I put the solar panels out - the 40W panels and got 5AH out of them through the day. By the close of play, the battery had risen to 72% but then dropped back to 57%. Meanwhile the load has flickered between 0.00A and 0.05A staying normally around 0.02 and 0.03. That's just totally mysterious because the sole thing running is the door lock controller.
Looking at the figures over the last few days I'm thinking that the 15W panel that was vandalized that I had to take down possibly provided more power than I had thought. It's definitely time to experiment with putting a 10W flexible panel on the roof even if only as a temporary thing.
One of the things that might well be worth putting on is a charge diverter that will allow me to charge the house batteries from the alternator when the engine is on. In fact rather than putting solar panels and charge controllers that might well have been the more sensible and economic thing to do. Having said that, my bus spends the vast majority of its life, stationary.
So, as an experiment, tonight I shall put out a single 10W panel so it'll get the sun from before I get outside until dark. I'm thinking that might well make a huge difference.
Tomorrow I want to see about getting the crush and run, getting my steel panel bent, washing the bus and installing the roof vent. How much of that I actually get done is anybody's guess!
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