[3RRL]

Bruce and Tom, thank you for the replies.
The contractor supposedly has installed the new HUB-10 and said in an email it's all good. We'll see when we get back. I'll try starting the large motor again. We are bringing up another load including some desks to go into the home. That means busting my back to get them up the stairs. I'm not looking forward to all that hard work.

I have 96 of those water miser caps on the batteries right now.
Here's what I've noticed. Every time I "snap them shut, I need to push both front and rear down or they do not seal right. Plus I get an eyeful of acid from the little "click". They work as far as reducing the amount of gas in the shed, but apparently not real good at retaining liquid in the cells. At least not as good as I thought. I still have to re-fill frequently. The solar contractor noted his other customers saying the same thing. He is working with us to make these changes and has not charged us yet, so that is good. Except I just got an email from saying he has to charge us for some acid he's bringing up and 3 trips up to the property. Crap, I spoke too soon.

Bruce, you were right about the shunt too. He relocated the charging cables thinking that was part of the problem.
Loretta got the Tm 500 up and running so we can monitor the amps and actually see when we turn a light on ... man it is cool. Now if she would only tell me what that means ...lol. It appears he figured out that our system would produce 32kw daily before the generator kicks on. I know when we use more energy than that, it will come on. But Loretta also got another program from one of the guys on the Solar forum and is learning to use it. It logs 24hrs a day and tells when we are making power and when we are using it. Again, she knows much more about it than I do. She has been sending the logs to the contractor who is studying them. He said he was able to use some of the information to help with his adjustments. You might know what it is she bought? Watt Plot I think.

Anyway, it looks like the generator is coming on even when we are not there when the home uses substantially less than 32kw hrs. So there is something wrong and that is what he is trying to get to the bottom of. I hope he does. Even when we are there, we have learned via the TM500 to use very little kW's. We unplug little thing like our toothbrushes, computers, phone chargers, everything we can think of. We are often way below what the panels can make and the generator still kicks on, mostly later in the night. We are constantly seeing 56v or more on the Mate during the day and as the sun goes down it goes down to 50v and even 48v, when the generator kicks back on before it gets too low. That tells me the batteries are just not holding their charge.
But what do I know?