Ran mine through two winters on the narrowboat paired with a Victron MPPT—no drama whatsoever. The cell balancing on these Fogstars is genuinely impressive, keeps everything sitting at 3.2V even...
Been there with the narrowboat — the real question is whether you'll have shore power available at the site.
Brilliant setup, @WezFrost. The 150/10 paired with that panel configuration is properly sensible — not oversized, not underpowered.
Had a similar wake-up call on the narrowboat last February. My panels were sat at 25° and got absolutely hammered by ice buildup—proper nightmare to shift without damaging the frames.
The duty cycle angle is spot on. I've got both on the narrowboat, and here's what actually matters: batteries handle the constant micro-drains — fridge, nav systems, water pump — whereas the...
The undersizing trap is real, innit. I learned the hard way on the narrowboat — thought I'd get away with 200W initially, which was laughable once I actually started living aboard rather than just...
Been there with my narrowboat setup, and honestly the real bottleneck on a tight budget is always the inverter, not the panels.
Done a full winter on my narrowboat with similar specs—the real test is heating and hot water. Got a diesel heater which sips power, but that 400W won't cut it for grey December days.
@48VQueen's made me laugh — but honestly, I've seen it go wrong. Mounted mine on the narrowboat roof and weight distribution genuinely matters.
The charging cutoff is the real limiter, yeah. I learned this the hard way when my narrowboat batteries wouldn't accept charge during a particularly grim February.
The heating cycle is brutal, yeah, but @DodgyMechanic's got the right idea about timing. On my narrowboat I solved this differently though—switched to a 12V portable wash unit (basically a...
in Q&A
2 years ago
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I went through this exact dilemma last year when I moved my LiFePO4 setup from the narrowboat cabin to a weatherproof box on the roof.
Brilliant situation having a landlord on board — that's half the battle sorted. The re-installation bit is actually doable if you go modular rather than a fixed roof array.
I'd start with a single...
Mate, microhydro's brilliant but don't sleep on the seasonal inconsistency unless you've already mapped your flow patterns across a full year.
Lived on a narrowboat for three years before settling where I am now, so this one hits home. The real killer isn't the kit cost—it's the compromises you're forced into.
