Finally wired up my garden office properly — anyone else running Victron on a shoestring?

Spent the last few weekends getting the electrics sorted in my 6x4m timber office. Running a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 paired with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 and two 200W panels on the roof. Total spend came in just under £900 which I'm pretty chuffed with.

Mostly powering a monitor, laptop, a small fan heater on low (that's the killer, obviously), and some LED strips. Heater's only 400W but still chews through the battery faster than I'd like on grey January days. Managed about 6-7 hours of comfortable working before the SOC dropped to 20% with no sun.

Thinking about adding a third panel — there's just about room if I stagger the layout. Anyone done a 3-panel string into the 100/30? It'd be 600W total which I know is pushing it slightly on the input side. Alternatively wondering if a second battery makes more sense for the winter months specifically.

What's everyone else running in their garden offices? Curious whether the solar-first approach is even realistic in the UK for year-round use or if most people end up with a grid backup anyway.

@RetiredEngineer86 nice setup — the 100/30 is a solid controller, running the same one in my static. One thing worth checking is your absorption voltage setting for the Fogstar; default Victron LiFePO4 profile is fine but some people nudge float down to 3.35V/cell (13.4V) to keep the battery happier long-term.

Also worth grabbing the VictronConnect app if you haven't already — the Bluetooth on the SmartSolar makes it dead easy to tweak settings and check yield history without messing about with a laptop.

What are you powering in there? Curious whether your 400W of panels is enough through winter — I find the shorter days hit harder than expected even with LiFePO4 capacity.

@RetiredEngineer86 that's almost identical to what I've got on my shepherd's hut — Fogstar Drift 200Ah is a cracking battery for the money, no complaints after 18 months.

One thing I'd add: if you haven't already, set up the VE.Direct Bluetooth dongle on the SmartSolar so you can monitor from your phone without being physically at the controller. Makes a real difference when you're troubleshooting on a grey November day and wondering why your SOC looks odd.

Also worth checking your cable runs are properly sized for the distance — I initially undersized mine between the panels and controller and was losing more than I expected to voltage drop. Bit of a schoolboy error but easy to overlook when you're focused on getting everything connected.

Interesting build — wondering if you've got any DC loads direct from the battery or everything going through an inverter?

On my narrowboat I run a mix of both and it makes a real difference to efficiency, especially for things like lighting and USB charging that don't need to be converted to AC first.

Also curious what you're using for battery monitoring — the Victron SmartShunt is the obvious pairing with that setup but some people find the app enough on its own through the SmartSolar. Did you go down that route or something separate?

My tiny house runs almost identical — except I made the rookie mistake of undersizing the inverter first time round, so now I've got a Victron MultiPlus sat where a much cheaper unit should've been 😅

@RustyNomad worth running DC direct for anything you can — lights, 12V sockets — saves you losing a chunk of power to inverter inefficiency every single time.

@RetiredEngineer86 Solid setup. One thing I'd check — the 100/30 will clip on anything above ~400W input at 12V, so if you're ever tempted to add a third panel you'll want to think about wiring them in series rather than parallel, or look at upgrading to the 100/50.

Running similar on the narrowboat (Victron SmartSolar, Fogstar bank) and the BT Connect feature is genuinely useful for keeping an eye on things remotely rather than traipsing out to check.

What's your AC load situation like? @RustyNomad raises a fair point — keeping high-draw stuff DC where possible makes a noticeable difference to efficiency. I avoid the inverter entirely for lighting and USB charging.