Electrical Consultation & Design Services

Thank you for considering PYS for your marine electrical consultation and design services. As boaters, PYS understands the importance of a safe and reliable electrical system onboard.

PYS Marine Electrical Technicians have consulted, designed, and worked on thousands of boats throughout the world, and this repetition makes us specialists at what we do. The marine electrical system is at the heart of every boat and, simple or complicated; these systems are based on industry standards to keep you and your crew safe. It is this “expertise through repetition” combined with our desire to “do things right versus just making them work” that has made us leaders in the industry.

A Systematic Approach to Electrical Design

Through our extensive experience, PYS has developed a systematic two-phase approach to assist you in designing a marine electrical system that is safe and reliable while recognizing that it should be easy to understand and troubleshoot:

1. Consultation phase: PYS will work with you to define the requirements of your electrical system and select the fundamental electrical building blocks for your boat.
2. Design phase: PYS will create schematic(s) to show how your electrical devices should be interconnected.

Let’s Get Started!

The consultation phase is the most interactive portion of the process. We will discuss the requirements of your electrical system and how you want to use your boat to lay the groundwork for the design phase.

For the first meeting, and to save time and lower your consultation costs, we will ask you to prepare a Consultation Brief that contains:

• Your project objectives (stay at anchor longer, cruising offshore, fishing, etc.)
• What’s currently not working on your electrical system
• The existing electrical components on your boat that you would like to incorporate into the new design
• A wish list of new equipment that you would like to purchase and install
• Any relevant pictures you may have of your existing system

We ask that you create one consolidated document (saved in pdf format), rather than multiple emails, and submit it as an attachment to solutions@pysystems.ca with the subject title “Consultation Brief.”

Kick-Off Meeting

The purpose of the Kick-Off Meeting (up to 1 hour) is to review your Consultation Brief with a PYS Marine Electrical Designer. Once an overview of the project is complete, we can start exploring some of the electrical building blocks that are required. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and discuss the nuances of selecting one electrical building block versus another. We have put together a list of the most common building blocks, and we encourage you to use this as a checklist for our discussion.

Electrical Building Blocks

Each building block has dedicated videos, published articles, blogs, and FAQs available on this website.

We recommend reviewing this list while you are putting together your Consultation Brief. Include your questions, and a PYS Marine Electrical Designer will make recommendations. These are the most common building blocks of a marine electrical system:

• AC & DC panel
• Alternator
• Battery bank size and chemistry
• Battery combiner
• Battery isolator
• Battery charger
• Battery monitoring
• DC to DC charger
• External regulator
• Galvanic Isolator
• Inverter
• Inverter/charger
• Isolation Transformer
• Methanol fuel cell
• Solar controller
• Solar panel

Follow-Up Meeting(s)

All Consultation Packages includes a Kick-Off meeting (as described above). Depending on the project, some boaters want to further refine the requirements of their electrical system with a one-on-one Follow-Up Meeting(s) (up to 1 hr in duration). See the Consultation Package details below to determine which Consultation Package includes a Follow-Up Meeting(s).

Offline Support

Not all the details are necessarily captured in the Kick-Off Meeting or even the subsequent Follow-up Meeting(s). As boaters, it’s important to make the best decision and do the homework first. Researching and validating your ideas or flushing out new options is what we do prior to jumping to the design stage.

Which Consultation Package is Best for Me?

Choose a Consultation Package that matches the level of complexity of your design project. Boaters commonly match the level of support in both the consultation and design packages. For example, a boater who chooses the intermediate design package will commonly choose the intermediate consultation package as well. The three consultation packages are:

Consultation - Basic “I’ve Got This” Consultation Package – You know exactly which electrical building blocks you want. The Basic Consultation Package includes a Kick-Off Meeting with your assigned PYS Marine Electrical Designer and a confirmation that the chosen Design Packages are well suited for your project.

Consultation - Intermediate “I Need a Little More Time” Consultation Package – This is our most popular package, it provides all the benefits of the Basic Package, plus an additional one-on-one Follow-Up Meeting with your assigned PYS Marine Electrical Designer to further flush out the selection of your electrical system building blocks. You will also receive up to one extra hour of email support for your questions.

Consultation - Advanced “Let’s Do This” Consultation Package – For those of you who want to further flush out the details before going into the design phase. You enjoy “geeking out” and want to get involved in most if not all the decisions. Besides the Kick-Off Meeting, you will receive two Follow-up Meetings with your assigned PYS Marine Electrical Designer, plus up to three hours of email correspondence.

What if I chose the wrong package? Not to worry, if you would like more or less time and attention, you can change the package following the Kick-Off Meeting.

Next Phase: Your Electrical Design

Now the magic happens. Once you decide what you would like to see on your boat, a PYS Marine Electrical Designer will put all of the electrical system building blocks together in a schematic.

Moving Forward

Now that you understand our process and what to expect, we would like to answer some of our most frequently asked questions:

Once my retainer is paid, when can I expect to start my project with PYS?
Paying your retainer secures your project in the scheduling queue of your assigned PYS Marine Electrical Designer. On average, the lead time to project Kick-Off is four to eight weeks from the payment of the retainer.

What is the best way to maximize my time with a PYS Marine Electrical Designer to reduce costs?
It always comes down to homework. If you spend more of your time consolidating and summarizing communications, we can spend more time consulting and designing. Spend some time putting together your Consultation Brief and ask your questions there. Consolidate your follow-up questions and feedback in fewer emails. This will reduce the number of emails and billable hours.

How do I pay for my retainer?
We accept Visa, Mastercard, or a bank wire transfer

Let’s Do This!

1. Let us know which Consultation and Design Packages you selected by sending us an email at solutions@pysystems.ca
2. We will send you a retainer invoice for payment
3. Prepare and email your Consultation Brief
4. A PYS Marine Electrical Designer will contact you to schedule a Kick-Off Meeting either by phone, video chat or email