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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

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