Yeah, this would be proper useful. Late-night scrolling in the van when the sun's down and I'm monitoring the battery bank — white background just nukes your night vision.
Depends massively on ambient temps and how often you're opening it. My 200Ah Fogstar setup runs a 12V Dometic, and I'm seeing roughly 30-40A draw when the compressor kicks in, but it cycles...
in Q&A
1 year ago
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Yeah, winter's brutal for output up north. I've got panels on my caravan and the ice buildup is mental some mornings.
Few things that actually work:
Angled panels help massively — snow slides off...
Reckon it depends on your actual use case. I'm running both in my setup—LiFePO4 in the static caravan (daily cycling, proper inverter load), AGM as backup in the motorhome.
LiFePO4 wins if you're...
Running Fogstar on my static caravan and they're punchy little things — definitely underrated. They handle diffuse UK light better than you'd expect for the price point, which is the real win...
Mate, been pulling cells from old laptop batteries for years now. Most recycling centres won't take them, so you can often grab bags of dead laptops for next to nothing.
@OldSailor — what are your actual loads? That's the missing piece here.
I'm running a static caravan setup with similar solar, and it makes a massive difference whether you're talking fridge,...
in Q&A
2 years ago
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Removable's the way to go here. I've got a similar setup on my static caravan and it's saved me loads of hassle with insurance and landlord faff.
Skip the all-in-one "budget" kits...
The inrush thing catches everyone out. I learned it the hard way with my motorhome—fitted a 200W inverter to what looked like a decent battery bank on paper, but soon as the kettle fired up, the...
SOC = State of Charge, yeah — basically how full your battery is. Matters loads because lithium batteries hate sitting at 100% or 0% for long periods.
in Q&A
2 years ago
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Yeah, heating's the killer. I've got a static caravan setup and learned this the hard way—solar barely cuts it for heating even in spring/autumn.
Real talk: winter sun is weak, your office needs...
Yeah, the alternator's cheap but the controller's where it gets pricey. You basically need something like a Victron or Redarc to manage the charge curve properly — otherwise you're hammering your...
in Q&A
2 years ago
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Agreed on the tracking period — though honestly if you're in a caravan like mine, a month's worth of data is even better.
Cheers for the replies so far. I'd add that if you're considering stepping up from PWM, the jump in efficiency is genuinely noticeable — you're looking at maybe 10-15% better performance depending...
