battery/solar panel questions

[Gmutt]

We bought a used 2010 23' Flying Cloud last fall. It has solar panels and two batteries (I think they are the gel kind and cost a lot more than regular batteries). I was expecting the solar panels to keep the batts charged throughout the winter (we last used it in Oct). Checked it a couple of weeks ago and the panel showed 0% battery..BTW, I had the battery switch to "store" position. Yesterday I plugged the FC elec into the house 110 current. Today the panel shows this: battery % - 100; Battery Voltage - 13.7: Solar charge - 2.0; Solar amp hrs - .2. Does indicate that my solar panels are not charging the batteries??

Separate question on the inverter...I understand that the inverter changes the 110v when plugged into city power to 12v for the tv. Would this effect battery life if the tv is plugged in but not in use? (I unplugged the tv today just in case) also the microwave oven power is still on but I don't see any way to unplug it without removing it from the shelf, or is this necessary?

[alano]

Gmutt, so if you disconnect shore power and select the "Use" position, what does your battery monitor say?

To answer your other question... there is no need to unplug anything. Running your inverter will affect battery life. When you're not requiring the use of the inverter, make sure it's off. When the inverter is off, there will be a negligible background current from the inverter that's not affected by anything that is plugged into it.

The microwave is not connected to the inverter's output. The microwave typically is only powered when connected directly to shore power.

[Wayne&Sam]

Originally Posted by Gmutt

Separate question on the inverter...I understand that the inverter changes the 110v when plugged into city power to 12v for the tv.

Nope, that's the job of the converter. The inverter changes 12v battery power to 110v.