Day 356: I have the (alternative) power

Up with the Lark, its not that I didn't want to have a lie in but last weekend I stepped awkwardly walking down the stairs and it gets uncomfortable lying in bed for too long. With the weather set fair until at least 11:00am, it was up onto the roof of the van with a bucket of hot suds and a sponge to clean it down.

Having got the roof cleaned, consumed breakfast and the mounts fitted on to the solar panel it was backup onto the roof to try and fit it. As always Murphy stuck a spanner in the works, the panel mounts were on just the wrong spacing and clashed with the ribs on the roof. So back on terra firma, the mounts were stripped off, modified and replaced and the panel lifted back up on the roof.

With the panel sitting happily on the roof it was lifted, the mounts and roof cleaned with a degreaser and copious amounts of Sikaflex 221 applied to the mounts before finally positioning the panel. Next it was on to the cable outlet, however just as I finished cutting the hole it started to rain, but pushing on I managed to get the moulding glued in place before the heavens truely opened.

After lunch it was onto the inside of the van and the routing of the cables behind the internal trim and into the passenger seat box where the regulator was fitted and the battery charge leads wired into the CBE DC consumer and control box.

Even with the light fading, as soon as the fuse was plugged in the solar regulator show that it was charging the leisure batteries.