OK.....Finished except a little tidying up of some wires.....The Volt meter is just on there with Velcro and the wires are temporary, as I use yje meter for other things. I may just mount it there perminently and hide the wires. The meter is only $5 at HarborFreight.
We camped at Lake Casitas for 4 nights & 4 days.
It was a lot colder than we suspected (low 30's at night). The 1st night, we accidentally left the ceiling vent fan open and running all night with the furnace going at the same time.....duh!!!!!
I was aware that the furnace ran all night but I was just too tired to get up and find out why. At 6:AM, I found the ceiling fan running.
Anyway, I checked the voltage of the batteries just before the Sun hit the panels. 12.5V:
About 30 minutes after the Sun hit the panels (@ about 5 degrees off the horizon):
This was about 2:PM the following day, 14.65V (@ about 80 degrees above the horizon):
When we left, after 4 days of dry camping the batteries were at full charge.
We used the lights at will, ran the furnace all night and used the microwave twice (5 minutes each time) to heat lunch. We didn't even put fuel in the generator.
I have under $600 in the entire project (incl $50 for the regulator that I didn't buy).
It adds a few minutes to set-up and tear down but it is well worth not having to deal with (or listen to) the generator.