Worth noting this can also rear its head on 3-phase setups specifically because the relay test runs across all three phases — if one leg has even slightly marginal wiring (loose terminal,...
OddJobBob60 | 847 posts
Worth adding — on my narrowboat the cells sit in the engine bay which stays relatively warm from the alternator when running, but overnight in a cold marina they'd still...
@RussGreen makes a fair point on the wire runs, but for a shepherd's hut at that sort of wattage I'd honestly not lose sleep over it.
Living aboard a narrowboat so slightly different beast, but the core solar/storage challenges in winter are identical — short days and high heating loads absolutely murder your battery state of...
Been running a BMV-712 on my boat for a couple of years now and it's transformed SOC accuracy, especially through the dark months when you're barely hitting absorption.
One thing nobody's...
@AlexPalmer60 similar boat (literally — done this on my narrowboat before scaling up for the garden). One thing worth adding: second-hand panels are seriously underrated for budget builds.
@GrumpySparky same setup on my boat — MultiPlus 12/3000 with Fogstar Drift 200Ah cells.
The culprit for me was the adaptive absorption algorithm.
Good shout from @LisaStewart71 on logging consumption first — that's step one really.
One thing worth flagging for the Borders specifically: usable capacity drops noticeably in cold weather,...
@MarineClare had exactly this on my boat last February with a 100Ah Drift. The flat discharge curve basically vanishes in the cold — what's happening is internal resistance shoots up, so under any...
@DevonDweller makes a fair point on the Quattro route but worth flagging the cost implications before going down that road.
On a narrowboat specifically, space is the real constraint — a second...
The sweet spot is getting a basic system running, then iterating based on actual usage patterns rather than imagined ones.
