Monday, June 22, 2009 -
It rained, off and on, all night and this morning, clearing in the late afternoon. Since yesterday morning, I have received almost a half-inch of rain, according to my rain gauge. NWS is still predicting chances of thundershowers through tonight and at the end of the week.
I spent the entire morning reading my owners manual on the inverter, to find out why it was loading the generator down while I tried to recharge the batteries. None of the settings had been changed from before, and yet the generator would kick in and then after a few minutes, bog down and kick out. It would continue to do that no matter what things I had on or running. It has been five years since I set the inverter up, so I needed to go through the entire manual again and reset several things.
I turns out that the setting for the charger portion of the inverter, had the maximum charge amps AC at 30, which meant if anything, and I mean anything, else was using amps, it loaded the generator down. I reduced the amps to half of that, but even at 15 amps, it would drag the generator down. I finally got it to stay online and charge the batteries while set at 12 amps.
In my reading, I discovered that the AGM sealed type batteries require less amps and time to charge, due to the way they are constructed. So far, it has been charging the batteries without a problem and I can still run electrical items in the cabin. When I did my research on batteries, I thought that I had read that it could be charged faster and at a lower rate, meaning using less generator time, but I didn’t consider the amperage and how it would affect the system.
Anyway, It seems to be working fine and I have moved on to other things. I have mainly been doing additional research on the Fair Access Policies of other satellite providers and compiling information for my letter to the CEO.
Now it is time to go play with Zack for the fourth time this afternoon, and then feed him. The breaks in the rain have allowed us to have some quality playtime today. Right now the wind is blowing hard and it makes the flight of the disc interesting to say the least. Just when Zack thinks it is within his grasp, it goes up and away from him. He has managed to move quickly enough to still snag many of them, but a few have taken a detour into the creek.
I will be doing my usual evening things, i.e. shower, dinner, watch television, and then head for some sleep time. I have my chiropractor and doctor appointment tomorrow, so will be spending most of the day in town.