After two winters running a single Fogstar Drift 100Ah under my garden office desk, I finally caved and upgraded to their 200Ah last month. The original setup was borderline — 400W of Renogy panels on a 10° tilt, Victron SmartSolar 100/30, and by January I was regularly hitting 15% SOC by 7am before the panels even woke up. Kettle, monitor, and a small oil rad on a thermostat were just about killing it overnight.
The swap itself was straightforward enough — same footprint, same terminals — but I had to reconfigure the battery profile in VictronConnect and recalibrate the BMV-712 shunt. Took about an hour of faffing rather than the 20 minutes I'd naively planned for. No drama, just the usual "one more setting" rabbit hole.
Now sitting at 58% SOC on a grey January morning after the same overnight load, which feels like a revelation honestly. Payback math looks reasonable at current Fogstar pricing, though I've seen the 200Ah creep up a few quid since I ordered.
Anyone else made a similar jump on a static install rather than a van build? Curious whether the bigger bank actually changed your behaviour around power use, or whether you just end up drawing more because the buffer feels comfortable.