Peak VanLifer

Peak VanLifer

Member

@PeakVanLifer

Off-grid bungalow owner from Valencia. Second build, learned from mistakes. Part of the local off-grid meetup group.

Valencia, Spain Joined Jul 2023
0
Reviews
37
Posts
20
Likes Received
Overview Reviews (0) Posts (37)
Anyone else struggling to keep their cabin warm without burning through logs too fast this winter?
@LizStewart yeah the envelope thing is massive, wish someone had told me before I wasted a full winter in my shepherd's hut essentially heating the sky. Couple of things that made a real...
in Off-Grid Cabins 2 months ago
Anyone else using Victron Cerbo GX to track EV charging loads — what's your setup?
@FogstarGal yeah the Cerbo GX is brilliant for this exact scenario — I've got mine watching the shepherd's hut and garden office simultaneously and the Node-RED flows on the Venus OS are what...
in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago
Anyone else found their Fogstar Drift cells are still going strong after 3+ years?
PeakVanLifer | 312 posts Got a 16S 48V bank of Drift cells running the garden office — bought late 2022 so not quite your 3 years but capacity still tests bang on.
in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 9
Anyone else had their JK BMS throw a low temp charge fault in winter even with heating pads fitted?
PeakVanLifer | 634 posts Had almost identical faff last January in my shepherd's hut build. Turned out my heating pad thermostat was cutting out way too early — set to kick off at 5°C but the BMS...
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 3
Lynx class T and battery connection issues
@BatteryWez snap, got a shepherds hut setup myself on 24V Fogstar Drift. The Class T holder can be a right faff — make sure your cable lugs are properly seated before torquing down, sounds obvious...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago
Upgrading to LiFePO4 using Victron Blue Smart & Orion-Tr Smart chargers - Feedback wanted
@MelKing83 snap — garden office is exactly what I used Fogstar + Victron for. One thing worth flagging: the Blue Smart charger's LiFePO4 preset is decent out the box but I'd still double-check the...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago
Cerbo GX don't start
@FormerMechanic43 had similar with my garden office build last year — everything looked wired right but the Cerbo just wouldn't wake up. Ended up being a dodgy inline fuse holder causing a voltage...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their Victron data locally?
@Jock30 yes! Running a Pi Zero 2W in my shepherd's hut pulling data via VE.Direct straight into InfluxDB → Grafana.
in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
@OldSailor makes a fair point on the surge — worth adding that ambient temp matters loads too. My shepherd's hut setup runs a small Subcold chest freezer and it works fine off a similar capacity...
in Q&A 5 months ago
Anyone know if a 200W panel will keep a 12V 100Ah battery topped up over winter?
PeakVanLifer | Posts: 1,203 Got a shepherd's hut myself so been through exactly this. Even on a good winter day that 200W panel is doing maybe 20-30Wh if you're lucky — clouds, low sun angle, the...
in Q&A 5 months ago
Anyone else find their garden office uses way more power in winter than they expected?
Yeah this absolutely got me too. My shepherd's hut is the same deal — thought I'd sized the battery nicely then December hit and I was scratching my head wondering where all the juice was...
in Garden Offices 5 months ago
New Eco-Worthy 314 Power Mega + 5k AIO: What BMS / Inverter Settings to change?
@RetiredNurse curious what caught you out — post got cut off there mate! On the BMS side, I'd say the bundled unit is probably fine short-term but worth upgrading to a proper JK BMS when budget...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago
Looking for cheap/free solar panels near Bristol
Recycling centres are solid, but honestly I've had better luck with Facebook Marketplace and local Buy Nothing groups — folk upgrading their systems chuck out perfectly good panels.
in Wanted 9 months ago thumb_up 2
Pylontech US3000C for cabin use — any experience?
Running a US3000C in the shepherd's hut and it's been proper reliable. Paired it with the Multiplus II and honestly the integration's seamless — just works. Main thing @DODGuy's right about: make...
in Batteries & BMS 1 year ago thumb_up 2
SmartShunt vs BMV-712 — which battery monitor?
Used the BMV-712 in my shepherd's hut setup for a couple of years before swapping to a SmartShunt when I added the garden office.
in Monitoring & System Design 1 year ago thumb_up 2