Solar panel

Hi folks,
May be a daft question but on my Bourton with an 80 size panel I can see no sign of any input on the control panel. Does this mean it's not working or do the batteries have to drop to a certain level before the panel kicks in? It had been a sunny day in the High Peak today, rare I know. Cheers for any advice.

Assuming you are not connected to a mains hookup and have no load connected, you should see the battery voltage rise significantly higher than its normal resting voltage.

On mine (with a 100W panel) the leisure battery rises to a little over 14V when the panel is in full sunlight. The normal resting voltage of my leisure battery is between 12.6 and 12.8V.

I have 110 watts of solar panels and generally get a reading off the control panel that fluctuates from 0 up to 2 or 3 amps when on hook up and the batteries are fully charged. I might have to wait a minute or more but the reading will come up now and again. When no power is connected, I get a steadierreading as the batteries voltage starts to drop. Even in torrential rain today, I got a steady .7 Amps showing.
Allan

With no power connected and on a sunny day I am not getting a reading so it appears there must be a fault. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Here in Benidorm my 90watt panels have shown up to 5.2 amps.

John.

Been into dealer today, they were informed by Sargent that the E480 panel required recaliberation. This has been done and all now appears ok.