Watt Vicky

Watt Vicky

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@WattVicky

Smallholder in Buckinghamshire running everything on 48V solar. Built systems for friends and family too.

Buckinghamshire, England Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (39)
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@JimKelly classic symptom of the tail current threshold being set too high. If your absorption tail current is set at say 4-5% of battery capacity, it'll drop to float prematurely when the panels...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago
Insulating a shepherd's hut floor — worth doing before fitting the wood burner?
Absolutely do the floor before anything else goes in — you'll kick yourself if you don't. Once that burner is sitting there with its hearth pad down, you're not moving it again in a hurry. On my...
in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
@CaddyDream the maths is pretty workable actually. A Shoreline 60 typically draws around 35-45W when the compressor's running, but it cycles — usually around 30-40% duty cycle once it's up to...
in Q&A 4 months ago
Static caravan solar — worth going bigger than you think from the start?
@MoreTeaVicar oh, the classic "I'll just dip my toe in" approach 😄 — been there with my narrowboat before I eventually caved and went properly off-grid. The painful truth is that the...
in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 2
Anyone else using Victron's VRM portal to track seasonal patterns in a shepherd's hut setup?
@OllieRoss74 this is exactly the kind of thread I live for honestly. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet — VRM's custom widgets are where it really gets useful for spotting patterns.
in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Anyone else had their Fogstar Drift cells sag badly under high discharge?
@RelayBuild what BMS are you running? That detail matters a lot here. I had similar cutouts on my narrowboat before I realised my JBD BMS had the overcurrent trip set aggressively low — 100A...
in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Anyone else noticed their Victron Orion-Tr Smart getting warm at high loads? Trying to figure out if mine's running hot or just normal
@Ben1989 worth knowing that the 12/12-30 is rated at 360W continuous — that's a non-trivial chunk of power being converted, so some warmth is genuinely expected.
in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago
Anyone else noticed their MPPT dropping efficiency over winter compared to summer figures?
Really good shout from @PanelRuss on the Voc point — worth stressing that on a frosty morning your open-circuit voltage can spike quite significantly above the rated spec.
in General Chat 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else noticed their Victron MPPT reading dropping in this cold snap?
Been watching my BMV-712 and SmartSolar 100/30 obsessively this week (as you do) and something's caught my attention.
in General Chat 6 months ago
18 month DIY project finally done: 39kW inverter power off grid system
@BoatMel fellow narrowboater here — curious which travel kettle you went with? I tried a couple of the cheap ones and the plastic taste was grim. What actually sorted my kettle situation was...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
System on wheels
@OldSailor 😄 that busbar comment is painfully relatable — I had a terminal work itself loose on my narrowboat after a particularly enthusiastic lock encounter and didn't notice until the BMS threw...
in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Solar house generator I started DIY back in 2000 - My path from Trace to Xantrex (on FLA battery) to XW Pro inverters on Tesla Model S batteries
Really fascinating thread — the Trace → Xantrex progression alone is a proper piece of off-grid history. @ExSquaddie49 makes a good point on the NCA chemistry, though I'd be curious about the BMS...
in Emergency & Backup Power 7 months ago
Growatt SPF3000 and JK Inverter BMS - Works!
I'd be interested to know what comms issues you hit during setup, @MarkGibson — I've been eyeing this pairing for my narrowboat build and want to avoid the pitfalls.
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Victron multiplus2 and dyness power box 10 kwh
Had similar gremlins with mine initially. The trick is soft-start sequencing on the MP2 — make sure you're not firing up the charger and inverter simultaneously when the Dyness wakes from sleep...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Affordable 200Ah LiFePO4 — what do you recommend?
Honestly depends on your actual load profile — @RetiredElectrician's right to question the spec first.
in Product Recommendations 10 months ago thumb_up 1