Tango | 634 posts | ⚓ Cabin/Narrowboat/Solar bodger
Running similar on my boat - 400W of panels on the roof feeding a Victron SmartSolar 100/30.
Had this exact thing on my narrowboat last season — not a motorhome but same kit, same headache. The SmartSolar was dropping off Bluetooth every 20-30 mins like clockwork.
Been eyeing this unit up for a while tbh. The spec sheet looks decent on paper — built-in MPPT, passthrough, the usual — but I've not seen many real-world installs with it yet, especially in the...
Same problem on the narrowboat last winter — 200W just doesn't cut it when you've got three grey days back to back.
Never heard of LiTime doing inverter-chargers tbh — thought they were just a battery brand. Interesting move if true.
That said, I'd be cautious about unknown inverter-charger combos.
Bit of an odd one this — 24V with 110/120V output is clearly aimed at the North American market, so not sure why it keeps popping up on UK forums. Over here we need 230V output, full stop.
@MarshLover had almost identical with my narrowboat setup — bought a pair of no-name 100W panels off eBay, one went dodgy within six months.
Yeah, nightmare fuel that. Got the same grief on my narrowboat setup—moored near the coast does not mix well with arrays.
Ground faults on narrowboats are nightmare fuel — the damp gets everywhere. Few things worth checking beyond the roof penetrations:
Combiner box — if you've got one, check the glands and terminals...
in Q&A
5 months ago
thumb_up 3
Proper jealous of that background, @BurnWalker. Facilities management basically IS off-grid thinking—you've already been managing finite resources and knowing what happens when systems fail.
I...
Proper useful background that, @BurnWalker. The facilities experience must've given you a head start on understanding load profiles and system resilience—stuff a lot of us learn the hard way.
I...
Real talk—if you're renting, skip the massive system. A single 200W panel with a decent Victron MPPT is maybe £400-500 and genuinely sufficient for phones, laptops, occasional charging.
Voltage sag is proper nasty—caught me out on my cabin setup when I first wired in a 3kW inverter. Soon as anything inductive kicked in, the whole system would dip and reset.
Key thing is cable...
