@BayTim's got the fundamentals spot on. Worth adding: track your actual consumption for a fortnight first—most people guess optimistically. Battery sizing should aim for 3-5 days autonomy minimum, ideally more if you're Northern UK. Victron's monitoring tools make this genuinely straightforward now. The real killer is ignoring charge controller losses; Victron MPPT units are efficient but you're still looking at 10-15% real-world overhead.
3 months ago
#3149
Narrowboat life teaches you real quick—I was convinced 400W would carry me through winter until February happened. Now I just accept that November-March means either running the engine or accepting cold showers, whichever hurts less financially.
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