ORbiker wrote:
the power was down to 40% with cloudy skies on the second day. That afternoon, when I saw that the power was that low, I turned off the fans. The solar with cloudy skies brought the power up to 80% before dark.
Panel provides "power", battery stores "energy". Make sure your 80% are accurate, i.e. measured with some AH meter rather than OEM light indicators.
To the Mex question on getting battery through the night - this has never been an issue to me. If fun isn't running, fridge draws 6 AH overnight. With lights and pump - around 15 AH overnight. I replaced furnace with Olympian catalytic heater - you can't really sleep with furnace unless you use ear plugs.
I've been listening to Don Piano's lament on investing more in solar before generator, and glad that I have. 500W flat on the roof, slightly bigger than average battery bank 300 AH. In the evening controller reports that his job is done 99.9% - Absorb has been reached, charging current tapered down to nothing, and it was floating 2-4 hours after. Good enough for me. It hits Absorb even on cloudy days. When it rains all day, charging drops to 10 AH, batteries go down to 80-85% by the morning, and then it takes twice longer next day to hit Absorb, but still gets there, and then some.
There is no generator, and my situation is not unique. I know people who used to carry a generator, and then stopped after they've installed big solar.
You can spend $200 on battery monitor or $20 on AH meter from Amazon or $10 on volt meter, none of them will make you any energy. Result will still be the same - if you can't stay above 50% by the morning, you either have to run a generator or turn everything off.
With camping always in the shade with no sunny spots within 50ft - IF this is the case - there is no magic cure. One thing that works in shade is "amorphous" panels, Don has it, but I don't know if anybody still makes rigid amorphous today.
