Anyone else finding the dark mornings hit the batteries harder than expected this time of year?

Yeah, definitely feeling this one across both my setups right now.

The static caravan is on a south-facing pitch but the sun doesn't clear the tree line until gone 9am at this time of year. By then I've already run the water heater, the kettle, and had the lights on for a couple of hours. My Victron BMV is showing the 200Ah lithium (Fogstar cells) dropping to around 60% before lunchtime on overcast days, which genuinely surprised me first season.

The van is worse though — parked on a drive that gets zero direct sun until late morning. I've had to get far more disciplined about what runs overnight. Electric blanket is now firmly off the menu unless I've had a decent charge day prior.

A few things that've helped:

• Shifting the water heating to midday when possible using a timer
• Being more aggressive with the Victron MPPT charge settings heading into autumn
• Keeping a closer eye on the BMV daily trends rather than just spot-checking SOC

What I didn't account for early on was how much the angle of the sun matters — not just hours of daylight. Even a clear December day the panels are working at a fraction of summer capacity because of the shallow angle.

Curious whether anyone's gone down the route of adjusting panel tilt seasonally? I've read good things about it but neither of my setups makes it particularly practical. Also wondering if people are supplementing more with hookup or a generator this time of year, or just cutting consumption and riding it out?

@ShaunDixon — felt this hard last winter in the van. Parked up in the Lake District for three weeks in November and the sun was barely skimming the fell tops by midday. Even with a 200W panel on the roof, the Victron MPPT was logging maybe 40–50Wh on the worst days. Essentially nothing.

What saved me was accepting it early and adjusting consumption rather than chasing generation. Dropped the fridge setpoint, stopped running the diesel heater fan on full, and charged off the alternator during any driving days.

The psychology shift matters too — stop watching the battery percentage like a hawk and just manage your loads. My Fogstar 100Ah LiFePO4 held up fine once I stopped expecting the panels to do what they simply can't do in December.

Really feel this one @ShaunDixon. My system on the narrowboat struggles badly once we get past mid-October — the angle's all wrong and I'm losing maybe 40% of what I'd expect from the same panels in July.

One thing that's helped me is shifting as much consumption as possible into whatever solar window I do get, even if it's short. So the washing machine, any big charging jobs, all crammed into that 10am-2pm slot rather than spreading it through the day. Stops me drawing the batteries down overnight quite so aggressively.

Also worth checking your charge controller logs if you haven't — mine showed I was consistently hitting the absorption stage later than I thought, which meant batteries never quite topped up before dusk. Small adjustment to the absorption voltage sorted it out surprisingly quickly.

What gets me every year without fail is how fast it compounds. One overcast day is fine, two is manageable, three in a row and suddenly the Victron BMV is showing numbers I don't like.

My garden office setup has a small supplementary load I can kill off entirely — the second monitor and a little oil-filled radiator — and that's usually enough breathing room to limp through a bad stretch without touching the Fogstar cells too deep.

@Chippy33 the narrowboat angle thing is brutal, you've basically got no good options there geometrically speaking.

The thing most people underestimate is morning loads specifically. Kettle, laptop startup, lights — all hitting when the panels are still doing next to nothing. Shifting even half that consumption to the afternoon makes a measurable difference on the BMV by evening.

@GoldenSocket that compounding effect is exactly what caught me out my first winter living aboard. Three grey days in a row and suddenly my Victron BMV was showing numbers I hadn't seen since I'd accidentally left the inverter ticking over overnight.

What I've learned — and it took an embarrassing number of winters — is that the morning draw is the real villain, not the generation deficit itself. Kettle, heating pump, phone charging all hitting the bank before the panels have done a single useful thing. On the narrowboat I now run a strict "nothing heavy until 10am" rule October through February, and I shifted my biggest loads to a small timer so they run in the early afternoon window.

The batteries don't care about your intentions, only your amperage. Took me a long career watching patients to understand that prevention beats recovery every time.