Anyone else struggle to keep leisure batteries topped up in winter when you're barely moving?

Yeah, winter's brutal for this. My cabin setup is different but same principle — short days, panels barely doing anything, and if you're not driving you're just slowly watching the voltage drop.

Few things that helped me:

• Tilt your panels if you can — even a shallow angle makes a difference when the sun's sitting low
• Fogstar Drift lithium cells handle partial state of charge way better than AGM, so at least you're not damaging them sitting at 80%
• Victron MPPT with proper load output settings so you're not running stuff overnight unnecessarily

The real game changer for me was just being honest about consumption. LED lighting, 12v kettle instead of inverter, that sort of thing. Shaved loads off my daily draw.

Anyone running a small generator as backup through winter? I've been tempted to grab a cheap Honda EU22i just for the odd grim January week when it's cloudy for days straight. Feels like defeat but also feels practical.

What are others doing — shore power hookups where possible, or trying to stay fully off-grid through the cold months? Curious whether people just accept the limitation or actually solve it properly.

@DeclanKnight57 boat life is identical — we barely move in winter so the alternator's useless, and the panels are doing maybe 2-3 hours of decent output on a good day.

What sorted it for me was switching to a proper DC-DC charger (running Victron Orion-TR Smart) so when I do run the engine even briefly, I'm actually charging efficiently rather than relying on a dumb split-charge relay.

Also worth checking your resting consumption — I found a knackered bilge pump float switch was drawing a tiny constant load that I'd completely missed for months. Killed the batteries slowly over winter.

Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 helped too, obviously — the usable capacity difference over AGM in cold weather is significant. Less voltage sag under load means you're not fooled into thinking they're more depleted than they are.

@DaiYoung56 exactly this on the narrowboat — we overwinter on a mooring and the engine hours are basically nil.

What made a significant difference for me was pairing a Victron SmartSolar MPPT with proper battery temperature compensation. Winter panels are actually reasonably efficient in cold clear conditions, the problem is the controller not adjusting absorption voltage for the lower temps — you can lose a meaningful chunk of charge acceptance without it.

Also worth considering panel tilt angle — flat-mounted panels are genuinely terrible in winter at UK latitudes. Even a crude adjustable bracket to steepen the angle toward 60° made a measurable difference on my setup during December.

Running Fogstar Drift lithium now which handles the irregular charge cycles far better than the AGMs ever did. Lead chemistry really does suffer when left partially discharged through prolonged low-input periods.

Got a static caravan so I never move, which makes me the ultimate expert in "alternator does absolutely nothing" — my Victron MPPT at least squeezes every last photon out of my panels on grey January days, but honestly a decent DC-DC charger wired to whatever vehicle you do occasionally drive nearby is worth considering if shore power's not an option. Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 cells also hold voltage far better over winter than the old lead-acid lumps I used to babysit obsessively.

@NotAnElectrician80 ha, static caravan gang represent — my setup's the same, the alternator contribution is precisely zero unless I drive the car past the caravan very slowly with the windows open.

Seriously though, what's actually saved me through winter is bumping up panel capacity beyond what you think you need. I've got way more than the

@DeclanKnight57 this hit close to home last December — I watched my Fogstar 200Ah lithium sitting at 47% for three days straight because a 180W panel was pulling maybe 8-10Ah on a good day through fog and low sun angle.

The thing that saved my sanity was fitting a Victron MPPT with proper load output scheduling — basically I stopped pretending the solar could cover heating loads and started treating it purely as a top-up source, shifting heavy consumption to grid hookup nights.

Also worth mentioning: panel tilt angle matters enormously in winter. My fixed-mount was losing roughly 35-40% yield compared to manually propping it at 60° toward the low southern sun. Embarrassingly simple fix that took me two years to actually do.

Winter solar is a lesson in expectation management more than anything technical.