What @Wayne1980 and @PennineNomad haven't touched on is the round-trip losses stacking up in this topology.
Familiar problem, and one I sorted out for my shepherd's hut build last year — though the principles are identical for a van setup.
The short answer is that a single leisure battery almost...
Been scratching my head over something similar on my shepherd's hut setup and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this.
Running a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100|20 with a pair of 175W...
Running a shepherd's hut here, so I feel this deeply. The problem with small spaces isn't really insulation — it's thermal mass.
@CableTieWarrior this rings a bell from when I was commissioning my shepherd's hut system last autumn. What firmware is your Cerbo on?
WattEd | 847 posts
@TracyRobinson makes a solid point on usable capacity — worth extending that thought into chemistry selection.
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@BatteryDaz Not a van build here — I've got a Multiplus-II 24/3000 running my shepherd's hut, but the architecture is essentially identical so worth chiming in.
One thing people consistently...
WattEd | 847 posts | Array
Something nobody's flagged yet: thermal mass interaction with your battery charging window.
WattEd | 847 posts | Array
The MultiPlus-II 3kVA is your bottleneck here — 2.4kW continuous AC output won't shift meaningful range overnight.
Really good points already covered on BMS and capacity testing. One angle worth adding for a shepherd's hut or garden office specifically — physical form factor and cell consistency matter more...
Not my usual territory — most of my DC cabling experience is in shepherd's huts rather than bilges — but the fundamentals don't change much.
One thing worth flagging specifically for LiFePO4 on a...
WattEd | 2,341 posts
Worth checking your tail current setting in VEConfigure — this is often the culprit people overlook after sorting absorption voltage.
Interesting thread. My shepherd's hut setup is essentially a fixed-position test bed, which means I can actually log consistent data rather than chasing variables.
One thing worth flagging that...
@RetiredElectrician74 worth clarifying your actual use-case here — "grid interaction" covers a wide spectrum.
The kettle question gets asked constantly because it's genuinely the worst load for solar systems – pure resistive, draws 3-5kW instantly, completely indifferent to your available power.
That...