**VANILLA POWERED: THE WINTER I STOPPED WORRYING ABOUT ELECTRICITY**

There comes a point with every campervan project when you suddenly realise you’ve crossed a line.

You’re no longer “adding a few upgrades.”

You’ve built a system.

And I think Vanilla has just crossed that line.

⚡🔋☀️🚐

I’ve spent weeks watching voltages, staring at VictronConnect graphs, changing settings by tenths of a volt, testing the Webasto overnight, checking what the fridge takes, looking at solar harvest, experimenting with Jackerys and generally behaving like the sort of person who considers 14.20V versus 14.40V perfectly acceptable conversation over breakfast.

And now?

I genuinely think I’ve got Vanilla’s electrical system exactly where I want it.

Not the biggest system in the world.

Not an absurd £10,000 installation designed to run an espresso machine, hairdryer and industrial arc welder simultaneously.

Something much better.

A properly thought-out campervan electrical system designed around how I actually use Vanilla.

At its centre is a heated Fogstar Drift 105Ah LiFePO₄ battery.

Feeding that battery are THREE completely different charging routes:

☀️ 200W roof solar through a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15 🚐 Alternator charging through a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 🔌 230V mains charging through my new Victron Blue Smart IP65 12V/25A

And watching the whole lot like Mission Control is a:

📊 Victron SmartShunt 500A

The clever bit is that all three chargers are now essentially speaking the same electrical language.

Same battery.

Same charging philosophy.

Same carefully chosen voltage targets.

And that is where this system has suddenly become rather special.

This is where everything begins.

My leisure battery is now a Fogstar Drift 105Ah LiFePO₄.

Nominal voltage: 12.8V

Capacity: 105Ah

Stored energy:

12.8 × 105 = 1,344Wh

So I have around 1.34kWh sitting under the seat before I even start talking about the separate Jackery power stations.

That number alone doesn’t tell the whole story though.

The enormous difference compared with my old AGM arrangement is how much of that energy I can actually use.

With AGM, I was constantly thinking about state of charge.

50%.

Voltage sag.

Have I taken too much out?

Should I run the engine?

Is the Webasto going to murder the battery overnight?

Lithium changes the psychology completely.

The Fogstar can deliver useful energy much deeper into its capacity without the same voltage collapse you get from lead-acid chemistry.

It also contains its own BMS, Bluetooth monitoring and heating system.

That last bit matters enormously for what I’m planning.

Because this isn’t really a summer upgrade.

This is my winter upgrade.

The entire point is being able to park Vanilla somewhere in November, December, January or February, shut the doors, fire up the Webasto, turn the lights on, keep the fridge going and settle in while the weather outside does whatever British weather fancies doing.

Rain hammering on the roof?

Fine.

Three degrees outside?

Fine.

Dark at 4:30pm?

Fine.

Pub car park in the middle of nowhere?

Even better.

That is exactly what I wanted.

This is the bit I really love.

Vanilla isn't dependent on one charging method.

She effectively has three independent refuelling stations for electricity.

If the sun shines, solar takes over.

If I drive, the alternator takes over.

If I have mains available, the Blue Smart takes over.

And because they are all configured around the same Fogstar charging profile, there isn't one charger trying to do something completely different from another.

It is beautifully boring engineering.

Which is usually the best sort.

The roof solar is probably still my favourite part of Vanilla's electrical system.

There is something deeply satisfying about parking the van, switching absolutely nothing on and watching energy quietly fall out of the sky.

My 200W PV Logic panel feeds a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15.

The MPPT's job is much more sophisticated than simply connecting the panel to the battery.

It continuously finds the panel's optimum operating point and converts whatever useful solar energy is available into the charging voltage the battery actually wants.

Cloud passes overhead?

It adapts.

Sun comes out?

It adapts.

Battery approaches full?

It changes charging stage.

It just gets on with it.

My current VictronConnect configuration is:

Battery voltage: 12V Maximum charge current: 15A Absorption voltage: 14.20V Absorption mode: Fixed Absorption time: 30 minutes Float voltage: 13.50V Re-bulk offset: 0.10V Automatic equalisation: OFF Temperature compensation: OFF Low-temperature cut-off in the charger: OFF

Why 14.20V?

Because I don't need to hammer a lithium battery at the very top of its permissible charging range every day.

14.20V is plenty to properly charge the Fogstar while remaining relatively gentle.

And once it gets there, I don't want it sitting at elevated voltage for hours.

Hence:

30 minutes absorption.

Then it falls back to:

13.50V float.

Lithium doesn't need traditional lead-acid float charging in quite the same way an AGM battery does. Here the lower voltage is essentially a sensible resting/maintenance target rather than endlessly forcing charge into an already-full battery.

And equalisation?

Absolutely not.

Equalisation belongs to certain lead-acid charging regimes.

A LiFePO₄ battery does not want somebody arriving with 15-odd volts and a medieval attitude.

Temperature compensation is also disabled because that classic lead-acid behaviour isn't appropriate here.

The battery's own BMS and heating system are the ultimate protection layer for low-temperature operation, rather than relying on the solar controller to invent a lead-acid-style correction.

It means the solar system has one wonderfully simple job:

Harvest as much useful sunlight as possible and give the Fogstar exactly the charging profile I have chosen.

That is it.

And I love it.

Victron SmartSolar and Bluetooth configuration demonstration:

This is the brute-force charger.

The solar system quietly harvests whatever nature offers.

The Orion is different.

Start Vanilla.

Alternator wakes up.

Orion wakes up.

And suddenly I can have around 30 amps heading towards the leisure battery.

That is serious campervan charging.

The Orion is especially important because modern vehicle electrical systems and lithium batteries aren't something I want simply joined together with a chunky relay and crossed fingers.

The Orion regulates what the leisure battery receives.

My charging settings are:

Maximum charge current: 30A Absorption voltage: 14.20V Absorption time: 30 minutes fixed Float voltage: 13.50V Maximum bulk time: 10 hours Re-bulk offset: 0.10V

And my engine-detection settings are configured around:

Alternator start detection: 14.00V Delayed start level: 13.30V Start delay: 120 seconds Engine shutdown detection: 13.10V Input voltage lockout: 12.50V Restart: 12.80V

Most importantly, I haven't been fiddling unnecessarily with something that already works.

The Orion correctly detects Vanilla running.

It charges.

I stop the engine.

It shuts down.

Job done.

That matters because the whole idea of engine detection is preventing the leisure system from sitting there dragging power from the starter battery after I've parked.

Start engine.

Charge.

Stop engine.

Stop charging.

Beautiful.

And 30A is where this gets interesting.

Imagine I wake up after a cold winter night.

Webasto has been running.

Fridge has been cycling.

Lights have been on.

Phones charged.

Fogstar is down.

I pack up and drive for an hour.

At anything approaching 30A, that drive can put a substantial chunk of energy straight back into the battery.

Suddenly moving Vanilla isn't merely transportation.

It is charging infrastructure.

Victron's own Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naSy08ZhGZE YouTube

This is the latest piece of the puzzle.

And I think it might be one of the most important upgrades I've made.

My previous mains charging capability was relatively modest.

Now I have a 25A Victron Blue Smart.

Twenty-five amps.

From a normal 230V supply.

That gives Vanilla a proper high-output mains charger rather than something that feels like it is politely suggesting electricity to the battery.

My settings are now built specifically around the Fogstar:

Maximum charging current: 25A Absorption voltage: 14.20V Absorption mode: Fixed Absorption time: 30 minutes Float voltage: 13.50V Storage voltage: 13.50V Adaptive absorption: OFF Tail-current termination: OFF Recondition: OFF Temperature compensation: OFF

This is probably the charger that best demonstrates how different lithium is from traditional lead-acid charging.

I've deliberately removed clever little lead-acid behaviours I simply don't need.

Adaptive absorption?

Off.

I know how long I want absorption to last.

Thirty minutes.

Reconditioning?

Definitely off.

A lithium battery does not need the charger attempting to rejuvenate sulphated lead plates that do not exist.

Temperature compensation?

Again, off.

I want the charger following my fixed lithium profile.

And then there's the sheer charging rate.

25A into a 105Ah battery is roughly 0.24C.

That's a very comfortable charging rate for a battery like this while still being enormously more useful than a small maintenance charger.

From significantly discharged, I am no longer thinking in terms of “leave it on all day and see what happens.”

I can recover meaningful capacity in a few hours.

And because it's a Victron Smart charger, I can sit there staring at it on my phone.

Obviously.

Because why simply charge a battery when you can watch a graph while charging a battery?

😆📱⚡

The SmartShunt doesn't produce a single watt.

It doesn't charge anything.

It doesn't harvest sunlight.

It doesn't care whether the power came from solar, alternator or mains.

Yet it might be the component that makes the whole system enjoyable.

Because it tells me the truth.

Every amp entering or leaving my main leisure battery passes through the shunt.

That means I can see:

Voltage.

Current.

Power.

State of charge.

Amp-hours consumed.

Historical data.

And that glorious Victron figure:

Time to go.

My key SmartShunt settings are:

Battery capacity: 105Ah Charged voltage: 14.00V Tail current: 4% Tail current equivalent: approximately 4.2A Charged detection time: 3 minutes Peukert exponent: 1.05 Charge efficiency: 99% Current threshold: 0.10A Time-to-go averaging: 3 minutes Current direction: Normal SOC behaviour: Keep SOC / normal synchronisation behaviour

The slightly lower 14.00V charged-voltage setting is deliberate.

The SmartShunt doesn't control charging.

It simply needs reliable conditions to recognise:

“Right. The battery is full.”

If I made the synchronisation threshold identical to the absolute charger target, tiny voltage drops through cables and normal system loads could make synchronisation unnecessarily fussy.

Using 14.00V along with the 4% tail-current condition gives it a sensible window for declaring the battery charged.

And 4% of 105Ah is:

4.2 amps.

So once battery voltage is sufficiently high and charging current has tapered below roughly 4.2A for the configured period, the SmartShunt knows we've reached the top.

That's the sort of detail I find ridiculously satisfying.

Victron's SmartShunt installation and configuration guide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrfR3fVqyN4 YouTube

Now combine the headline charging capabilities.

Orion:

30A

Blue Smart:

25A

SmartSolar:

up to 15A

Obviously those sources aren't always going to deliver their absolute maximum simultaneously, and solar output depends enormously on conditions.

But theoretically the charging hardware represents:

30 + 25 + 15 = 70A

Seventy amps of potential charge capability around a 105Ah leisure battery.

I am absolutely not suggesting I intend to deliberately throw every charger at the battery simultaneously.

That's not the point.

The point is redundancy.

I have options.

Sun?

Charge.

Driving?

Charge.

Hook-up?

Charge.

Good winter sunshine while parked?

Free energy.

Move to another pub stop the following morning?

Thirty amps available from the van.

Arrive somewhere with mains?

Twenty-five amps from the Blue Smart.

This is no longer one battery desperately hanging on until I find an electric hook-up.

This is an energy system.

This is the bit where Vanilla becomes slightly ridiculous.

Because the Fogstar isn't my entire power reserve.

I also have my portable Jackery system.

The Fogstar handles Vanilla's native 12V world beautifully:

Webasto.

Fridge.

Lighting.

USB.

General habitation loads.

The Jackerys cover the big 230V stuff.

Induction.

Cooking.

Microwave if I decide to use it.

Portable power.

And they can be recharged through the wider system when conditions allow.

Across everything, I've got roughly 5kWh of stored electrical capacity including the Fogstar.

That completely changes how I look at an off-grid trip.

I'm no longer packing electrical capacity for one evening.

I'm carrying an energy reserve.

There is another important part of this installation.

The old Sargent EC155 mains charger is isolated.

The habitation system itself can still do the useful things it was designed to do, but I'm no longer asking an older lead-acid-oriented charger to decide how my expensive lithium battery should be treated.

Charging now belongs to equipment specifically configured for the job.

That distinction matters.

The Fogstar gets charged by the SmartSolar, Orion and Blue Smart.

And all three have been deliberately configured around the same battery.

No mystery voltages.

No wondering what some hidden charger is doing.

No charging profile lottery.

I know exactly what's going into that battery.

The bit that pleases me most isn't the headline charging current.

It is consistency.

Every charger is aiming for essentially the same destination:

14.20V absorption

Then:

13.50V float/storage

With:

30 minutes at absorption

No equalisation.

No reconditioning.

No lead-acid temperature compensation.

That means the battery isn't experiencing three completely different charging philosophies depending upon where the electricity came from.

Solar says 14.20V.

Alternator says 14.20V.

Mains says 14.20V.

And then they back away.

That is exactly how I wanted it.

The system isn't trying to squeeze the final theoretical electron into the battery every second of its life.

It's configured to charge properly, charge predictably and then stop bullying it.

That should mean less time spent unnecessarily at very high state of charge and a nice conservative charging regime.

And because the Fogstar itself contains the BMS, I've got another protection layer inside the battery supervising what is actually happening at cell level.

Charger intelligence outside.

BMS protection inside.

SmartShunt watching the door.

That is a proper little ecosystem.

This is what all of this has really been for.

Not a spreadsheet.

Not screenshots from VictronConnect.

Not bragging rights about amps.

I want to use Vanilla differently this winter.

I want spontaneous nights away.

Pub stops.

Cold mornings.

Wet weekends.

Cannock Chase.

Photography trips.

Park somewhere Friday evening after work.

Webasto on.

21°C inside.

Fridge humming away.

Lights low.

Something cooking.

Music on.

Maybe Depeche Mode, Underworld or Simple Minds quietly doing their thing while rain hits the roof.

No campsite.

No orange EHU cable stretching across a pitch.

No sitting there watching battery voltage and wondering whether I should switch the heater off.

Just warm van.

Cold beer.

Dark countryside.

And absolutely nowhere I need to be.

That is campervan luxury to me.

I arrive at 7pm.

Battery is virtually full because I've driven there and the Orion has been working.

Webasto goes on.

Fridge remains on.

Lights.

Phones.

Music.

Maybe projector.

I sleep.

Saturday morning the Fogstar is obviously lower.

Fine.

I start Vanilla and move on.

The Orion starts replenishing the energy I used overnight.

If the sun appears, the SmartSolar joins in.

By lunchtime I've recovered a substantial chunk of yesterday's electricity without connecting Vanilla to anything.

That is exactly the cycle I wanted.

Use.

Drive.

Recover.

Park.

Repeat.

This is where solar becomes more interesting.

A bright winter day won't produce summer figures, obviously.

The sun is lower.

Days are shorter.

Weather is worse.

But any solar contribution is energy I didn't have to create elsewhere.

Even 150Wh harvested over a poor winter day is 150Wh that hasn't come out of my reserves.

Get a crisp sunny winter day and suddenly the roof is properly contributing again.

Meanwhile I still have over 1.3kWh nominal capacity in the Fogstar and the Jackery reserve behind it.

That means one grey day doesn't trigger the electrical DEFCON lights.

Now the whole ecosystem matters.

Fogstar handles the habitation system.

Jackery handles heavier AC loads.

Solar trickles energy back whenever conditions allow.

Driving replenishes Fogstar through the Orion.

And the Anderson arrangement gives me additional flexibility for moving energy around my portable system while travelling.

Suddenly a three or four-day trip isn't really:

“Can the battery last?”

It's:

“How do I manage the energy flows?”

That is a completely different mindset.

And one I enjoy enormously.

This is probably the biggest change.

When Vanilla had the AGM battery, I watched voltage because I was nervous.

Now I watch the SmartShunt because I'm interested.

That's a massive difference.

Before:

“Is that voltage too low?”

Now:

“Interesting. The Webasto is drawing that much during startup.”

Before:

“Will it last overnight?”

Now:

“Let's see exactly how many amp-hours the entire night used.”

Before:

“Should I turn something off?”

Now:

“How much can I recover on tomorrow's drive?”

The monitoring hasn't disappeared.

If anything I'm monitoring it more.

But monitoring is now part of the hobby instead of a warning system.

And that is possibly the best upgrade of all.

Obviously there are bigger systems.

Someone will always have 600Ah of lithium, 1,000W of solar and an inverter large enough to operate a small aluminium smelter.

😂

But that's completely missing the point.

The perfect system isn't the biggest one.

It's the one that disappears into the background and lets you use the van the way you want to use it.

For Vanilla, I think I've got remarkably close.

A proper LiFePO₄ battery.

Heating.

Bluetooth.

BMS.

200W solar.

15A MPPT.

30A alternator charging.

25A mains charging.

SmartShunt monitoring.

Portable Jackery reserves.

Around 5kWh total stored energy across the wider setup.

And, crucially, I understand how all of it works.

I know the settings.

I know the voltages.

I know where the amps are coming from.

I know where they're going.

I know what's protecting the battery.

And I know how I'm going to replenish what I use.

That creates something rather more valuable than simply having a lot of batteries.

Confidence.

The numbers I now keep coming back to are beautifully simple:

⚡ 14.20V absorption

⚡ 30-minute fixed absorption

⚡ 13.50V float/storage

⚡ 15A solar

⚡ 30A alternator

⚡ 25A mains

⚡ 105Ah battery capacity

⚡ 4% SmartShunt tail current

Once you've understood why those numbers exist, the entire system suddenly makes sense.

Three chargers.

One battery.

One charging philosophy.

And one bloke repeatedly opening VictronConnect even though absolutely nothing requires his attention.

That might be my favourite part of all this.

Vanilla isn't being tucked away until spring.

Quite the opposite.

I'm actually more excited about using her this winter than I was before.

I want freezing mornings.

I want pub-stop weekends.

I want mist over Cannock Chase.

I want wet nights where the heater is glowing away and I'm sitting inside wondering why everyone thinks campervans are only for summer.

I want to wake up somewhere ridiculously pretty, make breakfast, check the SmartShunt and discover I've still got plenty left.

Then start the engine.

Watch the Orion jump to life.

Drive somewhere else.

And put yesterday's electricity back.

There will undoubtedly still be graphs.

There will still be screenshots.

There will definitely be unnecessary checking of the Victron app.

I know myself far too well to pretend otherwise.

But the underlying question has changed.

I'm not asking:

“Have I got enough power?”

I'm asking:

“Where shall I go?”

And that, for me, is when Vanilla's electrical system finally became finished.

Winter 2026 is going to be very interesting.

⚡☀️🔋🚐🔥

And I genuinely cannot stop grinning.