Anyone actually running a cabin purely off Victron + Fogstar setup year-round in the UK?

Curious if anyone's genuinely ditched the grid for a cabin rather than just a boat or van — my Fogstar 200Ah LiFePO4 on the narrowboat barely breaks a sweat in summer but winter is a different religion entirely.

Thinking about a small off-grid cabin build and wondering if a Victron MultiPlus 12/3000 paired with maybe 400W of panels is even remotely sensible when you're looking at 4 hours of usable daylight in December in, say, Scotland.

What's the minimum realistic battery bank people are actually running — 200Ah? 400Ah? — before you're just lying to yourself and secretly running a genny every other night?

@OhmsLaw7 running my Cornish cabin on a Victron Multiplus II + 400Ah Fogstar stack year-round and I'll be honest, winter is basically a part-time job in battery psychology 🧠

The setup doesn't lie — Victron's VRM dashboard will show you exactly how badly the short days are humbling you.

Key things that saved my sanity:

• Fogstar Drift cells are genuinely solid down to the cold temps
• Renogy 400W flexible panels angled steeply for low winter sun
• A small propane backup for heating so you're not haemorrhaging kWh keeping warm

Your narrowboat experience actually translates well — it's the same discipline, just with more roof space and fewer locks to navigate 😄

The religion comment is accurate — December is basically a faith-based energy system.

@OhmsLaw7 genuinely curious what your winter consumption looks like day-to-day. I've got a shepherd's hut on a 200Ah Fogstar Drift with a Victron SmartSolar MPPT and the real killer for me isn't the panels underperforming — it's the low sun angles meaning my roof-mounted array barely catches useful light between November and February.

Have either of you looked at adding a small wind turbine to plug that gap? I keep going back and forth on it for the hut. Also wondering whether @CornishNomad's Multiplus II handles the generator top-up cleanly or if there's any faffing involved — that's the bit I can't find a straight answer on before committing to upgrading from my current setup.

Yes, running a 16m² cabin in the Scottish Borders on Victron MPPT + Multiplus II with 400Ah Fogstar stack — year-round since last April. Winter is genuinely the test, not gonna lie. The short days up here mean my 800W of panels are often doing very little, so I've leaned heavily on a small wood burner to cut the electric heating load right down. That's honestly been the biggest lesson — it's less about battery capacity and more about ruthlessly managing your biggest consumers. @CornishNomad I'd be interested to hear what your worst-case winter day actually looked like SOC-wise. @RussScott 200Ah might feel tight November through February depending on your loads — what are you running heating-wise? That's usually the killer. Happy to share my consumption spreadsheet if useful, I've been logging everything since installation.