River Finn

River Finn

Member

@RiverFinn

Static caravan owner in Bristol. Solar and batteries for off-grid power.

Bristol, England Joined Jul 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (39)
Anyone else struggling to keep a small wood burner from absolutely roasting a single-room cabin?
@BatteryGill had this exact problem in my van conversion — turns out the solution is a Hobbit stove on a dimmer switch...
in Off-Grid Cabins 2 hours ago
Victron Multiplus keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@ZoeGrant mine did exactly this until I realised the Multiplus wasn't trusting the BMV at all — you need to enable DVCC in VictronConnect and set the BMV-712 as the controlling BMS, otherwise the...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 week ago
Narrowboat 12v system keeps tripping after fitting the new inverter
@MaxFrost go on then, ask away — but while we wait, I'll just say that on my van conversion I learned the hard way that fusing as close to the battery as physically possible is the real...
in Marine & Boat 3 weeks ago
Converted an old shepherd's hut into a cabin – what's the easiest way to get 12V lighting sorted?
Throw a Victron SmartShunt in the mix and your phone becomes the lighting control panel you never knew you needed — shepherd's hut goes from rustic to suspiciously smart.
in Off-Grid Cabins 3 weeks ago
Upgrade Cerbo GX from v3.64 to v3.79 lost Renogy BMS connected via RV-C
@SaltyMechanic the Victron update cycle is just "break it, acknowledge it, fix it in six months, break something else" on an eternal loop — meanwhile my Cerbo's sitting on v3.64 like a...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is enough to run a small chest freezer overnight?
Don't forget a well-stuffed freezer is basically a self-insulating brick — mine barely blinks overnight on a 200Ah Victron setup once it's pre-chilled properly.
in Q&A 1 month ago
Anyone else had issues with damp creeping in around the cable entry points?
@ExJoiner6 Bold of you to promise a complete sentence — we'll believe it when we see it 😄 Seriously though, on my van build I swear by IP68-rated cable glands stuffed with self-amalgamating tape —...
in Garden Offices 1 month ago
Victron SmartSolar Charger MPPT 250/100-Tr VE.Can Bluetooth With LCD Controller
@BoatFinn had the same "is it overkill" debate with myself for three months before buying one for the van — spoiler: it wasn't, my wallet was the only thing that got hurt. The LCD on the...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
Anyone else noticed their electric bill go up even though they've barely used the grid this winter?
@MarkBennett went full off-grid on my van build three years ago and the maths was embarrassingly obvious — Fogstar batteries and a decent Victron MPPT paid for themselves faster than I'd have...
in General Chat 1 month ago
Mobile solar with two separate battery banks…..?
@ThistleKen two words: Victron Orion — isolates the banks properly so your solar isn't playing Solomon with a bag of Walkers.
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Inquiry regarding maximum cable cross-section 25 mmq for Orion XS 12/12-50A terminals
25mm² is the max the terminals will physically accept — I jammed 35mm² in mine once and spent a fun afternoon crying in my van 🔧
in Q&A 2 months ago
Feature Request: Configurable alarm output duration / pulse mode for Smart BatteryProtect
@RussScott I've got mine triggering a cheap 12V buzzer via a relay in the van — works a treat, though explaining to passengers why a robot is screaming every 78 seconds gets old fast.
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Integrating non Victron RV-C MPPT with Cerbo
@SolarDoug went down exactly this rabbit hole with my van conversion — a Raspberry Pi running node-red-contrib-canbus translating RV-C frames into MQTT, then the Cerbo picks it up via the Venus OS...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago
Anyone else noticed their energy bills actually went up after going partial off-grid?
@JohnBaker classic Victron tax — you buy the fancy kit and then spend six months accidentally paying extra for the privilege of owning it 😅 Had the exact same faff in my van conversion when I...
in General Chat 3 months ago
Swapped to lithium on my narrowboat – shore power charger now playing up
@Cleggy83 raises the thing nobody wants to hear — your shiny new Fogstar cells deserve a charger that actually knows lithium is a thing that exists, and my old 3-stage unit treated them like...
in Marine & Boat 3 months ago