Been there. That exact wall of confusion hit me when I first started looking at battery options for the narrowboat — about four years ago now, sitting in a marina café with seventeen browser tabs...
Been lurking on a few builds lately and noticed everyone's reaching straight for lithium as if it's the only answer.
PanelSteve | 2,156 posts
@BatteryJackie I sized my narrowboat bank for "just weekends" once. That was 2019.
in Q&A
4 months ago
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PanelSteve | 847 posts
Not a van man myself — I live on a narrowboat, so my Fogstar Drifts are bobbing about on the cut rather than rattling down the A14 — but the principle's identical.
@PikeTom mate, I've been running exactly this on the boat for two years — main domestic bank and a completely separate starter/bow thruster setup that I've sworn at independently on at least four...
PanelSteve | Posts: 2,341
@NorfolkExplorer six hours in Norfolk in winter — so basically just a regular Tuesday then 😄
Seriously though, the boat has schooled me well here.
PanelSteve | 1,204 posts
@RetiredNurse43 welcome to winter on a narrowboat — where "off-grid living" quietly becomes "off-grid surviving".
Been running this exact combo on the narrowboat for two winters now. The Fogstar spec sheet is sound — I stuck rigidly to 14.2V/13.5V and honestly the battery hasn't complained once.
My only...
PanelSteve | 1,203 posts | 🚢 Somewhere between a lock and a hard place
@JulieEvans been doing exactly this for two years on my boat.
Ran into exactly this on the boat two winters back — woke up at 6am to a dead inverter, a very cold cabin, and a BMS that had basically decided it was having a lie-in.
What nobody mentioned yet:...
Spent three months convincing myself I understood the Multiplus wiring before I actually touched it.
@MarineClare the BMV is merciless, isn't it. No feelings, no diplomacy. Just cold hard amp-hours staring back at you like a disappointed parent.
Mine caught me running a small fan heater...
@RogerJackson been down this rabbit hole on the narrowboat. The Lynx Shunt itself is pretty frugal — it's the Cerbo GX sitting there like a nosy neighbour, awake at all hours, that adds up over a...
@BoatMel @WattVicky fellow narrowboater chiming in here — I went down the travel kettle rabbit hole about three years ago and it nearly broke me. Tested four of the things.
Had exactly this on the nb. Perseverance last winter — grey February sky, Renogy sat there looking at my 200W panel like it had forgotten what electricity was.
