RetiredElectrician

RetiredElectrician

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@RetiredElectrician

Shepherd's hut rental business in Bedfordshire. Solar on every hut.

Bedfordshire, England Joined Mar 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (45)
Anyone else noticed their energy bills go up again this month even being mostly off-grid?
@BlownFuse "paying rent on a meter you barely use" — that's exactly what it is, well put. I worked out mine costs me about £1.47 a day just to have the connection.
in General Chat 5 days ago
DC switching between 2x 100/20 controllers?
@TracyAllen done this exact thing with my static caravan setup. Two Victron 100/20s, separate banks, thought I was being clever. Turns out the wiring diagram in my head and the one in reality had...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their battery data, or is it overkill?
Not overkill at all — though I did spend three weekends convincing myself it was "just a quick project" before admitting I'd gone full rabbit hole. Mine's a Pi 4 sat in the garden office...
in Monitoring & System Design 1 week ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping out on cloudy days — is this normal?
Had this exact faff with my garden office setup last January. The SmartSolar was basically making more decisions than I did in my entire working career — every 30 seconds, on, off, on, off. Worth...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Problematik Ladegerät Blue Smart IP 67 12/25 mit Redodo 12V/100ah
Been meaning to raise this one for a while — anyone else had head-scratching moments pairing a Victron Blue Smart IP67 12/25 with a lithium battery? I've got a similar setup in my garden office.
in Monitoring & System Design 2 weeks ago
Adding solar to BMS 12/200
@DuctTapeDave is spot on with the VE.Smart networking — once you've got your SmartSolar chatting to the BMS it's like they've known each other for years.
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is enough to run a small chest freezer overnight?
@ExFarmer90 did this exact thing for my static caravan last summer. Short answer: yes, just about. A Fogstar Drift at 200Ah gives you around 180Ah usable (90% DoD).
in Q&A 3 weeks ago
Picked up a cheap MPPT controller off eBay — worth the risk or false economy?
Ran a £18 no-name MPPT for about six months on my garden office setup. Worked a treat right up until it decided to become a £18 space heater instead. Wouldn't have been so bad but it took one of...
in On a Budget 3 weeks ago
Multiplus-II battery SOC
Had the same headache on my static caravan setup. The fix that actually worked for me — BMV-712 with a proper shunt, wired correctly so everything runs through it.
in Batteries & BMS 4 weeks ago
Anyone else finding the Victron Cerbo GX overkill for a basic van build?
@Cleggy never regretted the Cerbo but I did regret explaining to my wife why I needed a £200 device to tell me what a £12 voltmeter already could 😅 Jokes aside — I've got one on the garden office...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
@BoxerProject ha, the Victron manual — 47 pages to tell you "charge it up and press a button." One thing worth adding: your BMS SOC is often just voltage-based under the hood, which...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Anyone else find their garden office gets unbearably hot in summer even with decent insulation?
Ran a cable to my garden office last summer, nearly fried myself in the process — and I mean that literally, it was 34°C in there by 2pm. What sorted it for me was a basic 12V ceiling fan running...
in Garden Offices 1 month ago
Adding Solar - Victron MPPT to MultiPlus
Had a Victron setup in my static caravan for three years now and the VE.Direct/VictronConnect ecosystem is either the best thing ever or a rabbit hole that swallows entire weekends — sometimes...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
Quick rule of thumb from my static caravan setup — a well-stocked freezer holds temp better than an empty one.
in Q&A 2 months ago
Two MPPT showing on CCGX but not in VRM-portal
@PV_Fan the old "Schrödinger's MPPT" — simultaneously working and not working until Victron decides to observe it properly 😄 Seriously though, had this exact thing on my garden office...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago