WorldwideDave
Solar Addict
Long read, so I put questions in bold. Thank you in advance for reading - ignore if you don't care 
Equipment:
1.) The time it took to build the system was 9 hours. That was probably 3 hours faster than my last build. Going back and forth across the property to the tool box and supplies like wires, lugs, crimpers, Y cables and more added probably 90 minutes, but no way to fit it all inside my small shed while designing and building it at the same time. Just could not. I also didn't have a lot of space to work with. System is 15" wide and 36" long. It would take just as long to build a 48V system I believe, or a system with a larger single battery, or a larger Solar charge controller, as the wire gauges would just be larger. If there were more batteries in parallel, then it would have taken longer. I think that even for this small system budgeting 2 work days is reasonable.
2.) Installation is 8' high in the air directly above my shop bench. I can't emphasize how difficult it is to carry an AGM battery up that high and then have to extend my arms to put it there. That was crazy painful. I will use a hoist next time or at least have some method like a stool on top of my bench to bring it up/down in increments. The roof of shop is at 15' so don't worry about air gap.
3.) Being able to turn on and off the inverter remotely in VRM is awesome. Not life changing, but close
4.) What I did not expect at all: The Phoenix inverter has no way to connect to it via Bluetooth. Did not expect that. Glad I had both the VE.Direct to USB dongle that I did not need/use, and already had a Cerbo. Other than upgrading the firmware, haven't done anything to the inverter. Is this correct, or did I get a bad phoenix?
5.) I reset and set the SmartSolar 100/20 battery section to be AGM Spiral Cell, but have NO idea what this is - was looking for an AGM preset. Cleared the history. Any recommendations on how to configure the 'battery' section for this AGM I have?
6.) I reset and set the SmartShunt 500a to be 95Ah...not much else to do there. Cleared the history.
7.) I left the inverter settings to their defaults. Not sure I need to do anything there. Should I be tweaking any settings on the inverter?
8.) On the Cerbo/VRM, I configured DVCC to ensure only 20A go to the battery, so all systems will now talk to each other I believe. Also ensured the shunt was selected, and the temperature was being shared across devices. Anything else I should do in Cerbo GX, or good to go?
9.) The idle consumption on the victron setup is 4W. On my giandel setup is 21W. Victron is awesome. With this little 95Ah AGM, it says battery will be dead in 10 days (9 days 23 hours). With my giandel setup with lifepo4 and it being 200Ah, it says 4 days and 15 hours I'll be dead. That's idle consumption right there.
10.) I built the system with wires big enough to support a larger inverter in the future, and it would be easy to put my DIY 200Ah LiFePO4 battery in the place of this AGM - they are the same size, but 200Ah vs 95Ah. I am likely to do this swap soon.
11.) I am happy I didn't need to install a relay to turn on/off the victron inverter. It has a switch option on it I see, which I believe is for a vehicle ignition or for a button like in an RV so you don't have to go to the phone or have a cerbo GX or a touch display or bluetooth, etc. Any other benefit/purpose for that remote port on the phoenix?
Any tests you have to do to a shake down of this new environment, let me know. I'm thinking of running a 200W load to see if the battery dies. That should take 4 hours and 45 minutes I believe, but not sure if with AGM it would only be half that (2 hours 22 minutes max).
Equipment:
- Costco 12V AGM 95Ah battery to test the build with. Free! Damn heavy. About 18 months old. Got it to float on charger yesterday, added to system today. Awesome!
- Brass marine terminal screw adapters
- Victron kill switch left over from prior build
- Victron 500Ah non waterproof/older shunt left over from a project a year ago
- Victron battery temp sensor left over from project 4 months ago.
- AWG 1 left over from prior 2 projects.
- Blue Sea bus bars left over from prior project. One is 1/4" lug (will swap out) and the other is 5/16 lugs.
- Victron SmartSolar 100/20 MPPT Solar Charge Controller left over from prior build I upgraded dramatically
- BP Solar 200W solar panels in parallel
- PV disconnect left over from prior build
- DC breakers left over from prior build
- 15A inline fuse left over from first build
- Victron Cerbo GX MK2 left over from prior project
- Victron Phoenix 12V 250VA inverter bought today from OfferUp for $30 from guy who got a 3000VA multiplus instead (jealous)
1.) The time it took to build the system was 9 hours. That was probably 3 hours faster than my last build. Going back and forth across the property to the tool box and supplies like wires, lugs, crimpers, Y cables and more added probably 90 minutes, but no way to fit it all inside my small shed while designing and building it at the same time. Just could not. I also didn't have a lot of space to work with. System is 15" wide and 36" long. It would take just as long to build a 48V system I believe, or a system with a larger single battery, or a larger Solar charge controller, as the wire gauges would just be larger. If there were more batteries in parallel, then it would have taken longer. I think that even for this small system budgeting 2 work days is reasonable.
2.) Installation is 8' high in the air directly above my shop bench. I can't emphasize how difficult it is to carry an AGM battery up that high and then have to extend my arms to put it there. That was crazy painful. I will use a hoist next time or at least have some method like a stool on top of my bench to bring it up/down in increments. The roof of shop is at 15' so don't worry about air gap.
3.) Being able to turn on and off the inverter remotely in VRM is awesome. Not life changing, but close
4.) What I did not expect at all: The Phoenix inverter has no way to connect to it via Bluetooth. Did not expect that. Glad I had both the VE.Direct to USB dongle that I did not need/use, and already had a Cerbo. Other than upgrading the firmware, haven't done anything to the inverter. Is this correct, or did I get a bad phoenix?
5.) I reset and set the SmartSolar 100/20 battery section to be AGM Spiral Cell, but have NO idea what this is - was looking for an AGM preset. Cleared the history. Any recommendations on how to configure the 'battery' section for this AGM I have?
6.) I reset and set the SmartShunt 500a to be 95Ah...not much else to do there. Cleared the history.
7.) I left the inverter settings to their defaults. Not sure I need to do anything there. Should I be tweaking any settings on the inverter?
8.) On the Cerbo/VRM, I configured DVCC to ensure only 20A go to the battery, so all systems will now talk to each other I believe. Also ensured the shunt was selected, and the temperature was being shared across devices. Anything else I should do in Cerbo GX, or good to go?
9.) The idle consumption on the victron setup is 4W. On my giandel setup is 21W. Victron is awesome. With this little 95Ah AGM, it says battery will be dead in 10 days (9 days 23 hours). With my giandel setup with lifepo4 and it being 200Ah, it says 4 days and 15 hours I'll be dead. That's idle consumption right there.
10.) I built the system with wires big enough to support a larger inverter in the future, and it would be easy to put my DIY 200Ah LiFePO4 battery in the place of this AGM - they are the same size, but 200Ah vs 95Ah. I am likely to do this swap soon.
11.) I am happy I didn't need to install a relay to turn on/off the victron inverter. It has a switch option on it I see, which I believe is for a vehicle ignition or for a button like in an RV so you don't have to go to the phone or have a cerbo GX or a touch display or bluetooth, etc. Any other benefit/purpose for that remote port on the phoenix?
Any tests you have to do to a shake down of this new environment, let me know. I'm thinking of running a 200W load to see if the battery dies. That should take 4 hours and 45 minutes I believe, but not sure if with AGM it would only be half that (2 hours 22 minutes max).
While giving the cc to my wife might sound like a good idea (or not), I know I'd just steal it back from her when she's sound asleep 
