I first woke up at about 6:00 this morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep without checking the state of my batteries.

I had gone to bed at 97% charge and voltage around 12.5. I woke up at 95.2% charge and voltage around 12.5. Amp hours used by bedtime were 7.2 (3% of 240, so the monitor’s math is right). Amp hours used by this morning about 11. The fridge uses 0.5A so 7 hours x 0.5A= 3.5 amp hours. 7.2AH + 3.5AH = 10.7. The fraction extra could be from the fridge cycling on and off. No concerns there.

You know what I did? I plugged in the electric blanket (dang it was COLD this morning) and the cats and I went right back to bed. 🙂

I got up just a few minutes at about 8:00 and my numbers were close to what they had been at 6:00 with 45 minutes of blanket use factored in (about 4.5AH).

All was well so far. But I hadn’t yet tried to charge my batteries through the alternator with the new solenoid installed.

I ran the engine for less than a minute, just to make sure the two battery banks were talking to each other and I saw amps going in start at nearly 30 and then go down steadily, which makes sense since both batteries are at just about full capacity.

I’m too jaded to do a happy dance, but I am optimistic this morning.

In other news, cats are dumb, right? Then how come by the time I was done fiddling with the electric blanket settings they were already under the blankets staking out the warmest part of said electric blanket?