Solar Panels and a garage sale

The fuchsia that Mik, Michelle and James gave Vera is sure an interesting shape as the flowers open up. 

Thursday the twenty fourth we went to a garage sale being put on by one of our church members.  I ended up with a Craftsmen belt and disk sander for ten dollars.  Vera bought some Christmas angels and some wooden dolls.  When we got home I started putting a pair of hundred watt solar panels on the motor home.  There have been a couple of butterflys flitting around here for a few days.  Once as I was going into the shop for tools this one flew right in front of me and landed on the flowers.  By the end of the day I had things planned out, the wiring ran and one panel sitting on the roof.

Friday we made a mail run that ended up in Toutle for lunch at the diner, then a garage sale where Vera got this plant stand.  Then it was back to work on the solar panels.  I made up, stained and mounted a panel for the charge controllers and battery monitor.  I had it all wired up before the day was over.

This morning as Vera was looking out the North window, she noticed this bright yellow lily, so she had to take a picture of it.  Today I moved the motor home out in front of the shop and started cleaning things up and reorganizing my planes.  All day long the battery monitor showed the voltage but never showed any current draw.  I finally pulled it out and sure enough I had the gray and black wires reversed.  After correcting that it started showing the amps being used.  I also discovered that one florescent light draws more current than a sixteen foot LED strip.  It took a little longer than I had planned on but I am really happy with the results.