Last weekend we took my new (to me) reclining chair down to the boat. Despite it not actually fitting in the Panda which was my criteria for whether I bought it or not. We crammed it in and tied the boot down. Well for £10 you can't really refuse when you have measured the height of the arms and you know that it will fit in through the side hatches! It stayed at home for a week and small boy got very attached to it.
I may have to take the table down as the chair is perhaps a little big for the space allocated plus where it is I am in danger of kicking the TV everytime I go into recline!
Bobcat looked quite sad and lonely on her moorings and covered in cobwebs.
I may give her a bit of a wash when I am back on. Please don't hold your collective breaths as after having had the new car valeted when small boy vomited in it I said I would have the car valeted and washed once a year around it's birthday. Not happened I am afraid. What I need is a cleaning lady.
I had covered up one of my solar panels so as not to cook the batteries and left the fridge running when I left the boat beginning of the month.
The smartgauge said both banks were reading 12.85 but then it said they were down to c37 (I assume that is percentage?) The solar panel monitor had a smiley face and said 98%. Which one is right?
We uncovered the other solar panel and will see what happens this week.
I have ticked all the items on my July to do list and am feeling very virtuous.
Aboating I will go
Welsh waters: Day 12
23 hours ago
2 comments:
Hi there,
I firmly believe that, whilst the volts and amps readings on these so called 'battery management systems' can be trusted, they are ‘compulsive liars’ when it comes to ‘battery capacity’ readings (usually expressed as a % of the design capacity of the battery bank, if set up correctly), especially if you are denied regular top ups on a shore line.
I don’t know what your solar output is, but up to a month’s worth of fridge use in the summer offline, even with a couple of typical solar panels on the go, would probably drag the standing voltage down on most domestic battery banks to well below 12.85v. If you saw the reading in daylight and with an electrical load on, it may have taken the solar output into account.
If the ‘solar panel monitor’ you mentioned is actually a ‘controller’, then you need not worry about cooking the batteries because avoiding that sort of thing is what they are designed for (check the bumf that came with the device). Expose those solars!
Cheers, Chris ;-)
Hi Chris, see you both Sunday? Will give you a call when I get to Fradley.
Kath
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