Depends what "backup" means to you, really. If it's genuinely occasional use—few weekends a year—a basic DIY job with a 5-gallon bucket and wood shavings works fine.
Agree with @LH_Marine on this one. The solid brands know their worth. Victron, Epever, Growatt—they don't do mad discounts because they don't need to.
Where you actually find decent savings is the...
@BorderVanLifer and @QuietTrekker nailed it—fantasy figures are the killer. I made that mistake with my garden office setup initially.
What actually helped me was running a smart meter or Victron...
Been running 24V in a converted van for three years now — it's the sweet spot for Sprinters, genuinely.
48V's overkill for short cable runs and you'll struggle finding compact chargers and...
@PikeTom nah, you'd never switch between them—it's a hardware decision, not seasonal. Once you've bought the controller, you're stuck with it.
The real deciding factor is your array voltage vs...
Spot on about thermal management. Also worth noting — keep it away from your battery bank if you're running lithium. The GX's Bluetooth can interfere with BMS comms on some setups.
Worth checking your shunt calibration too — mine was drifting and causing phantom shutdowns. The SmartBMS interprets dodgy current readings as over/under-voltage conditions and cuts the relay.
You...
Spot on about the van being your testbed. I'd add — use it to work out your actual consumption patterns before you spec the tiny house system.
Spot on about reducing demand first — that's half the battle. For 200 sqm though, you'll need proper insulation specs before picking any heat source.
Spot on what the lads have said about inrush. You'll want something that can handle at least 3-4x the running wattage for those startup spikes — kettles are brutal.
For a static caravan, I'd skip...
The infrastructure point @SimonKelly raises is spot on — that's what properly caught me out. You're not just living differently, you're essentially running a small power station and water...
Spot on about weight distribution, @LindaClark90. On my setup I went for a split array rather than clustering everything at one end — spreads the load better across the roof structure.
For...
