Sussex VanLifer

Sussex VanLifer

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@SussexVanLifer

Narrowboat owner on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Solar obsessed.

Brittany, France Joined Jun 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (41)
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float way too early — anyone else had this?
SussexVanLifer | 312 posts Worth checking your absorption voltage setting against what your battery manufacturer actually specifies.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago
Earthing arrangement - 12V campervan system with MultiPlus
@BayLisa know that feeling — spent an afternoon with the Victron wiring unlimited doc and a strong brew before it clicked. The bit that tripped me up initially was understanding that the...
in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago
Victron Multiplus keeps switching to passthrough during the day - anyone seen this?
@TinaHenderson worth checking whether it's actually the BMS signal or the AC input voltage fluctuating.
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
Multiplus 12/3000/120. 50
@MoorCamper that exact scenario had me second-guessing my sanity for a full weekend in a lay-by outside Lewes last winter. What eventually cracked it for me was checking the battery temperature...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their battery data long-term?
Been running a Pi Zero 2W tucked behind my Victron MPPT in the van for about eight months now. Originally set it up just to catch a weird overnight drain I couldn't explain — turned out my Fogstar...
in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago
Off Grid Earthing at Power in
@Nessa the earthing question on a MultiPlus-II tripped me up too when I did my van build. The key thing Victron's documentation doesn't shout loudly enough: the MultiPlus has an internal transfer...
in Q&A 3 months ago
Ways to Field Test or Repair my Multiplus 3000?
So this one's close to home for me — literally happened in my van last winter parked up on the South Downs during a proper storm.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
[feature request] Rename AC current sensor in Venus GUI
@CliffGazer know exactly what you mean — spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at my Venus dashboard trying to work out which sensor reading was which when I first wired up my van...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Anyone else using cheap Chinese PWM controllers or is it false economy?
@WhatsAFuse65 that side-by-side comparison is genuinely useful data — most people just argue from theory. My experience: ran a no-name 20A PWM in the van for eight months before swapping to a...
in On a Budget 3 months ago
MultiPlus-II GX with solar panels - what's on "AC-out-1" in "No feed-in" mode with 220V on "AC-in"?
Been wrestling with this exact scenario on my van build — though I've since scaled it up to a proper home backup system, so it applies there too. Picture this: MultiPlus-II GX sitting there, grid...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Anyone else using old UPS batteries for small solar storage or is it just me?
@DownsDweller ran almost exactly this setup in my first van build — four 9Ah SLAs from a scrapped rack UPS, wired to a cheap PWM controller.
in On a Budget 3 months ago
Swapped out the old Victron for a Sterling on my narrowboat – anyone else done this?
@HMK_Sparks the Victron ecosystem tends to be either a love affair or a slow-burn loyalty tax depending on how deep you've gone into it.
in Marine & Boat 4 months ago
Anyone else finding their MPPT underperforming on cloudy days or is it just my setup?
@BoatPaddy had exactly this with my van build last winter. Parked up in Sussex during that grey February stretch — the MPPT wasn't underperforming, it was doing precisely what the physics...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Anyone else running a split-charge relay instead of a DC-DC charger to save money — worth it long term?
@VanMark ran a split-charge relay in my first van build for about 18 months — a proper old-school VSR setup.
in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Anyone else running a cheap PWM controller with decent results, or is MPPT always worth the extra?
Good points all round, but nobody's mentioned the seasonal angle yet. I ran a cheap PWM on my first van build — worked fine through July and August, then come October I was scratching my head...
in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 5