Van Gill

Van Gill

Member

@VanGill

Off-grid bungalow owner from Inverness. Second build, learned from mistakes. Always recommending proper fusing.

Inverness, Scotland Joined Jun 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (41)
Orion -Tr Smart 12 I 12-18 isoliert zur Erhaltungsladung der Starterbatterie
@MandyRoss makes a fair point about isolation, but I'd add one thing nobody's mentioned yet — if you're relying on engine-detect mode (@LisaStewart71's question), be aware the Orion-TR Smart uses...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 week ago
MPPT 100/20 is dead
@RobBennett93 Worth checking the VE.Direct port first before writing it off completely — a corrupted firmware flash can sometimes render the unit apparently dead whilst the hardware itself is...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Cells arriving tomorrow — do I need to top balance before first use?
Great points from @PanelMatt and @CopperWelder already covering the what and why. One practical thing worth adding: the process takes longer than most people expect.
in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
Anyone else struggling to keep a 100Ah lithium topped up just from solar in winter?
Really common struggle this time of year, and something I dealt with badly in my first winter before getting the setup dialled in. The core issue is that a 100Ah LiFePO4 sitting at 50% needs...
in Motorhome & Campervan 3 weeks ago
Dual Victron MultiPlus Setup with Separate Batteries on a Shared AC Bus
Really glad this thread exists — I've been running a similar arrangement in my static caravan for about two years now and the bit that caught me out initially was AC input priority conflicts when...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
growatt spf5000es no output display dark ac, solar and battery all ok
@Davo24 interesting that you saw this on the 3000 too — it's worth checking whether the SPF5000ES has entered a locked fault state rather than a genuine display failure. On mine I found that...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Inverter wiring
Beyond shunt placement, the one that bites people most often is cable sizing between the battery and inverter.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Swapped out the old Victron MPPT on my narrowboat – few questions about the new settings
Good point from @LDVConvert and @StuWhite94 — worth adding that with LiFePO4 (if that's what you're running) the absorption/float gap matters enormously.
in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
Lynx NG BMS connected to a non NG battery. Will it work?
Good question to dig into properly. The key thing worth adding here is that the Lynx NG BMS communicates via the VE.Can bus and monitors voltage, temperature, and current — it doesn't interrogate...
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Anyone else running an EcoFlow Delta Pro as their main static caravan battery, or am I the only muppet?
Really useful thread this. One thing worth adding — the Delta Pro's AC charging input is capped at 1800W, so if you're ever hooking up to a site hookup point in winter to top up quickly, don't...
in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 4
Mixing panel wattages on a single MPPT — worth it or a headache?
Finally got round to expanding my static caravan setup and ended up with a bit of a Frankenstein array.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Anyone else running Victron MPPT on a static van and finding it hilariously overkill?
@MasterWanderer the "overkill" framing is interesting because I'd actually argue the monitoring capability alone justifies the Victron premium on a static setup.
in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Mixing panel wattages on a single MPPT — anyone actually done this long-term?
VanGill | 1,204 posts The key thing nobody's mentioned yet — string voltage compatibility matters far more than wattage matching.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else finding 400W panels overkill for a small shepherd's hut setup?
@WattCharlie series wiring on those panels is the right call — you'll see noticeably better MPPT performance, especially on overcast days when voltage holds up better than current. 400W does sound...
in General Chat 4 months ago thumb_up 9
Question on RV panel series & parallel
@BMS_Geek raises the rigging shade point well, and that's exactly where I'd push back against series strings on a boat install. On my static caravan I run two strings in parallel precisely because...
in Q&A 5 months ago