Transcript is auto-generated.
today we're gonna be talking about the
electrical top-10 so these are kind of
the different type of product sets that
we use commonly and that are really
popular amongst other voters pys is a
company that basically focuses on
electrical and electronic systems on
boats so we specialize and pretty much
today's topic is gonna be the most
common items that we install on boats
and why owners choose them and what you
should be looking for I guess I should
talk about that this is pretty much the
agenda so the format of the presentation
for every single product set that's
going to be out there I'm gonna tell you
what and why that product what you
should be looking for when you buy that
product what are things that you should
make sure you have as you're buying that
type of product and then also the last
slide so we're gonna be doing three
slides per product is gonna be the
installation tips so things you should
be looking for when installing those
products on your own boat okay feel free
to raise your hand while I'm doing the
presentation I welcome it and with that
we're gonna get started so the number
one product that I emphasize for all
boat owners that are cruising so people
that actually leave the dock to go to
the language and are planning to spend
any time away from the dock and have to
use their batteries in a deep cycle
application is a battery monitor and
without that really it's like going in
the in the forest in the backcountry
without a compass or a GPS you can maybe
find your way you maybe you can look at
the south and figure that where things
are and the moss is growing on the north
side of the trees and you can find a way
and you feel your way through it but at
the end of the day you're not gonna
really know where you are you're gonna
just feel it
and so with a battery monitor the great
thing about it is there's no more
guessing you actually accurately know
what's happening in the batteries and
really when you think about all this
mystical battery related I guess
information that's out there legacy
information the real reason is that
there was no way in the past actually no
accurately what your battery capacity
was and it all means batteries were
almost this mystical thing that were
temperamental that you know depended on
what day or what side of the bed you
woke up on and it was kind of like this
all and so well you know it's batteries
well in actuality batteries are really
reliable there's nothing wrong with a
battery probably the problem it's not
the batteries is what users would do on
the battery and then expect the
batteries to last and to be able to
withstand any type of abuse for extended
periods of time so the battery monitor
gives you the ability of knowing where
you are and knowing where you are is
gonna maximize battery life and it's
gonna come with no surprises so what
type of information are you looking for
you're gonna be looking for state of
charge like what is the capacity of your
batteries are my batteries at ninety
percent of capacity eighty percent of
capacity fifty-five percent of capacity
so that's really useful the other thing
that's really useful is that that
information will in turn actually
influence what size of battery bank you
should have on your boat one of the most
common questions I ask when people asked
me a question is how much batteries do I
need is well what's your amp hour budget
right an amp our budget is everything
your daily amp our budget is a little
bit like knowing how much money do you
need to go travelling in Europe for two
weeks well it really depends on your
habits you know what hotel are you
staying at you're staying at a hostel or
you're saying in the Four Seasons right
are you saying I'm a Ramadan or are you
staying at a Sheraton well your usage
patterns on your boat are gonna drive
how much capacity you should have on
your boat and a good way to know that
accurately as opposed to me guessing or
you guessing is to have a battery
monitor that tells you and over time
you're gonna sense them yeah my daily
average in the summer is a hundred half
hours or it's three hundred and with
that information then you can start
knowing that you can start sizing a
battery bank for your use the other
thing that's really interesting is not
only is it giving you a powers which is
kind of the unit of
measure of capacity right it's like a
liter or kilogram a kilometer you're
actually also gonna know the rate at
which you're going through your
batteries right and that's amps right
it's a little bit like a good analogy as
a power boater
the rate at which you're discharging
your batteries is a little bit like
burning fuel on a power boat the faster
you go it's not a linear correlation if
you go really really fast on a power
boat your burn rate is really gonna
affect the distance that you can travel
because when you're actually traveling
really fast you need to be at that
top-end speed you're actually burning a
lot more fuel than if you would be going
slower times longer period of time and
your batteries are the same battery
capacity is really a function at the
rate at which you discharge your
batteries and it's really interesting as
an owner to know what are your what
speed are you currently doing you know
it's like being in a school zone right
like without knowing and having a
battery monitor are you going thirty
kilometres an hour in the school zone
are you going fifty and on a boat you
should be knowing like what am i doing
right now I'm going to bed everything's
off why am i drawing fifteen apps you
know oh I forgot the I left the inverter
on right and the inverter is powering an
AC appliance that I left in the kitchen
and I'm going to bed I'm gonna be
drawing fifteen amps every hour so it's
15 amp hours every hour for eight hours
well that's a hundred and twenty amp
hours for nothing right so you want to
like if I'm going to bed you know my
lights got to be off well another thing
you want to Lou you're looking around
you look at your battery monitor what
are your apps at that given time and
over a time you're realizing oh yeah it
makes sense you know like I'm running
the windless I'm going to be drawing 80
amps flipside you could also be saying
all my alternators are running but I
don't see current going into my
batteries am i charging right it's a
negative deficit like I'm seeing a drawn
my batteries and my mains are running
and I'm not at idle what Oh my
alternators aren't working why are they
not working right so it gives you all
this information and for the owners that
we do work that have a battery monitor
the the conversations that I can have
with them on the phone when they're in
desolation sound or the Gulf Islands and
I can ask them put this on put that off
what are you see
it's unbelievable the Diagnostics that
you can have when you know what the
voltage the amps and the amp hours are
on your boat for a knowledgeable
technician or you know maybe another
boater that's beside you that's an
engineer or someone who's a techie or
whatever if you have that information
you can really start making educated
guesses on what's going on on your boat
with that info so that's why battery num
battery monitors are a my number one
solution electrical solution yes yes
they are and you actually there's a link
you can go to our website and we have a
media link when you go to the media
you'll see there's a section with all
our presentations as I do them are being
uploaded and they're gonna be left on
there okay you can also send me an email
I'll send you the link as well so what
are the things you want to look at when
you're buying a battery monitor because
there's different types so you want to
make sure that you have a shunt the
shunt is what's actually measuring the
current going in and out of the battery
that at least 300 amps right because you
don't want to shun that scan that's
capped at too low amperage you want to
make sure that you get a battery monitor
that will show you capaci in percentage
why that's important is because let's be
honest not everyone loves I'm an
engineer I love I'm okay with fractions
but not everyone likes fractions right
and if you are only counting amp hours
and you have to remember all my
batteries eight hundred and eighty amp
hours I've drawn out 292 and powers what
is my battery capacity right for most
people is like blah right they're gonna
be like but if I give you an a
percentage and I say you're at 78% of
capacity that's like just readily
available like everyone gets that I'm at
78% of battery capacity I know where I
am so it just makes it a little easier
to have battery capacity expressed in a
percentage as opposed to just simply
having a counter the other thing too is
there's popular models that we like I've
put three models the blue C's ones is
new what I like about that one is
actually in one page or one screenshot
it's going to show you a powers volts
and amps the smaller ones that I you see
on the side the ones that came out with
a link 10 you have to actually scroll
left or
to see all the information and the
problem is sometime as an owner you
might be looking at it from a distance
and you're not going to take the time to
go change the setting to see the other
values to see all that at one glance is
perfect because with those three things
you really know what's happening at your
batteries so that blue sees them too is
new and I'm really liking it the other
one too is the Victor on the 702 what's
amazing is I wrote an article about it
you can actually have a Bluetooth module
with it and you can actually have it on
your phone you can actually have your
battery monitor relayed via bluetooth
your health of your batteries to your
phone obviously you have to be on board
because it's Bluetooth so it's a local
area network but at the end of the day
it's pretty neat you know for some of us
that have maybe a little bit bigger Bo's
and the battery monitor is down and I
don't know down in the cabin on the
lower helm and you're up in the pylons
and you're like oh my batteries charging
you can look at your phone you're like
oh yeah my alternators all putting
because I'm getting a charging current
underway right so it's kind of easy and
it's it's actually not pricey so those
would be three models to look for all
right so what are the tips for doing in
a battery monitor first of all battery
monitors are suited for deep cycle
applications even for some of my clients
that have endless money and I do have a
few of those I still would never
recommend that they put a battery
monitor on their starter applications it
doesn't matter it's just our cars don't
need battery monitors because the
battery only thing it does is starts it
goes to 99% it gets full again voltage
is a great indication of capacity in a
starter application and even if you have
endless money there's really no need to
put a battery monitor on a starter but
on a deep cycle battery is where it
makes sense so they're suited for deep
cycle make sure this is the gotcha that
actually is missed on probably at least
50% of all battery monitors on installed
on boats you have these magical battery
banks that have half the current draw
going through them and their fridges are
only drawing 20 amp hours a day and it's
amazing how efficient my fridge is and
oh yeah like everything on my boat is
half of what it normally is I'm a lucky
guy
and what they don't realize is they're
an only measuring half the current going
through the battery
right so it's really important that the
shunt actually is a choke point and no
other connections can actually bypass
that the shunt is the is a device that
is connected right beside the negative
of the collective house battery bank and
no other negative can bypass it so
everything has to be after the shunt so
it goes from engine from house battery
negative to a shunt shunt to a negative
distribution bar and then all your
negatives have to be on that negative
distribution bar it's like character
like folks that count cars onto a bridge
if you're only looking at Burrard bridge
and you only look at what's happening on
board and you're not seeing the cars
that are coming in from Pacific you're
gonna be missing part of the traffic
there are cars that are coming from
Pacific and there's cars coming from
both ways so if you're only counting
cars a little bit deeper on Burrard
you're gonna be like oh there's only 80%
of traffic in reality you're missing all
this you might be missing the sbar I've
had some clients that tell me as FAR's
don't take any power
what's because the S bar was bypassing
the shunt right there as far took no
power well there's no such thing they
have to take power so you got to be
really careful if you've got numbers are
too good to be true with your battery
monitor and you're the best and you're
out there alone and you're like
miraculous numbers it's probably because
your battery monitor doesn't capture
everything
unfortunately make sure the voltage is
and the battery monitor power are
connected directly in the battery
otherwise if you turn the battery switch
off the battery monitor is gonna lose
power and also is gonna lose the
settings right so that would be really
up and the also you wouldn't believe at
least fifty seventy percent of battery
monitors don't have the amp hours
configured in them so battery capacity
can only be an indication of capacity if
the battery monitor knows how much
capacity you have configured on the
device okay so it's really important and
I see that all the time you'll have a
client that has six golf carts and the
default setting is two hundred and
they're going through their battery
monitor they're like oh my god I have no
batteries
I'm always empty but what they don't
realize is their battery monitors got
the default setting of 200 so he might
have drained 200
hours he's got 600 he should be at only
1/3 of discharge right 200 on 600 but
he's 200 on 200 his batteries say that
he has zero capacity left so configuring
the amp hours on the battery monitor is
utterly essential for it to actually
give you an accurate representation of
your capacity yes yes absolutely the
reason why you don't do that is because
the the the good thing about the shunt
on the negative is everything's negative
on your boat everything is grounded your
engine block is grounded everything's
grounded so if something touches that
it's not gonna be hot the problem is if
you bash of does a lot of metal right so
if anything ever touched that
accidentally you're putting a I don't
know a broom metal broom in your engine
and you're touching the engine right
everything that's positive has to be
covered everything so now you've got
this large device it's metallic then
you'd have to find a way to cover it
right because it's positive so it's
arbitrary it doesn't really matter if
you've got a loop are you gonna measure
going cars going this way or you've got
to come back the other way so you can
certainly put it on the positive you
just want to put it on the negative for
there's no debt shorts between a
negative and a negative and your whole
boat is negative everything on your boat
is negative but very few things are
positive and anything that's positive is
protected and covered that's why studs
on engines right on the starter have a
cap the alternator cap same thing on the
alternator there's a cap you're supposed
to cover your battery you're gonna have
an insurance adjuster come onboard
they'll make sure you've put a battery
box cover because the positive posts can
be exposed right so you cover all
positive on a boat so it would just be
more tedious but it's arbitrary it
doesn't matter the manual stipulates
that it's negative but I explain you why
they're saying that okay does that
answer your question okay great all
right so that's a battery monitor all
right inverter Chargers so what's an
inverter charger inverter charger is
basically allows you the benefit of
actually running AC loads on your boat a
without a generator connected to shore
power
it's probably again the number two most
popular item that we do on boats and
really the one of the biggest reasons
why we end up putting inverter charges
on both switch inverters are probably
larger than they need to be is because
owners want to have the large charger
associated with it because as battery
banks are getting bigger and bigger you
want to have at least 10% of your
battery capacity in their charge rate
and an inverter charger is a really
affordable way of getting a high output
charger like a 2000 watt inverter
charger it's gonna come with a hundred
amp charger so it's common and
especially on my boat I've got a 2000
watt inverter not because I need the
watt inverter mm yeah sometimes it's
nice to have it but I wouldn't really
bought it but I really wanted a hundred
amp charger because I have an 800 amp
hour battery bank so you need to charge
at the right rate and that's a good way
of getting a good high output charger
and buying a high a thousand one hundred
watt 100 amp charger is gonna cost you
the same amount of money as buying a
2000 watt inverter charger because they
just don't sell as many alright so what
are things to look for first of all
marine only inverters are a must because
all right
they're doing certain things inside that
a land-based inverter won't do I don't
want I can't get into why trust me
if you value your underwater metals on
your boat get a Marine base inverter if
money really doesn't now anybody is
gonna put an on marine based inverter on
their boat values money but the question
is what do you value more the money that
you're gonna save on an inverter or
you're underwater metals and based on
the damage that I see on underwater
metals on a boat I can tell you that
whatever money you save on an inverter
is going to be eclipsed with the bill
that you're gonna have in in certain
conditions with the damage that you're
gonna have on your running gear so it's
really a Pennywise pound-foolish to go
and get a non marine inverter okay I'll
leave it at that
make sure you get a true sine wave true
sine waves are the ability to run
inductive loads inductive loads are your
Nespresso machine your microwave your
battery charger your TV's anything
that's not resistive a resistive load is
a toaster and a heating element like a
ceramic heater so older inverters like
freedom for example zan tracks freedom
they're modified sine-wave and they're
not as efficient so it literally is you
know if you go to the bank and there's a
currency exchange between 12 volts and
120 s should be a factor of 10 right a
good and true sine wave inverter is
gonna take three points four points to
convert from DC to AC a modified sine
wave inverter is gonna take thirty five
points 35 35 points so you're losing
two-thirds of your power on conversion
on a modified sine wave which is
significant because no one has enough
battery capacity so for you to run that
AC load it's gonna be at a premium on a
true sign wave it's gonna be a 3%
premium on a modified sine wave there's
going to be a 35% premium and so for
some of you that are running AC fridges
this means that your AC fridge is
drawing 35% more power than if you took
a true sine wave inverter so for example
this often in the fall I've got owners
that have these big AC fridges they
can't change them they're custom they
were built around the cabinet you know
it'd be a big deal to change the best
way to make that fridge efficient is to
change your modified sine wave inverter
and put a true sine wave inverter
suddenly the fridge is 35 percent more
efficient because you're not losing all
that power through conversion some of
them make sure it's remote-controlled
right that's not a problem generally
with the nicer models the ability to
turn the inverter on and off is
paramount paramount because they have a
lot of them have high idle drawers and
there's consequences again I can't
explain to you all the whys but there
are huge consequence of having an
inverter on 24/7 when you're not on
board take my word for it you don't want
that to happen again if you value money
and then popular models Magnum Vic Tron
I didn't put master volt traces while
traces and the gone now but I'll back is
really good you want big brand names
something you can trust ok that tracks
used to be good they're not
unfortunately there's they're just
they're not what these needs to be
really good but not anymore
ok oh yeah so purchasing tips alright
installation yeah go ahead
freedom probably there it's very
unlikely there was a the chances of you
having a true sign waves and racks is
probably 2% yeah I I know all this
numbers you're probably like why do you
know this we work on 400 boats a year I
get on probably six hundred boats a year
myself I get to see quantity so it's
just at one point you just get to know
boats and so yeah it's very unlikely zan
tracks
had their peak they're super popular
model was the modified sine-wave it's
the most ubiquitous inverter charger out
there practically any boat that has an
inverter you can put money down that
that's what they have 50% of the boats
have that and they were good at the time
but they're they were good at the time
they're just failing because they're
getting old but there's nothing wrong
with those inverters other than being
modified sine-wave and old yeah that's
right the newer ones yeah the newer ones
that's not the case all right so what
are the things that practically 98% of
all inverter Chargers not at least 95
for sure are badly installed guaranteed
it's the most common thing and the
reason why is you buy an inverter the
manual is literally a centimeter thick
and no self-respecting man needs to read
a manual that's one centimeter thick
it's stupid right it's belittling and
they're not gonna do it okay whoever
wrote that is an idiot it's simple look
at the box honey I got this and look it
works hence I did it right okay all
right and that's not a joke okay
literally when I meet an inverter that
was properly installed there is a
handshake happening high-fives
I'm like you're the one 2016 I'm not
gonna see it again okay that's how rare
it is it never happens yeah
correct when you're not on board yeah
that's where you're saying that's where
the confusion between an inverter and an
inverter charger the inverter function
has to be disabled the charger function
has to be enabled the problem is if you
have the inverter enabled your battery
you can lose Shore power which happens
all the time
then whatever AC appliances you have on
your boat are gonna be run through your
inverter and if you have a ceramic
heater or anything AC appliances your
battery going to drain and then the very
thing that you're supposed to keep your
batteries full to run the bilge pumps
they're not gonna be able to run because
the batteries are gonna be completely
drained and a battery that is completely
drained and left uncharged for a period
of time sulfates heavily and there is no
resuscitation like if you have a heart
attack and you don't have one of those
machines within a 5 minute period you
can't come back two weeks later it's
like it's all good we'll see PRM your
batteries will not be saved after you're
away from your boat for a month and
you're like Oh Jeff it's ok we'll charge
them now no the batteries are gone
they're 20% of what they used to you can
lug around lead if you want but there
will be a former former part of
themselves ok and you're just carrying
on weight and then what happens is
you've got to change your old battery
bank again and some of you have small
battery banks but some of you had larger
ones and some of the larger ones are
hard to install it's not just the back
cost of the battery it's lugging those
batteries back onboard right so I've had
clients that have six thousand dollar
bills four thousand dollars bill three
thousand I'm telling you do not leave
that inverter on if you are not on the
boat sure leave the charger on but
disable the inverter function on your
boat it's a choice we're all boaters we
do what you want but I'm telling you
don't do it all right
inverter so you want a classy fuse it's
not an option fuses aren't fuses it's
like there's different fuses for
different applications the manuals
stipulate then you need the Class D fuse
you need an on-off master switch again I
if I explain all the why
we'll be here literally till midnight
okay so I've got to just tell you what
the whys take always longer right have
make sure you have an on-off master
disconnect it has to be a big switch not
on/off and the inverter all this stuff
it has to be there the big issue to that
you're gonna probably either be a pro or
hire a pro is most people never separate
the neutral bus because it works but
there's huge consequences about that you
have to have an inverter only neutral
bus that are running inverter only loads
the chassis ground wire is always under
sized always because people don't read
the manual okay so the it's like having
a tiny shoulder you know you got a
highway and there's not room for a car
if you got our shoulder this big it's
not a shoulder you need a shoulder on a
highway for a car you got a shoulder
this big you can't pull over so that's
what the chassis ground is there for is
to in case you have something go wrong
you need a secondary path to finish the
circuit right it's on AC it's a three
wire system one end to out okay
and then obviously the location of the
inverter inverters can't be in gasoline
engine rooms they just can't
how often do I see it get a inverter in
a compartment beside the gasoline engine
room that has holes this big that the
owner drilled is saying well it's not in
the engine room anymore I'm like no no
the engine room is everywhere now
because you have holes that are like
inches wide and the vapor that are gonna
fall from your gasoline raker filter are
not going to be trapped magically by a
force field within your engine room
they're literally going to go in the
other compartment beside and inverters
unlike chartres chargers are not
ignition protected right so if you ever
have a gasoline leak and it gets really
warm in the summer and the vapors of
fuel are everywhere in that space and
you have an inverter that inverter when
it turns on or off it might it's not
ignition protected you might get a spark
so that's why it's again super important
that an inverter cannot be in a gasoline
engine room or in a space that is
somehow connected to that engine room
whatever it is so papers cannot get
through like you
can't even fly you shouldn't see any
light it needs to be vapor proof which
makes it hard to install yes to properly
install an inverter and this will blow
the mind of the people in the room and
I've installed hundreds well not myself
it's a three-day operation 320 hours to
install an inverter now of course if I
have a gun to my head and I want to do
it like wrong I can probably do it in a
day in a bit but again don't kid
yourself it's not done its properly
you're bypassing all these steps and
sure you can do it in a day today maybe
and a half but it's probably gonna be
undersized wires you're gonna use the
wires you have you'll put the chassis
ground - I've seen it - a through-hole
because you figure the through Hall is
bounded so there you go you can take all
these so-called shortcuts but these
shortcuts are not it's not what the
manual says so it's a two and a half day
to install inverter charger properly
well it depends on the labor rate that
you whoever you hire my my labor rate is
108 dollars an hour so you can do the
math so it's at least two ran on labor
alone at least
okay so again but I do things right
there's various degrees out there that's
up to you to decide what's right for you
right all right
so by the way that's a bonus slides this
just show now that's really cool I wrote
an article in Tech Talk you can actually
start monitoring your inverter charge or
over Wi-Fi from remote places you think
why would I care that the newer models
are actually almost the hub center of
your boat they're connected to all these
different sources you can lose see if
you lost AC power if you left your
inverter on what your battery capacity
is all these different things and you
can do that on an app so pretty neat all
right AGM batteries why would you want
AGM batteries you want AGM batteries
because they've got greater usable
capacity limited venting their leak
proof you don't need a battery box they
have low self discharge rate and they're
great for both deep cycle and starter
application it's like win win win win
win the downside costs double the price
of a
flooded so what it is so but remember
it's got 50% more capacity right 50% so
that's substantial so already that
offsets double the price not completely
but in part you can buy AGM batteries in
all different types of configuration
group 31 24 27 golfcart ad 4d slimline l
16 all those are like lumber lumber is a
set dimension everyone agrees Goodfellow
warehouser they do two by threes two by
four four by eights everyone cuts the
wood in the same type of standard size
and then you can buy it in different
type of materials fir birch maple same
thing with batteries you can buy them in
dimensions different chemist types of
materials is it flooded gel AGM there's
variations of AGM now and you can also
buy them from different manufacturers
east been deca discovery right so
there's all these there's three
variables when choosing a battery who
makes it what kind of chemistry you have
and what battery size okay but golf cart
a GM's come in all of them from
different vendors okay so you've got
options their popular site popular
models that I put in there oh by the way
I see this if you've got a dude selling
you a battery from the trunk of his the
the back of his trunk car and the
battery doesn't have a GM sticking on it
but like at some weird name and it's
half the weight of a normal battery and
he says that's a bonus and I've got guys
that got conned and it's like a deal
from a deal and I know a guy dude and
I'm telling you the $600 a battery for
$300 look how light it is it's a GM
there's no such thing as a light AGM
battery okay when you buy a battery by
LED that's all you're buying so it's got
to be heavy and if it it's got
serviceable caps it's not a GM right an
AGM is not serviceable so there are all
there people that take advantage of
people that are driven you know to think
that there's some sweet mystical battery
out there at half the price of another
battery and unfortunately I've seen some
clients that have literally from the
trunk of a car bought two batteries
and in the end those batteries were not
what they thought they were okay yeah
yeah that's right
well yeah okay there's three okay
there's the standard AGM then you
there's another one called thin plate
pure led okay which is now getting a lot
of traction which is another 50 percent
above that like for example a golf cart
AGM prior to the dollar falling like
crazy last summer $300 a tin plate pure
led AGM for 450 unbelievable battery is
incredible okay a really good better
discharge rate better capacity better
charge rate better better better
everything is really amazing and now
there's a foam base AGM battery and the
big thing about the foam 8 and that's
another double so now it's actually more
than double so it's like $700 that
battery has the big thing I was saying
is it allows for being in partial state
of discharge in perpetuity okay
I honestly this could be eight hours
like no joke and I could just keep going
anyways it's not a gimmick it isn't and
it's a big thing for people to go
offshore anybody who goes offshore and
are considering AGM should really be
looking at the Firefly Oasis because the
battery life and what its gonna give you
out in the field is phenomenal and don't
take my word for it go on forums go see
experts like Nigel Calder and all these
different people and it's the real deal
yeah it's more but it's like your car
nobody buys a car based on price alone
so don't buy a battery based on price
alone it's there's more to a battery
than just price yes
absorbed glass mat battery and it's
still a light acid battery it's not
lithium yes
you know no separate again we'll talk
about that later yeah but yeah I do not
equalizer AGM some people say you should
but a lot of people say do not do it I
prefer I don't think you should equalize
a battery on your boat AGM you're gonna
do it do it in a shop where if something
happens it's gonna affect the shop about
your boat I love my boat I would never
do it on a boat it's not a workspace for
equalizing an AGM battery okay don't
take the chance I again people are like
what's equalization I only have an hour
all right installation tapes you know
make sure that when you size your
batteries you size it so that you'll
never go below the lowest point of
discharge an AGM battery typically can
go to 30 the newer ones can go to 20 so
you can go from a hundred to thirty
comfortably and have the same discharge
cycles as a flooded flooded is 50 AGM is
30 and the better AGM the TP the thin
plate pure LEDs or the foam can go all
the way down to 20 so you have more
usable battery capacity so hence you
need less batteries to have the same
capacity make sure you have a charger
that's AGM compatible not all of them
are and you can't mix in parallel
certainly different battery chemistries
so you can't have like three golf four
golf carts and say oh I'm gonna put my
new pair of golf carts are gonna be in
parallel with the old pair are gonna be
flooded in AGM you can't do that like if
you're gonna have one bank it needs to
be all the same okay alright the next
one is smart battery chargers so what I
know it's for some of you it's silly but
a battery charger what is the battery
charger do a battery charger takes AC
power and makes DC power now it's not a
converter but converters are kind of a
misnomer for a charger and converters
are things that you see a lot on older
AC panels and those are devices that you
could never really leave on for
permanently because they would boil your
batteries over you know they would
trickle charge trickle charge is not a
word that's beust anymore it's just a
word doesn't mean anything but they were
they got it wrong by about point one
point two volts and it would actually
boil your battery
slowly it's kind of like death by a
thousand paper cuts or you know eating a
grain of rice or water torture you know
it's just one drop on the forehead will
drive you nuts
and that's what it is you know being a
big deal well it's not a big deal for 24
hours or 48 or a week but if you leave
it on for four months that battery will
boil over and it happens all the time
all the time people are like ah dad I
left it on I shouldn't and then they got
a change you know six golf carts eight
golf carts so if you have a non-smart
charger on board ask yourself are you
really the type of person that is so
ritualistic that will never ever ever
ever ever forget to turn it off because
if you forget to turn it off you're
gonna boil your batteries and you might
not blow them all the way down but don't
kid yourself if your batteries are
really thirsty and you see the plates
whatever surface area of your battery is
exposed it's gone like that battery is
gone and next time you charge it it's
gonna overheat much quickly and you're
gonna be topping off at the time so it's
always gonna be thirsty okay so it's
gonna go from a battery that needed so
much of maintenance to like twice or
three or four times the amount of
maintenance so you're constantly gonna
be topping it off because it's gonna
have a higher resistance under charge
and also you want to make sure that when
you sized a battery to a charger and
this is the probably the most overlooked
item as battery banks are getting larger
is to have a battery charger that size
for your battery bank these two things
are not independent of one another they
work in concert it's not like I had a
client for example he had four eight DS
and a 20 amp charger I'm not joking
don't know if you realize 20 amps it's
like working like forget minimum wage
and be like I know three dollars an hour
and thinking you're gonna retire and
ain't gonna happen you can't even feed
yourself
he couldn't be on board in charge his
batteries like he'd have to actually
leave because then the loads would stop
and then they had enough and it would
literally take him days to bring it back
up
but his batteries would prematurely die
and he have to change him frequently and
he didn't like batteries but he it's not
that the batteries were bad is that he
like charged them so slowly that they
would sulfate so you need to have at
least 10% of battery
charge 10% of charge rate as a function
of battery capacity so if you have four
golf carts let's call it 400 amp hours
in a 12 volt setting you need to have a
14 amp charger if you have like I do 8
golf carts 800 amp hours on 12 volts
I need elite AV apps now you can get
away with it and you won't know that
your batteries are not 100% charge but
you'll pre-match you'll age prematurely
like the batteries will not last leave
you as long like my batteries I'm on I
did I made it to 10 years and 2 months
on my boat when my flooded batteries
it's pretty good right now I have some
kinds have done better but I use my boat
a hundred days a year so that's a lot of
cycles but I also do follow the rules on
discharge follow the rules on charging
you know I follow the ritual right
there's a method I didn't invent it it's
out there and that's what a little bit
of I'm talking about so definitely make
sure that your charge rate is
appropriate for your battery capacity
and originally on your boat the
batteries were always smaller than what
they are now
people have been adding batteries it
just happens we just want more capacity
people find capacity somewhere and so
the problem is that the Chargers
overlooked and only the capacity is
looked at okay all right things that you
should look at if your a battery charger
three-phase so that means you should
have bulk absorption float you know
battery tight make sure that it does all
the battery types you want that
temperature compensated is really
important
remote panels not a bad option right so
they be able to you know see what's
happening in your batteries make sure
you have a marine model do not miss this
now this is not a joke do not forget
that no Canadian Tire charger on you can
do it but again you're gonna you're
gonna really regret it later
very much so popular models that we use
Pro Mariner the pro notic is phenomenal
they have from 10 to 60 amps great
charger never had one fail in the field
I've put hundreds in never had one
failure so incredible and I'm not the
only one vouching for it an awesome
charger and then master volt does really
good higher output Chargers like hundred
amps so we often use those ones on
bigger
hundred abs if it stops at 100 but you
can get a hundred out of 24 as well so
really good chargers make sure the
charger is 10 percent fuse at the
battery again that's a big thing that's
missed connect always at the battery not
after the switch that's a big no-no make
sure the breaker is able to handle the
new size of the charger because you if
you're changing from F 20 to 60 amp that
breaker might have been only 5 amps
before now I might need to be 10 amps of
the EC and commonly the dip switches on
the older chargers on the Zack tracks
the true charge 1 which are great the
two are awful you can't get it to like
remove a 2 on your boat it's gonna it's
awful there's pictures on the web of
actually pallets of true charge to being
returned literally pallets like stacked
like this high of true charge to being
returned okay I've had it we've we've
seen like dozens of boats that had it
that had huge problems you'd fry all the
batteries they'd overcharge they don't
die like in not charging they die in
overcharging and your or not on your
boat everyday right you might be
somewhere you're on a vacation you're in
right you come back your batteries are
completely boiled over done and some
boats that can be really expensive it's
not like a one group 31 it could be a
golf carts it could be twelve golf carts
they're gonna be - 8 DS for 8 DS right
you've got to change them all so big
deal make sure that you have also the
right battery type set on the charger
because those dip switches are easily
brushed you know you can brush them
people are in the engine room your
mechanic doesn't know he's in there it's
a tight space and suddenly the dip
switches goes from flooded to gel right
that would be really serious or the
wrong battery type battery temperature
there's all these different or the wrong
charge cycle they'll go fix I have one
client he was telling me his batteries
are always dying he actually only had it
set to bulk and absorption so he was
always overcharging his batteries he's
changing his batteries all the time the
charger was hidden he didn't know where
the charger was didn't understand and
was simply a dip switch that had been
missed so really important
and then lol you can also add a second
charger you know so we've got it often
where we're adding second third Chargers
on boats to reduce the charge right
that's a really popular thing that we do
for owners so that you reduce your
genset runtime alright solar panels so
why do people do solar panels I'll do a
presentation on Sunday keep the battery
stopped off because I've got it on a
mooring boy I want offset refrigeration
I didn't have refrigeration before I had
the right batteries now I've had a
refrigeration and I'm always in a
deficit so I want my solar panels to
offset my refrigeration Jeff I want to
be able I can stay two days in Ankur I
don't want I can't add more batteries I
don't have the space I want to be able
to stay another day Jeff I want to be
neutral I never want to worry about
power I had a client just today came in
the booth he's got a 45 foot sailboat
he's like I want what you have
I don't want to think about power
anymore I want to be completely under
neutral I don't even care about running
my alternator I don't want to care about
anything when I leave my Anchorage and I
get to the other one
I'm always want my batteries to be
topped off so you've got all these
different desires in terms of solar
panels you can mount it on canvas or
hard tops it's lightweight and durable
five year warranty like a 170 panel watt
panel weighs 5 pounds it's literally a
factor of 10 with a rigid so what are
the things that you should look when
you're purchasing a flexible solar panel
there's a long formula but there's a
shorthand formula luckily so what you do
is you can say if you have for example a
hundred watt panel and somebody says to
you well how many amp hours am I going
to get out of the panel you divide by
four that's gonna give you a daily amp
power output in summer from mid-june to
mid-september in a typical somewhat
sunny day clouds but nuts not gorgeous
if it's beautiful weather you divide by
three if it's terrible weather you
divide by five into summer but divided
by four is in the middle of the road
that's what you're gonna get on average
make sure you get good quality right
you'll see the construction
buyer beware when you're buying a panel
look at the panel before you buy it you
can tell right away the quality some
paddles are which have built-in dials
allow for shade protection some panels
don't again and then the popular models
there's a panel built in Seattle or
Washington or Rinku they're really good
I know they were doing presentations
here gioco which is anole in seoul bian
which is in italy and so bian invented
the line they're the ones that came up
with the product they're the first so
they've got the biggest market share but
they command the highest price point if
you're gonna install solar panels make
sure you install you need a controller
so you're gonna need an MPPT make sure
you get an efficient one you're gonna
need mc4 connectors and you want to
offset the voltage drop so don't really
make sure you make a good decision on
the wire size you don't want to lose ten
fifteen percent of the output of the
solar panel which you've paid a premium
because let's let's be honest it ain't
cheap right you don't want to lose ten
percent of the capacity every day of
your solar panels because you chose a
gauge 14 wire versus a gauge 10 because
you made a decision only on ampacity
right voltage drop is the biggest single
factor when sizing a wire predominantly
on a boat a pasady is there but
generally it's not the weak link voltage
drop on a 12 volt system is generally
the weak link and so you got a size for
both but generally the wire size is
gonna be determined more by voltage drop
than capacity and then make sure and
this is another I can't tell you again
why but make sure that the panel's are
directly connected at the battery not at
the panel at the battery again I wish I
could tell you all the wise but
unfortunately I'd be here until midnight
so I guess I'll answer questions if
people are curious and they're about to
do it but make sure you patent you wired
to the batteries and it's got obviously
be fused all right the next product that
I'm going to talk about really quickly
is those fuel cells those ethanol fuel
cells no noise no vibration no smoke
I've got clients that are taking out
kind of like bothersome gen sets that
need a lot of love and don't seem to
ever get enough and are expensive to fix
and they don't really have a
appliances on boat they're taking those
out and they're putting ethanol fuel
cells on board I have one on my boat I
couldn't put a generator if I wanted to
on my boat but if you don't have a need
for AC and you don't really have a need
for a DC generator which there is
validity to that then you know boats
that have a limited battery bank you
can't increase the size or you have a
limited alternator or you don't like
moving with your boat and you like
staying put and e-40 might be a good
idea to put on your boat it's pricey
it's not cheap but it's for me and what
I recommend to clients it's not the
first step that you do for power it's
kind of the last step once you've
exhausted all other options battery
capacity alternator maybe putting solar
panels and whatnot that's when your back
is into the wall you're like I still
need power what am I gonna do that's
when you should explore any four choose
the right output like so some of them
are 85 amp hours a day 140 amp hours or
210 this is all at 12 volt make sure you
carry fuel onboard you can't get fuel
everywhere so I always carry us an extra
container a container has a thousand amp
hours of power right and a flick of a
switch it's a slow feed right there not
feeding you like Oh fire nozzle right
it's not like an alternator or high
output charger it's kind of like the 210
model is gonna be outputting eight amps
but AE amps every hour right overnight
when you're sleeping and makes no noise
it's like the purr of a cat you can't
even hear it like it's impossible like
you have to focus you have to lift up
the hatch you like oh yeah there you put
down the hatch no cushion it's gone so
make sure that you have fuel on board
and then what are the steps for
installation well you want to make sure
that it needs some ventilation because
it does create heat it outputs distilled
water so you got to capture it or it
goes in the bill chon sailboats that are
basically keel step mass it doesn't
matter because there's always coming
water coming down the mass but for some
of us that have dry bilges you're gonna
want to have the water go down and maybe
a jug you know and then you can capture
that and you can use that for your
flooded batteries to top them off it's
distilled water it's pure water
the fuel cartridge needs to be close to
unit it's not like it can be far away so
you need about this amount of space and
then the leads that are off the battery
of this is really for a battery that's
really close by but sometimes on some
boats the batteries can't be close to
where the fuel cell is so if the fuel
cell is further like 20 feet 30 feet
then the gauge of the wire should be
changed to be able to offset the voltage
drop that's gonna happen on bringing
that current all the way to the
batteries all right external regulators
a really common thing we do that a lot
for sale boaters and sail boaters fast
boats like Tiaras actually come with
them stock because the tiara is actually
kind of like a sailboat it's crazy to
say that but they run their engine for a
really short amount of time
well sail boarders do it but not because
they want to but it's here I just can't
run their engine for 4 hours a day he's
just they're gonna be covering so much
ground at one point it's crazy there'd
be going from South Island and North
Island you know so they're running for
an hour maybe two and so what they're
trying to do is they're trying to
capture all that energy from their
engines and send them back to their
batteries sail boarders one the same
thing they want to be able to half an
hour out and half an hour in right at
the end of the day and within that
duration to have the maximum amount
output from an alternator back into
their batteries and the way to drive
that is through an external regulator
connected to an alternator and an
alternator gets power from the rotation
of an engine right it's a mechanical
thing it's only when even the boat is
loaded or unloaded ie you're in gear or
not in here
the alternator is turning but an
external regulator is gonna make sure
that you could you pretty much can
double the output of your alternator
whatever it is with that device maybe
not double but eighty percent ok so
there's high there's good reasons to put
it in a boat makes the models are the
newer models allowed to actually be set
for different battery types you can even
do custom charts profiles for those high
end batteries so if you have a new high
end battery that wants
specific charge profile you can do a
custom charge profile on that regulator
so we've done that really one of the
biggest benefits is that some of them
now have remote battery temperature
sensors temperature compensating battery
or charging a battery that or charging a
battery at a temperature compensated
voltage is a really good idea you can
really get a higher charge rate out of
that
so those alternator regulators have that
option and they also have a temperature
sensor on the alternator so in case it
overheats it's gonna pull back so
instead of having this complete meltdown
on your alternator because it's
overheating the regulator is gonna be
sensing that the temperature of the
alternator is too high and it will pull
back on the field voltage it's what
drives the alternator and say hang on a
second this alternators doesn't have
enough sufficient ventilation maybe it's
a hundred degrees outside and you're
running your engine for eight hours and
it's really hot so the and the l-train
is running really hard because your
batteries were really empty this would
actually at one point pull back and say
I can't charge right now at full
capacity we'll pull back the field to
let the alternator actually cool down
make sure the units are sealed
because normally they have to be really
close to an engine and it gets really
hot in there
and so you want some models actually are
fully sealed units if you're gonna
change the regulator or not even but put
a regulator you're gonna probably like I
said increase the capacity by about
eighty percent so the wire that's from
the alternator to wherever it is it's
probably under sized so that meant that
the engine manufacturer didn't know you
were gonna do that they size everything
to what's there if you change one
variable look up and downstream and
upstream and make sure that everything
can accommodate this new output from
that alternator and also I always
recommend to make sure that you go
directly from an alternator to a battery
which you should but that your engines
aren't like that you should fuse the
lead at your house battery
all right this is a product that a lot
of boats what's a common problem on a
boat I have an engine or two engines and
I have three battery banks I have only
two alternators how do I get one
alternated go to places right common
problem it's on mini boats and they were
diode combiners it's like a gate valve
it only lets current go one way so the
two batteries can't see each other but
the alternator can see both batteries
it's great but diode combiners would
actually make you lose about 50 60 70
percent of your alternator output in
heat so you could have a 100 amp
alternator but your effective charge
rate would be 30 amps and at the day
there was nothing else to do it was
either you have the convenience of
having automatically dispersed to two
places or the owner has to manually turn
the switches on and off and
realistically a lot of builders were
like my owners aren't gonna be doing
that I can't trust them and if they
don't take it off parallel when they get
to a dock i'm hooped I only have one
battery and if they over discharge the
battery completely the next day they
can't start the engine so a lot of boats
have diode combiners like lots and so
there's new devices now that actually
allow to replace those with zero percent
efficiency loss well like maybe one so
before it's like 60 70 percent
efficiency loss now it's like one or two
percent efficiency loss so it's an easy
upgrade on a boat that has diode
combiners I have one product in my in my
booth this is the one I have which is
easily retrofittable there's different
kinds again some of them do a
prioritization of batteries I really
like this one it's easier to install
it's really good honestly most boats
have dialed combiners you'd be shocked
it looks like a fin looks like a
heatsink you look in your engine room
it's got two or three posts or four
posts and you look at it looks kind of
old and you're like why aren't all these
fins it's the heat from the diodes need
to be dissipated so that's what's
blocking the current from going the
other way so that's really good
one of the things to look for when
you're doing that
again trying to emphasize if you've got
alternator leads make sure that they're
fused and also make sure that it's
unbelievable how many wire sizes on the
alternator are allowing the right
ampacity to go through but you might be
losing 10% or 15% of your alternator
output because a voltage drop right
again it depends you know some people it
doesn't matter they don't have they have
enough power and they don't really care
but if you're trying to recharge your
batteries quickly because you don't have
time or you don't move a lot every day
or you have a sailboat and you want a
sail or you've got a tiara you've got
you're only running your engine for half
an hour a day then it's really good to
make sure that you've got voltage drop
and you limit that voltage drop by
having a larger wire between the
alternator post and the batteries all
right
battery combiners these are devices that
allow batteries to actually see one
another when there's a charging voltage
so it's effectively like you turning the
battery switch to parallel or both and
then disconnecting it when the charging
voltage is not there so it's pretty
handy it's pretty popular I've installed
literally thousands of that I mean I
must I'm number one buyer of this stuff
in BC for sure because it takes a user
out of the equation right the big
problem with a user is there's a user
and if you forget to actually put it
back to one or two right and you leave
your batteries in parallel all the time
then it's like having your savings
account in parallel when you're checking
account and saying to the bank by the
way if I ever get an overdraft on my
checking I wanted to come from my
savings and don't ask me I just want to
take it from my savings and then you
don't have separation of two bank
accounts you're gonna do that you might
as well have one bank account right and
then the problem is if you overdrawn
your checking you're gonna be taking out
from your savings and in the morning
when you're gonna start your engine on
one of those days you're not gonna have
time to get a boost cable from a friend
or whatever started the jet-set you're
gonna have drain all your batteries and
you can't start your engine the great
thing about that is it doesn't it
connects and disconnects automatically
so you're not part of it make sure you
size they're not all sized for the same
there's a little compact one bigger ones
medium ones there's all different models
some of them can be
oh by the way an ACR can also be a
remote battery switch like it can say by
the way I want them to be in parallel
now so there's some that can be manually
activated
I want my batteries to be in parallel I
want it to be Auto I never want them to
be in parallel vs rbp makes some really
good models probably better than the
blue C's ones but the blue C's higher
end ones are got good as well
ACR is an automatic combiner relay it's
marketing word for that V SR is voltage
sense relay same thing they're just
their own definitions of the same
product again you need a fuse make sure
you never bypassed a switch and have to
go to the battery huge implications if
you go to a switch switches are
convenient because they're downstream
right people like their further from the
batteries and they'll take a shortcut to
switch you got to be really careful and
a lot of them you have to fuse the
ground sense wire which you're probably
thinking why that's stupid there's a
reason again I can't tell you why but
make sure the ground sense wire is fused
last product is galvanic Isolators what
is a galvan guys later gaving isolator
is basically to protect or reduce stray
low-voltage currents between AC and DC
grounds ten years ago I wouldn't be
talking about it because they weren't
failsafe and they used to fail and
suddenly you're thinking you have a
shoulder on a highway and the shoulder
without you knowing that is there or not
there disappears right and you're
driving you can't see the shoulder we
use humans there and if you have a
trouble you'd want to pull over well
these things the shoulder would
disappear you wouldn't even know it
would disappear and now suddenly you're
in a 2 wire system and then Coover
there's really whole houses really all
the houses could have two wires this is
like we're talking a hundred years ok
this is this is going way way way back
so if you're a 2 wire AC system you are
it's not even generational it's like
it's like a century so those devices
would fail open and suddenly you and
have a shoulder and no one would know so
you lose your AC grounding connection
and no one would know and you would
doing that - straw stop straight DC
current
so people were not really liking it and
so not everyone installed one but these
new ones are actually failsafe so when
they fail they fail closed so you'll
stop protecting your boat but you won't
stop protecting your boat from grounding
issues so I mean damage to your
underwater metals is going to be a
problem for you ensure losing your
grounding connection is a problem for a
life right so that's the trade-off right
you might lose protection to your
underwater metals but the flipside is
you'll never ever ever have someone
that's going to get electrocuted because
there wasn't a return path for their
heart so make sure you choose the right
amperage 30 or 50 amps right shore power
cord make sure it's failsafe we really
like the new Marwin the 30 app or the 50
app and the really important thing here
is that you want to install it
assumptions on boats are really bad
because other than a builder owners you
in the on the internet you always it's
called pl previous owner so blame the
previous owner and the previous owner
could have bypassed and found a ground
somewhere and intercepted it and
anything is possible anything truly take
the sheathing off installations just put
a wire in its ground it's fine so the
only way to make sure that nothing
bypasses the galvanic isolator is to see
your AC shore receptacle to literally
see it from the inside of your boat have
the wire intercept it and then have it
go back to AC shore power septic 'el
I've got clients that say to me oh well
I'll put it somewhere from A to B and I
know where B is but I'm like do you know
from A to B are you certain that that
wire was never intercepted right and the
question is maybe you take a chance and
there's nothing wrong with it but if it
was intercepted the diode the failsafe
galvanized later is not going to be
effective because something is going to
be able to bypass it so it needs to be a
choke point the only way to make it a
choke point is to have it as close as
humanly possible that a receptacle
and you know for a fact that nothing can
bypass it and that's how you make sure
that it works last thing you know my
bonus thing is everyone should if you
care about electrical you should have a
clamp-on meter multimeter they're
awesome and it's really useful if you
even if you don't know how to use it to
have one on board so when you call a
technician and you're in desolation
sound that I can have you do tests with
it because without it I'm really in the
black but with this I can narrow down a
problem really easily and I can say yeah
your inverters done this is done you got
to go to Campbell River you got to go to
Powell stay there it's fine do this and
that you'll bypass it's all good because
that's the tool that technicians have to
really isolate circuits okay yeah
essential really good point
yeah yeah and that's actually what I say
make sure it's a DC n AC clamp on I
remember the first AC clamp first clamp
on meter I bought was at Home Depot when
I bought my boat I felt justified to buy
a lot of tools was my dream came home I
had legally buckets of tools like it was
like honey I have to I'm gonna save
money you see this is why I'm buying
tools and I bought and I still have it
as a reminder of being an informed
shopper I have a clamp-on meter that I
bought at Home Depot that does only AC
and that's really not that useful
because most of the circuits on a boat
are DC and I really want a DC NAC
multimeter so make sure you have that
it's really useful you can buy them
online there's all these different
models but make sure and also that
rating is really good make sure it does
at least 300 amps a thousand is better
but 300 will get you most places a
thousand will give you a starting
circuit or a good a trustor circuit
right so that's basically it everyone I
knew I flew fly by here I'm going to
open the floor to questions
the flux yeah because this may name it
flux because otherwise the question is
why do you want to clamp on there's two
ways to measure your current you can
actually put an inline device which
which is a shunt does or you can
actually measure it through flux
magnetic flux that's why people don't
want to live under high power lines
because there's a magnetic field every
wire has a magnetic field and it's
directional all right it goes either
that way I remember from class either
goes that way
you remember too or that way all right
and actually the clamp on meter if you
go put it this way or you turn it around
it's going to show you a positive or
negative number and it's gonna change
and the great thing about it is you
don't have to disconnect anything you
literally just put it on the wire right
you clamp the wire well yeah it's great
I mean can you and what kind of I mean
can you imagine what type of device
you'd have to intercept a thruster motor
like the job it would take you to
oh by the way I'm gonna take that wire
intercept it lug it right put a device
in it be like four hot wire right it
would be like forever
you put a clamp on meter you're done in
10 seconds you get it and you put in
line it's impossible right it's possible
to do it a shot because you do it once
and you measure everything all the time
right but actually now new blue seas and
more sophisticated panels what they're
doing in the factory is they're actually
putting flux literally monitors
everywhere Hall effect and they're
putting it everywhere and instead of the
wires actually being intercepted they're
putting literally these like a clamp on
on all these wires like north ovens have
add and hire an ocean aiexander's bigger
OSHA like Sanders and what they're gonna
do is they're simply going to have
sensors that measure current through
Hall effect as opposed to as jumped it's
just easier to wire in a pan I'm gonna
do that and make a yacht stew because
otherwise it's just easier to install
but it's not as common questions
a regulator on a 50 amp alternator
no I the first thing I would the first
thing I would do is I would put an
external regulator yeah absolutely yeah
yeah absolutely whatever you're getting
like you gotta remember when you have an
alternator the alternators that's a cold
rated output so if they're doing that
everyone's doing the same thing so it's
marketing right
you'll never get fifty five amps after
thirty minutes well you'll never see
fifty five amps period okay so it's
fifty five amps cold rated that's within
a half an hour it's hot DeRay by ten
fifteen percent internal regulated D
rate by another two thirds voltage drop
because that's at the output of the post
not at the battery D rate by it another
ten fifteen percent so that's why you're
altering fifty five amp alternator is
giving you like thirty twenty five right
and it's gonna give you a higher output
at the beginning but then it's gonna be
D rated when it gets hot so all those
factors play and that's why your
alternator is not giving you what you
think it should but they're all like
that and also fifty five apt is that
maximum rpm right the top end of the
curve now how often are you top ending
an alternator because the alternator is
sized to the pulley ratio so that
wide-open throttle whatever it is on
your boat it's not gonna actually break
so let's say the alternator is meant to
eleven thousand rpm max or ten its size
so that when you wide open throttle your
engine at 33 or 36 that alternator is
not over spinning now you're never gonna
go at 3600 rpm on your boat while
cruising but that's what the pulley
ratio is you're throttling back to 2100
that means that alternator is outputting
again at two-thirds the output of
maximum output of the alternator so all
these things are compounding to make
your alternator not give you what you
think it should just the way it is
that's why a bigger alternator is better
also yeah you you've got to just
modified for external fields yeah I'll
turn your shop will do it for like 50
bucks they'll remove the external
regulator and they'll give you they'll
modify it and they'll give you a wire
the field wires like it's basically like
an accelerator in a car that's what
decides you know you don't need to move
a lot in accelerating a car
like an inch to inch and that's enough
to go from zero to 200 kilometres an
hour and that's what field voltage does
you know that field voltage goes from
zero to 12 and that variation is what
makes the difference between going like
5 amps or a hundred amps other questions
yes that's a good question
so I'm on some battery monitors the
capacity of the battery monitor is
limited like the link light Pro only
does like say a thousand amp hours so
now you're thinking that's a huge
battery bank it is but we have clients
that have bigger and so then the problem
is if they have a link like pro battery
monitor I'm gonna tell them
unfortunately and it screws the numbers
around but anyways it's not an exact
science either unfortunately the number
I'm gonna show you is really what's
available capacity the older monitors
had really good ones the link 10 for
example they allow you to decide what
your floor is gonna be right and they
say do you want the battery capacity to
be a reflection of actually what's
available or what you should use right
which is nice so on my boat I don't
actually show all the amps I can have I
only show that apps I should take so my
battery capacity is only set to have not
all amps its amp hours it's what I
should only be taking so when I get to
red flashing it's not that I'm actually
empty it's time to recharge I'm using my
full range otherwise you have to
remember what's the halfway point right
and when you're in the red and you're in
the red you've gone so far like you ran
a marathon and then you went to do
another one and then you're like yeah I
won't be damaged you're you're not gonna
come out the same like if you take a
battery from a hundred percent and you
go like I had a client today telling me
he brings it down to ten point five
volts every time like ten point five I'm
like you this is crazy
like it's literally like running like a
double marathon right you're not the
same person after that you can't like
there's some people that can do it but
your battery can't and if you do that
you can do with the deep cycle batteries
a flooded so
tea cycles versus if you go to 5,300 so
it's a factor of six so some of those
owners that change their batteries every
year every other year they should change
every year but they're stubborn so the
next year they're just not working right
and it's too embarrassing to change
every year but they'll take their boat
for a summer they'll boat out in
desolation sound take it down every day
because they just can't be bothered
they'll have a battery monitor but they
don't listen can't be bothered they'll
ruin their batteries in one summer
they'll ruin them completely ruin them
the next summer they're too stubborn to
change them and that point they're just
running the genset and their batteries
are terrible but they blame the
batteries and then the next summer then
they change the batteries again so
that's why you want to bring your
batteries never put flooded below fifty
percent ten point five volts is it's
it's the last step running away from a
grizzly bear like it's you you gave it
everything on the dance floor like
there's nothing left there's nothing
left the battery is done it's you can't
go past ten point five if the lights dim
you're way way out there that's what's
hard with a battery right that's why the
battery monitor tells you way sooner you
know you're like oh my god I still have
so much capacity but it's deceiving that
capacity comes at a very high cost in
terms of wear and tear yeah this is a
problem with voltage voltage is only
accurate it's like breathing
you're like breathing breathing is only
an indication of your health if you take
it in conjunction of your activity level
not only in the moment but what are you
doing recently I can be breathing really
really hard but if I did the grouse
grind in 46 minutes I kind of expected
and it doesn't mean I'm breathing for my
life that I'm unhealthy but if I'm
sitting in the couch and I'm panting
then I know that why are you panting and
you have no exercise so voltage is only
an indication of capacity when you take
current and you take time so you have to
know what have you done recently and
further away so that's an art right like
I can tell you yes what are you even
doing what are you doing now where are
you going and I'm like yeah okay that
voltage seems right because that's all I
do right I live in this world
but as an owner I get owners they are
freaking out they're like oh my god my
voltage brand-new batteries my voltage
is eleven point five volts
what's going on I'm like what are you
doing well man we were doing coffee my
wife dried her hair you know we were
doing this we're watching TV what are
the lows on the batteries right now ah
we're running it about you know I got a
daughter it's about negative 222 amps
I'm like you're sprinting for your life
for the last 30 minutes yeah you have a
large battery bank but as soon as you
take away that 200 amp load give it a
little bit of time the voltage is gonna
rise again right so it's a little bit
like okay for example good analogy your
engine starter battery an engine starter
battery is gonna go below 12 volts no
matter how big it is when you start that
engine unless you have a massive battery
bank right like it doesn't matter if
you've got an 8 d you crank that engine
it's gonna go to 11 volts 10 volts
that's normal because you're asking a
thousand apps 500 amps now it's not that
the battery's bad is you're literally
asking everything it's God for that
moment so voltage is only a negation of
capacity when there has neither been a
charge or a discharge for 24 hours now
that happens on a starter battery all
the time because once you finish with an
engine it's not being charged or
discharged right so capacity voltage is
an indication for capacity for an engine
battery but a deep cycle battery how
often on about do you have neither a
charge or discharge on a battery never I
mean you're always using the battery so
that's where the voltage is you gotta
call someone you got to go hey sorry to
bother you but I something's not jiving
can you tell me and that's where
voltages are really hard and how can you
accurate do 50 60 70 30 20 percent on
voltage when you've got to have all that
information you can't you'll overshoot
you'll understand too much time in the
top-end which means your batteries take
forever to recharge driving you crazy
right you want to stay in that sweet
spot the bulk charging which is between
50 and 80 or between a GM's 30 and 80
those are your bookends right if you
stay in that your charge rate is Macke
some whatever the batteries will take
whatever you give to them pretty much so
that's the reason why voltage is not a
good indication of capacity it's good
but it's very limited any other
questions same it's gonna be lower than
a typical battery absolutely like it's
not gonna be 12.2 it's gonna be I think
at 25 percent I think is eleven point
eight or twelve eleven point nine I'm
going by memory like I know on the top
end right
AGM or lead acid is gonna be same
voltage one hundred percent battery 1246
twelve point eight all right at 12 volts
of course right you twenty-four you just
double and then you go twelve point six
twelve point eight twelve point four is
gonna be 75 12 point two this is all at
rest voltage right no discharge or
charge for 24 hours at 77 degrees
Fahrenheit okay like you're like oh yeah
temperature matters right if it's in the
bilge and you're in the Gulf Islands
it's 55 degrees or you're in Pendrell
sound it's 80 degrees your battery
voltage is gonna be different this is
see it's not easy right so twelve point
two and I think 12 ish around eleven
eight eleven nine is around 25% it's
gonna be the same that's why again it's
okay to have the voltage drop as long as
you have a battery that can tolerate
that deeper discharge and still give you
a reasonable amount of cycles and a
cycle is from dydt full to that level
other questions all good thank you
everyone and if you've got anything let
me know I'm gonna be in my booth
upstairs
you
English (auto-generated)
Videolytics
Understand and Wire Your Boat’s Electrical System
How To: Marine Electrical Seminar - Power Sharing & Monitoring - Episode 6 of 12
UnBoxing & Product Reviews
UnBoxing and Product Review - Shakespeare Superhalo Cell Booster
2019 Boat Show Presentations
Boat Show 2019 - How To - Choosing & Installing An Inverter/Charger
We serve the Lower Mainland
and Southern Vancouver Island.