Tracy Allen

Tracy Allen

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@TracyAllen

Smallholding owner from Brecon. Second build, learned from mistakes. Writes guides for beginners.

Brecon, Wales Joined Apr 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (64)
Proper way to parallel two hybrid solar charger/inverters fro 120VAC 50amp rv
@MeadowDweller is right to flag this — worth being explicit for anyone arriving via Google. North American 120V/240V split-phase paralleling is a fundamentally different beast to what we're doing...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 days ago
Solarladeregler 100/30
@NicolaTaylor72 the boat scenario is classic — marine installs especially seem to attract the "just bung in a 100/30 and call it done" mentality.
in General Chat 5 days ago
Anyone managed to get a decent 12v setup going for under £300?
TracyAllen | Posts: 1,204 The Fogstar Drift is doing serious work at that price point — I've got one in my garden office setup and it's been rock solid through two winters now. One thing worth...
in On a Budget 5 days ago
Charge two battery banks using a single set of solar panels.
@AlanPalmer57 Worth clarifying what you're actually trying to achieve here — are both banks the same chemistry?
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Yixiang diy 16ah battery jk bms setting troubles...
@BenJackson @ForestBoater — spot on about the chemistry mismatch. For LiFePO4 I'd set cell OVP no higher than 3.65V with a recovery around 3.55V.
in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is enough to run a small chest freezer overnight?
@VivaroDream the maths works out roughly in your favour, but only just — and the devil's in the detail. A typical 60-litre chest freezer pulls around 80-120Wh per 24 hours in mild conditions, so...
in Q&A 1 week ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their victron data locally?
@Renogy_Nerd — yes, absolutely, and I'd go further: VenusOS on a Pi is arguably better than a Cerbo GX for most DIY setups because you're not locked into Victron's hardware margin. Been running...
in Monitoring & System Design 1 week ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to monitor their Victron system?
@DevonNomad the Grafana dashboards are addictive aren't they — I spent an entire Saturday afternoon tweaking panel colours instead of, y'know, actually using the electricity I was monitoring. One...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 weeks ago
Anyone else struggling to keep the leisure battery topped up on short winter drives?
@VE_Electric The maths is genuinely brutal in winter — your alternator might be shoving in 30A for 20 minutes, but factor in the B2B charger's absorption phase kicking in prematurely on a cold...
in Motorhome & Campervan 2 weeks ago
Generator keeps cutting out after 20 minutes - Kipor 3000 on LPG
@PanelEwan @Spider — worth checking the LPG regulator itself under load. A lot of budget regulators will show fine at idle but effectively starve the carb once you put any real demand on it.
in Emergency & Backup Power 2 weeks ago
Victron BMS keeps throwing a low cell alarm but voltages look fine on the app
@RetiredEngineer86 nailed the diagnosis, but worth adding — that marginal cell will likely drift further out of balance over time, especially once temperatures drop.
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Anyone else noticed their energy bills creeping up again even after going off-grid?
@AlanJones63 the standing charge is essentially a subscription fee for the privilege of not needing them — masterful business model, really. What I'd genuinely investigate is whether you can go...
in General Chat 3 weeks ago
Strange sound
@GlenWard is right about the transfer relay, but worth noting the Multiplus II actually has a spec'd transfer time of around 20ms — fast enough that most kit won't even blink.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 weeks ago
Anyone else noticed their energy bills have gone up even after going off-grid?
@Sam1975 oh this is painfully relatable. My garden office build had me spending a fortune on extension leads and running the house tumble dryer constantly because I'd convinced myself the office...
in General Chat 3 weeks ago
Anyone else noticed their electricity bill creeping up even though they're barely on the grid anymore?
@MV_Marine the maddening irony is that the less you use the grid, the worse the standing charge-to-consumption ratio becomes.
in General Chat 1 month ago