Powering my garden office off-grid - is a 200Ah lithium setup enough for a normal working day?

by Tom · 5 days ago 69 views 0 replies
Tom
Tom
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5 days ago
#8091

Finally getting round to sorting proper power for my 4x3m insulated garden office rather than running that embarrassing extension lead across the lawn. I'm planning a 200Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery (the Fogstar Drift looks decent for the money), two 200W panels on a south-facing shed roof, and a Victron 75/15 MPPT. Total cost is coming in around £600-700 which feels reasonable.

On a typical day I'm running a laptop (45W), a couple of monitors (60W combined), a desk lamp (10W LED), and a small Wi-Fi access point (8W). That's roughly 120W continuous, so maybe 960Wh over an 8-hour day. The 200Ah lithium gives me around 2.4kWh usable at 100% DoD, so on paper it looks fine even accounting for a grey day or two.

What I'm not sure about is winter. I'm in Yorkshire so November through February can be pretty grim - short days, panels caked in frost, the lot. Has anyone run a similar setup through a proper northern winter without needing a backup charger? I don't really want to wire in a mains hookup if I can avoid it, but I'm wondering if I'm being naïve.

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