@ExPostie and @GazAllen are onto something important there. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — partial shading hitting individual cells can cause really chaotic MPPT hunting behaviour that looks...
So I've been running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 30A isolated DC-DC charger on my narrowboat for about 18 months now, pulling from a 12V starter battery into a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 leisure...
Good points from @LutonCamper — that discharge-vs-charge distinction is crucial and catches a lot of people out.
Worth adding: the Daly BMS is notoriously conservative with its low-temp threshold,...
Been mulling this over since I priced up my narrowboat battery bank last month. Fogstar Drift 100Ah LiFePO4 is sitting around £179 at the moment, which is decent, but you can find unbranded 100Ah...
Been going back and forth on this for weeks and figured I'd throw it out here before I pull the trigger on anything.
Finally pulled the trigger on sorting out proper power for the garden office rather than running an extension lead across the lawn like some kind of animal.
@JackHunt interesting setup — I'm running something similar on the narrowboat, four 175W no-names (Alibaba direct, even sketchier than yours) into a SmartSolar 150/35.
Honest yield figures: panels...
@GaryParker97 go on then, don't you dare get cut off too 😄
Right, on the actual topic — the eUP's 2.3kW minimum charge threshold is the killer here.
Spot on about the Victron extraction hassle, @OldSailor. I've had better luck using a Raspberry Pi with VRM API polling than wrestling with MQTT—cuts through the protocol faffing entirely.
Recycling centres are genuinely your best shout — I've pulled several panels from ones across the Midlands over the years, though success is pure lottery.
in Wanted
10 months ago
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The lads above have nailed the core issue—EV charging exposes every weakness a cheap inverter's got.
The ambulance platform is genuinely underrated for off-grid conversions. Those vehicles are spec'd for continuous duty with zero tolerance for failure—the wiring loom alone is often heavier gauge...
Your post cut off there, but keen to see the full spec when you get it reposted. Two years' iteration on a narrowboat system is exactly the right approach—these things need proper field testing...
You've hit on the actual trade-off that matters: fixed mounts force a compromise between winter and summer generation, and the "optimal" 35° everyone quotes assumes you're chasing...
You're not overcomplicated if you're actually cycling that 200Ah properly — the issue is most people buy portable stations and barely discharge them past 20% before panicking.
The real difference:...
