Over the last few days Deb ran some errands in town, made some jewelry and re-glued the headliner in the stateroom.

She had fixed the headliner before but part of it came loose again. The problem, we think, was possibly some water had gotten in the overhead from the leak Deb fixed a couple of weeks ago. The last time she glued the foam backing and the headliner back up before we new about the leak. This time it looks like the foam backing stayed glued, but the headliner had came loose from the backing. Now, with the leak fixed and the re-gluing of the headliner, we are hoping the problem is solved.

I have spent a couple of days trying to figure out why the batteries are not getting to full charge. I have done a lot of system checking and some research.

I think I have figured out what’s going on.

It has been unusually cold for this area. This morning, when I got up, it was 19º F here in Kinards, SC.

It was 29°F in Annapolis, MD and 27°F Madison, SD. It’s supposed to be warmer here!

With the cold, the furnace is running a lot. It’s running for about 5 minutes, every 5 minutes at night when it’s coldest.

When the voltage from the batteries gets too low, the furnace fan will start but the burner does not light, so the furnace just blows cold air. Not to helpful.

The reason for the furnace not lighting is something called a sail switch. It figures it has to be something to do with sailing.

The sail switch is an on/off device. (normally in the off position) It gets it's name from the "sail" or paddle that is attached to the switch mechanism. As the blower comes up to speed, it blows air onto the sail with enough force to push the switch closed, thus allowing electrical current to flow to the next component in line.
                                                                                  
So with low voltage, the fan never blows hard enough to close this switch and turn on the gas for heat. The race is canceled because there is not enough air for the sail.

So why is the battery voltage so low? Here is what I think is going on.

At night or when it’s really cold and the furnace is running for about 5 minutes, every 5 minutes, that’s a lot of power consumption. Our furnace, a Hydro Flame Excalibur 8535-III draws 8.2 amps or 98 watts. If it runs 5 minutes on and 5 minutes off for 12 hours that’s 1176 watt hours a day!

While that’s a big load, the converter/charger should be able to keep up. I am going to do a systematic system check to see why we have low voltage on the system.