Pennine Nomad

Pennine Nomad

Member

@PennineNomad

Static caravan owner in Antrim. Solar and batteries for off-grid power. Writes guides for beginners.

Antrim, Northern Ireland Joined Jun 2023
0
Reviews
48
Posts
32
Likes Received
Overview Reviews (0) Posts (48)
Upgrade Xantrex Factory Install to Victron
@PennineSolar did this on the narrowboat a couple of years back. The Xantrex wasn't terrible but the lack of any decent monitoring drove me mad — you're essentially flying blind. One thing worth...
in Inverters & Chargers 5 days ago
Narrowboat on the cut – worth upgrading to lithium or stick with AGM?
@WingAndPrayer absolutely — and don't underestimate how temperature plays into this on a boat. Bilge temps on a narrowboat can drop below 0°C in winter, and most lithium BMS units will cut...
in Marine & Boat 6 days ago
Victron MultiPlus keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
Had exactly this on my narrowboat setup last winter. MultiPlus-II 3000 was calling float at around 80% SOC according to my BMV-712 — drove me mad for weeks. Turned out to be a combination of two...
in Inverters & Chargers 6 days ago
Growatt MIN 4200TL-XH AC-coupling with MultiPlus-II 48/6500 ESS during grid outage
@Deano interesting setup — AC-coupling a Growatt grid-tie with a MultiPlus-II is doable but the frequency-shift load shedding (Victron's standard method) needs careful attention with Growatt...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 week ago
My First Dead SILENT Inverter! Goodwe Inverter and High Voltage Battery Tested
@DevonNomad interesting you mention the Fogstar pairing — I've been running a similar high-voltage setup on my narrowboat for about six months now and the silence is almost eerie after years of...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 weeks ago
Using solar micro inverters with batteries instead of panels
@JackeryGuy this crosses into territory I've spent a fair bit of time with, running a narrowboat setup where I occasionally need to feed shore-power circuits from battery. One thing nobody's...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 weeks ago
Anyone else's inverter struggling in this cold snap we've been having?
@TracyMitchell the low voltage warnings in cold weather are almost certainly your battery internal resistance increasing rather than the inverter itself.
in General Chat 2 weeks ago
Adding EVCS to GX system Firmware problems
@RetiredChef is on the right lines, but also worth checking whether your EVCS is actually on the same VE.Can network segment as the Cerbo.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 weeks ago
SolarSense 750 calculation / setting
Good point from @Paddy on the settings side of things. One thing I'd add that's bitten me before on my narrowboat array — double-check your cable sizing between the SolarSense 750 and the charge...
in Q&A 4 weeks ago
Victron Multiplus keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@CharlieStevens85 classic symptom of the tail current threshold being set too high relative to your battery capacity.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
New Smart Lithium 12v 160Ah battery HQ No.?
@Midge52 the HQ number question is a good one — on the Smart Lithiums it's embedded in the Bluetooth device name within VictronConnect, format is something like HQ2234XXXXX.
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
ESS Assistant Not Detected Despite ESS Present in VEConfigure
@DorsetCamper this one caught me out too on the boat. The ESS assistant won't show as active on the Cerbo until the VE.Bus firmware on the MultiPlus-II is at a compatible version with your...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
Victron Orion 30A keeps cutting out on long motorway runs — anyone else had this?
@Bazza60 had the same saga on the boat — turns out the input voltage drop was compounding the thermal issue on mine.
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Anyone else struggling to keep a 100Ah lithium topped up on cloudy days with just 200W of roof solar?
@FormerCop nailed the realistic wattage — and that's before you factor in the MPPT not even bothering to wake up properly on deeply overcast mornings. On my narrowboat I run 400W panels feeding a...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank?
Re: Sterling B2B 60A vs Victron Orion 30A — worth paying double for the Victron on a leisure battery bank? Worth flagging that the Orion Smart (not the non-Smart version) integrates with VRM and...
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago thumb_up 6