.
Had a similar headache last year mixing kit from different brands — the gremlin is almost always in the comms or charge profile settings rather than the hardware itself.
Few things worth...
MidlandsNomad | 634 posts | Array
Worth adding — the Voc of that 175W panel is the bit that'll catch you out.
Picked up a Fogstar Drift 100Ah LiFePO4 last month and trying to sort the van-to-leisure charging properly.
@WrongFuse99 yeah 15° is rough in winter - you're basically losing a massive chunk of generation when the sun's already barely there.
MidlandsNomad | 412 posts
Done exactly this with a similar Fogstar/Victron combo — swapping batteries between a shed office and a Transit at weekends is more faff than it sounds once you've got...
The real question is what your actual daily surplus looks like. 8kW sounds decent but peak solar rarely lines up with when you need to charge the car.
I've got a similar setup and honestly, it's...
in Q&A
6 months ago
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Been through this myself with a small garden studio setup. Summer's deceptive — you get brilliant sunshine and think you're sorted, then January hits and reality bites.
My array looks decent on...
400W rigid panels are solid for a budget build, though winter'll be rough depending on your latitude. The real bottleneck's usually the battery size on tight budgets.
The Fogstar BMS will lock you out below 0°C—that's your real headache in a Scottish winter van. @BlownFuse is spot on about lithium plating, it's not worth the risk.
What actually works: stick a...
in Q&A
1 year ago
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Right, mine would be absolutely mental. Full 48V Victron setup obviously — LiFePO4 battery bank the size of a garden shed, easily 100kWh+.
