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When I went to test my battery today I noticed the wind had completely blown my solar panel upside down. It was not damaged.

So I don't know for how long the battery was being charged today. The readings at 1pm were 12.02, which is still under a 50% charge.

According to a massive amount of battery research I did last night, you should never let your deep cycle battery drain below 50%. It damages it and shortens its life span.

It's okay to make mistakes - I am just glad I am doing it with an inexpensive set up!

wed after sunset, my battery is at 12.07 volts. This is a hair over 50% charged, which is as low as I should let it get in the future.

Hopefully I have angled the panel properly tonite so it will get as much sun as possible before I wake up. Then I can move it to follow the sun.

Thursday at 3:45pm, my battery now tests at 12.47 watts. So it is almost 80% charged. That's a huge difference from yesterday evening at 12.07 watts. I am pleased with how quickly this is going now that I have everything placed properly.

I think i have an excellent spot for the solar panel. I moved it from the morning position to the afternoon position at around 1pm. It all takes experimenting! I would be lost without the multimeter. I highly recommend having one if you go solar.

Note: am keeping the battery in the shade. Heat is supposed to be bad for it's lifespan. Since it's really hot here anyway - over 100 - it really MUST be in the shade.

At 1pm today, friday, the battery tested at 12.76 volts. According to the charts that is 100% charged. I guess I should unplug it? I don't have the charge controller on it, so i don't want to over charge it.

Off to do more research!

I called a local solar place and they said yes, to disconnect my battery. They also advised getting a charge controller. Which I do have but do not know how to connect.

So the battery is now sitting inside with me, waiting to be used.

I am thinking i need a second battery for this system, so i can always have one in use, and one charging.

It looks like it takes 2.5 days to charge it from 50%, which is fine. I am supposed to never let it discharge below 50%. If I had a second battery, then i'd just have to make sure my first lasted around that long and then switch them out. This seems pretty easy.

Anyone have some experience with solar?

I found a link that has good information about getting a second deep cell battery added onto one's system.

I am thinking I might get one of the really big ones from walmart. Still trying to figure out the best way to expand my system.