RufusR

By the way run my Honda on LPG loads cheaper to run and less stress storing fuel

Friend of mine is talking about Hyundai gens , apparently have pure sine wave as good as honda but half the price , maybe worth a look if on a budget but I have no idea experience of them . Only know Hondas work end of . Others may work but depends on your charger / inverter and how fussy it is .

Ah I missed that . Thanks .

Yes solar all the way first and gen as a back up for winter . For solar don’t get an “ installer “ they charge loads and you get poor system that suits their profit imo . After loads and loads of research into my new up coming system I have come to conclusion most don’t know what they are taking about or do but steer you towards the solution that suits them not you . Cheap china is not always the best . Look at Bimble they I am sure can sell you a complete kit for your needs at a very reasonable price then either fit yourself , semi fit your self ( what i am doing ) or get a decent boat engineer to do it or parts of it . Cheaper and you will end up with a much better system. Fun designing and fitting too . Regard geny I only have a Honda eu 2200 because the missus insists on ironing everything. If not a eu1000i is just as good but smaller and cheaper and will charge most batteries as a back up to solar no issue . Btw I work from the boat and a lot more during lockdown . If you are cc on the cut computers are power hogs to use all working day , suggest low power laptop dialled all the down to snail performance unless you are gonna run engines / gen a lot esp if you have fridge as well . 800 watts of solar will do for 8 months but I winter you will need to have back up and be a misser unless you are moving all the time

Agreed and only one a victron inverter charger won’t spit out . Expensive yes but they run forever and give a faultless next wave output. Reason on why it’s probably the most popular gen on the cut .

Hi I am trying to design a solar system that diverts spare energy to a dc water heater . One option is to use a ssr and aux pwm output of a midnite classic mppt . However there are issues with this approach and as I may want to add a wind turbine later on and since victron would be my preferred mppt , I have been looking at using the Tristar pwm controller in diversion mode however all the info I can find relates to wind even though they say it can divert solar . The say then Tristar absorb voltage should be set 0.2 v HIGHER that the absorb on the mppt and I just don’t see how this can work as mppt will hold voltage at its absorb and drop the amps so how will the tristar ever divert anything ? I want a pwm to avoid micro cycling the batteries or drawing a huge load on them if a cloud comes over etc but can’t see how this unit does that with suggested setup . Surely the pwm needs to kick in as the batteries approach the mppt absorb point and then divert all excess energy once abort is reached ? Anyone familiar with Tristar in solar divert mode ? How it works , what the pwm width is and what settings to use to get it to divert excess pv energy once batteries are in absorb ? Or is it the case it can only do it in float ? cheers s

Perfectly explained . Just what is am trying to achieve

No they are great see my post above however they are missing one key feature that kills it for me . Which is a pwm aux output , Outback have it , Midnite have it and I believe Morningstar has it but a Victron have chosen not to have it so cannot really be used to properly control a diversion load . Big oversight on their behalf as I like many others would have gone Blue as first choice otherwise ,

Thanks Peter that’s what I thought maybe I will contact Liam and ask to be sure but I do only have 30 volts albeit at 60 A I normally would too as inverter and batteries are victron and their great but in this case these can’t offer a aux output with pwm for a diversion load on their controllers . It’s a shame lots of people asking for it so maybe in the future in the meantime it means only outback and Midnite are in the running and midnIt’s have the better product for my application at this time

Many thanks . If it really makes. Difference to safety I will pay the 107 euro more but if not on a smallish system will save the money . Cheers I would not have found them otherwise , they could do with help with google Seo lol .

Peter can i ask your advice ? Have looked at prism and they indeed have many more Midnite product options . They have the SL model which is solar only and does everything I want for a little less but no Arc Fault Detection. Is this feature worth the extra on a narrow boat with 5 to 6 270watt panels in parallel? Do you think ?

Ah many thanks , I have only seen them available on Bimble does prism also sell the combiner boxes ? As you say after a lot of research, discussion and soul searching have have come to conclusion Midnite classic is the right one for my new solar project . Does everything I need and seems to have a loyal following and no bad reviews.

Bimble are fine . Good company .

Love that guy !! Rips everything apart literally lol .

Never heard of those , maybe decent but I would stick to something with decent known tech support personally as things do go awry with set up etc . Just my personal opinion . Maybe these have awesome tech support don’t know . Too low powered for my application unfortunately or I would investigate further

Bimble are decent supplier but not convinced they are experts advice wise . Have had different and turns out duff advice from a lot of people claiming to be experts but just want to sell you what they supply . so do a lot of research and draw your own conclusions

I have been messing about designing a new solar system all lock down and have done a ton of research and spoken to a a lot of “experts “ some more so than others . Here is my take . 1. If you don’t want to spend a lot and don’t need to harvest every last ounce of power ala grid tied and solar farms and don’t want a lot of features such as proper Pwm ssr dump load and remote monitoring the the ep solar mppt is pretty decent . It is a earl mppt unlike a lot of eBay crap and does a good job for the money . I have one now and it’s decent and does the job although has some flaws but you pays your money . if like my new system you want dump loads that work , high current output etc etc the you are looking at much bigger bucks . After much research and changing of minds I am going for Midnites classic 150 As it does everything I need and actually fits in my boat , which ruled outback out unfortunately. But it is eye wateringly expensive so having to save for it . but in short for value you are hard pressed to beat ep solar . Beware cheap ebay efforts that are I fact scam badged pwm controllers and will fail quickly .

This . Do not declare yourself homeless unless you are happy for all your credit , banks accounts etc etc to be cancelled . I know someone who did this and a can of worms is an understatement. It wrecked their life . Do not do it . Stay as you are an don’t vote simples or if it’s thst important get s proper residential mooring paying council tax or move back into a house.

FYI my neighbour boat works in wind industry and has a Rutland on his boat as well as solar his advice was wind is not worth the money on a boat unless you have it to spare . cover every inch of your roof in solar before spending on wind on a canal boat . That’s the advice of a wind turbine engineer . Says it all

14.4 and about 6A . Victron says 14.4 is right absorption voltage for these batteries. It then floats at about 13.6 for a hour at 3A and falls to zero current and 13.2 after that Currently it’s 13.2 and holding with 1A solar input with solar charger indicating batteries are full as it’s stopped charging

13.2 on solar controller , 13 to 13.1 on back panel ( this was fitted when new and I think it is out of calibration somewhat .

I have just installed 5 new agm batteries and they do seem to charge much faster that my old flooded LA ones . When I put the gen on today though 3 stage victron charger they were in float and current at zero inside an hour . I also have solar which prob helped . I am worried this 4 hour plus regime to full charge will overcharge them as I am told this screws AGM’s . Am I doing the right thing turning off gen when float current is zero ? I still have a solar Input but charge controller light says bats are full .

We pay about the same for our privately owned online mooring as we paid in the local marine , compared to that we are now off grid and have few of the facilities the Marina had and thus Cost of living here is quite a bit more BUT I would not change it for the world . No boats either side crowding you. Our own bit of garden , very peaceful , lovely views . It was a nice marina but you can’t get away from the feeling you are living in a car park . At the end of the day you pays your money you takes your choice ...if you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen.

Ditto

Notices now up on facility .