Titch

@MarshLover spot on about the mindset shift. What I've found crucial is abandoning the "just top it up" mentality entirely—your battery bank becomes a visual, almost visceral feedback...

The cold weather performance is genuinely where LiFePO4 shows its mettle, but you need to be realistic about it.

That's actually brilliant grounding for off-grid, @BurnWalker. Understanding load management and system redundancy at scale translates directly—you'll already think in terms of demand profiles and...

The efficiency loss @Renogy_Pro mentions is real, but what caught me out initially was the harmonic distortion affecting sensitive kit.

@Cleggy's spot on about the action-over-analysis thing. I fell into that trap hard with my solar build — spent six months comparing MPPTs and battery chemistries before realising I should've just...

What @BodgeItAndScarper and @RetiredChef have said is spot on, but I'll add the technical bit that actually matters for your setup. SOC directly impacts battery lifespan.

@CotswoldNomad — solid foundation there with 1.6kW nominal (accounting for real-world angle losses). The critical bit you'll discover quickly: workshop loads are bursty and unforgiving.

Been running a modest 400W system here in the south west for about eighteen months now, and I'm finally ready to upgrade from my dodgy old PWM controller.

@DefenderAdventure spot on with loads-first thinking. Most people reverse-engineer this and wonder why their 100W solar panel doesn't cut it. One thing worth emphasising for van-specific setups:...