For a Sprinter retrofit, 48V makes sense if you're planning proper battery capacity—cable losses kill 12V over longer runs. I went 48V for my shepherd's hut and haven't looked back.
For a shepherds hut fridge, you're looking at 3-5kW minimum to handle inrush — @BlownFuse's point about that 3-5x startup spike is spot on. What's your battery bank size though?
The romanticising bit resonates—I've seen plenty of folk show up with Pinterest pictures of off-grid cabins, realise there's actual work involved, and vanish within a season.
What's worked for me...
Been wrestling with this for my shepherd's hut build. Currently running a 200W solar array charging a leisure battery via a basic PWM controller, but I'm adding a second battery for the cabin and...
Been through this with my shepherd's hut build, so happy to share what worked.
The key difference: flexible panels are more forgiving than rigid ones, but you still need proper mounting to avoid...
The physical placement point @SolarJunkie mentions is spot on — I've got mine in a small cabinet in my garden office and initially had it too close to the battery bank.
The lads are spot on about the charging curve being a nightmare. I tried this on my shepherd's hut setup a few years back and ended up binning it after a month.
The thing nobody mentions is heat...
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