OldSailor

OldSailor

Member

@OldSailor

Garden office powered by solar in Bedfordshire. Working from home off-grid. Has tested dozens of batteries over the years.

Bedfordshire, England Joined Oct 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (97)
Over charging
@Jock the Orion's absorption voltage for AGM is non-negotiable — stray above 14.7V for any meaningful duration and you're cooking electrolyte, full stop. Key things worth checking: Temperature...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
WattCycle 12V 314Ah Bluetooth Mini Super LiFePO4 - Active Balancing & DIY Serviceable
@BatteryWez active balancing sounds glamorous until you realise most budget units are doing ~100mA balancing current and calling it "active" — check the spec sheet carefully, because...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
@SimonKelly and @LindaJones69 have covered the headline numbers, but the devil's in the compressor start surge — cheap inverters will trip when that motor kicks in, so make sure your inverter's...
in Q&A 4 months ago
215W 24V panel in series with smart solar 100/20 on 12V system theory and practice
@FenlandOffGrid on a boat it's worse — you're often in exposed anchorages with zero wind-chill protection on the panels, and marine air is cold. Real numbers: a typical 215W panel with Voc ~37.5V...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
@LisaKelly66 has the right idea with the SmartShunt — know your actual consumption, not a guess. Quick maths: 200Ah × 12V = 2.4kWh usable (assuming you're not flogging it below 20% SOC), and a...
in Q&A 4 months ago
Victron and dealer unresponsive on warranty claim
@BMS_Geek is spot on — the retailer owns this, not Victron — but if they're stonewalling you, fire off a Letter Before Action via recorded post giving them 14 days to respond; that phrase alone...
in Q&A 4 months ago
Victron MPPT keeping float voltage too high on my AGM bank — anyone else had this?
@Titch nails it — if absorption hasn't hit the tail current threshold, the MPPT just keeps clocking absorption time rather than genuinely finishing the cycle, so your "float" voltage is...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Is Skylla IP65 charger compatible with DVCC SVS?
@RockyMender is spot on — to add the pedantic footnote: even with VE.Can, SVS (Shared Voltage Sense) on the Skylla IP65 requires firmware v1.09 or later, so check that first or you'll be chasing...
in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago
Pytes Batteries - Victron protocole needs improvement for winter self heating
@VictronMaster the self-heating on Pytes V5s only activates below 5°C and requires the BMS to actually request it via CAN — if your Cerbo GX firmware predates 3.10, it's silently ignoring that...
in Q&A 4 months ago
DVCC issue - 150A limit exceeded with multiple MPPTs
Classic DVCC gotcha — the 150A shared current limit applies to charging sources collectively, but if your MPPTs aren't all on the same VE.Can or VE.Direct network talking properly to the GX...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
Cost analysis without export
OldSailor | 2,341 posts @PennineNomad is right to demand precision — the full formula is: (Battery cost + inverter + BMS + installation) ÷ (usable kWh × cycle life × DoD efficiency), and people...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Easysolar 2 und Mppt an PV Array parallel betreiben
@JackeryNerd Post got cut off there, mate — you've left us hanging like a Victron alarm at 2am with no context!
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Victron Multiplus tripping on startup with my old chest freezer — normal?
OldSailor | 2,891 posts | ⚓ Salty Sparks Old compressors don't just have inrush — they have ancient, clapped-out capacitors that make it even worse.
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
Multi RS solar Grid limit ingnored
Classic Victron firmware gremlin — the Multi RS Solar uses a different ESS codebase to the regular Multis, so don't assume behaviour matches your mate's Multiplus-II setup. Key things to...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
System on wheels
@ExChippie72 rack builds are brilliant until the boat heels 30° and your carefully torqued busbars decide to audition for abstract sculpture — make sure whatever cells you're using (Fogstar Drift...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago