New Day

Even though it was cloudy and rainy most of the day, the solar panels did charge the batteries up a bit. The generator ran very little today. Once while pumping a lot of water from the well and another time while using power tools. All in all, not too bad.

It's supposed to be mostly sunny all day Thursday so that should boost the battery bank back up.

I've come to the conclusion that it's a waste of gasoline to try and top off the batteries with this generator. It does a good job boosting the batteries from a low state to a medium charge. After that, it's not very efficient at all. Until I have a better generator I'll just rely on the sun to top of the batteries.

I can limp along with the borrowed generator until it can be replaced with something that charges better. While there's more rain in the long range forecast most days are supposed to be at least partly sunny. That's all I need to get all necessary power from the sun. These dark days have been a strain, both on the electric system and my mood.

Even with a lot of clouds and an inefficient generator, it was still cheaper than being on-grid. I think we'll put that decision off for a while yet. Let's see how the next week or two works out.

-Sixbears