Upgrade to my remote site with Victron

Been running a Victron setup at my static caravan site for about three years now, and last autumn I finally bit the bullet on a proper upgrade rather than just patching things together with cable ties and hope.

The site is roughly 40 minutes from home, which is the real killer — every fault diagnosis means a trip out. That's what pushed me toward Victron in the first place. The VRM portal genuinely changed how I manage the place. I can see exactly what the batteries are doing, catch a dodgy cell before it becomes a disaster, and tweak charging profiles from my sofa.

Current setup is:

• Victron Multiplus-II 3000VA
• SmartSolar MPPT 150/35
• Fogstar Drift 200Ah LiFePO4 (two of these in parallel)
• 600W of panels on a south-facing frame

The upgrade added a Cerbo GX and a proper Touch 70 display, which the wife actually uses without needing a tutorial. Small win, but significant.

What I'm wrestling with now is whether to add a second MPPT to squeeze more out of a shaded morning orientation on the east side of the roof. The maths say yes, the wallet says maybe next spring.

Anyone else running a remote site and leaning heavily on VRM for peace of mind? Curious whether others have gone down the dual-MPPT route and whether it was worth the faff of wiring it all back through the Cerbo.

Also keen to hear if anyone's had reliability issues with the Fogstar cells long-term — mine have been solid so far but I've only had them 18 months.

Three years of cable ties and you waited until autumn to sort it — peak timing for minimal solar gain, well done @Sam1975.

@Sam1975 autumn installs are chef's kiss for stress-testing your system before the depths of winter — you'll know pretty sharpish if the battery capacity is undersized when you're squeezing every last amp out of November's four hours of usable sun.

What battery chemistry did you go with on the upgrade? If you're still running AGMs, that's the next cable tie waiting to be snipped — a Fogstar Drift 12V LiFePO4 will transform your winter performance considerably, given LFP handles partial state-of-charge cycling far better than lead-acid.

Also worth double-checking your Victron MPPT charge profile is correctly configured post-upgrade; I've seen more than a few setups running a lead-acid absorption voltage against a lithium bank, which is precisely as exciting as it sounds.

@Sam1975 curious what you upgraded to specifically — Multiplus-II?

Running a similar Victron setup in my garden office and the autumn timing actually worked out for me too. Forces you to dial in your battery settings properly when you can't rely on big solar days to bail you out.

One thing worth checking if you haven't already — the absorption/float voltage settings for whatever battery chemistry you're running. Fogstar lithium for instance needs tighter parameters than the Victron defaults assume.

Also, did you connect it to VRM portal yet? Genuinely game-changing for spotting issues remotely, especially if the caravan's unoccupied for stretches. I kept second-guessing my setup until I could actually see the data.

What was the main driver for the upgrade — capacity, reliability, or just fed up with the cable ties situation 😄

@Sam1975 three years of cable ties is basically a Victron rite of passage — we've all been there pretending it's "temporary" while secretly knowing it absolutely isn't 😄

What batteries did you end up going with for the upgrade? My static caravan setup has been eyeing up the Fogstar Drift lithiums but my wallet keeps vetoing the motion — curious if you went LiFePO4 or stuck with AGM given the autumn install timing @OldSailor mentioned for cold weather performance.

@QuietTrekker worth knowing that the Multiplus-II 48/3000 is the sweet spot for most static installations in my experience — ran a 24V system on my shepherd's hut for two years before switching to 48V and the efficiency gains were immediately measurable, not just theoretical.

@Sam1975 what battery chemistry did you end up with? That's usually where the real upgrade story lies. Fogstar Drift cells have come down considerably in price, though I'd want to know your load profile before recommending anything specific. A 3-year-old Victron system likely means AGM or possibly early LiFePO4 — either way the BMS integration with the newer GX devices is night and day compared to what was available back then.

The autumn timing is genuinely sensible for stress-testing thermal management before temperatures drop properly.