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How To: Marine Electrical Seminar - AC Panel - Episode 14

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[Music]  [Music]  you  okay we're gonna do a cPanel so here's  what an a cpanel sort of installation  looks like for reasons of conceptual  diagram i've decided to break out the AC  panel inverter loads or water call has  passed through loads on a separate panel  but a lot of us will have that be the  same panel just the back is different  like you'll separate the bus but  ultimately conceptually there could be  different panels okay on some big boats  they'll actually even night make it nice  they'll be top section is short power  generator and they'll have a middle  section that's inverter loads like on  big 50 60 footers they'll start doing  that they'll do that in factory because  they know that not all loads are the  same but ultimately it could be it's  just one big panel and you just do the  working behind but you'll have loads  that you decide that you're going to be  potentially running on the inverter or  short power and some loads that can only  ever be run offshore power loads that  can only ever be run on short power  should be your hot water tank or a  battery charger you should never run  your battery charger off your batteries  through an inverter happens but that  should never be okay so if you're buying  an AC panel what are you looking for you  want amps to know how much you draw  because oddly enough a lot of us on AC  are gonna draw a lot more than what's  available common problem we have a lot  of AC loads especially running heaters  in the winter you might easily pop a 50  amp breaker no problem 30 have no  problem so this tells you how much  you're drawing and then you can start  throttling back your loads you can't do  everything you want no matter how big  the boat is I don't care I'm working on  a big 100 foot er right now I don't care  how big it is it could be worked on 145  footers doesn't matter how big the boat  is it doesn't matter how stupid the  budget is there are always more AC loads  than a generator or short power can give  you  you always have to manage loads on a  boat always there's just more than there  aren't capable of being done by shore or  generator so you want to know what your  amps are to decide oh I'm gonna run my  hot water tank I'm gonna run my water  maker I'm gonna walk run my carbon  compactor  I'm gonna run to my washer/dryer but I  can do it all I'm gonna run a secondary  charger I'm starting dive compressor you  start pulling back depending on what  happens you just have to and on a normal  boat like I have I have to decide and I  say you know what I'm not gonna run my  hot water tank when I want my batteries  to be both charging like I want all of  my amps to go to battery charging right  because I only have a 30 amp receptacle  on my boat for sure you might have also  a device that allows you to do source  selecting between generator one generate  to shore one short to write really big  important device is this reverse  polarity light that is incredible it's  worthwhile that tells you that the hot  and the neutral or reversed huge safety  issue by the way huge safety issue that  is one step away from nearly complete  death so you only need another accident  which on a by the way 5% of both half  you have that and you have the other 5%  it's basically when it's op is it a win  in the lottery so you never want this is  rare but if that happens and you have a  boat that's miswired you literally and  this is I met an instructor review I see  that's how his son died swimming in  Oregon on the Columbia okay so two  things need to happen but those two  things are there which are pretty rare  but if you get that combination it's  game on okay and then you want a  protective AC back cover and then you're  gonna have it's nice some of the new  panels you'll be able to buy a neutral  and a ground bus in the back which is  great this is what a traditional metal  panel looks like Lucy's makes them we  use them all the time they're great if  you're tackling an AC panel big fan we  talked about this earlier what do we say  about disconnecting you're working on AC  on your boat right not just trusting to  your AC breaker or you actually  physically disconnect your short power  cord Coral it up put it in the lazarette  disconnect your inverter right so  disconnect all AC sources your generator  your you know some people have like  rarely but some people do have auto Jen  starts right disconnect the battery  switch from your Jenn  reader right it should have a switch  make sure your generous start label all  the cabling make sure you have the right  size breaker and the right size cabling  and please Oh God and I've seen it I  know most of us do this but there is  nothing more I think dangerous than  someone to say either they're they're  not colorblind clearly but they choose  to be colorblind and a wire the whole  panel on a arbitrary color designation  that they've decided that they're gonna  do that day and most of those people's  decide the next day is gonna be a  different day  so I've come on both where we've almost  lost one of our number one technician  almost died literally came this close if  it was me I would have died any other  person would have died it's only because  he's just like off the spectrum smart he  kind of saw a few signs and he was able  to figure out but they actually had  wired the DC input and the AC input on a  charger both with AC wiring and they had  put the AC input to the DC output of the  charger because they were both the same  color they had blown three Chargers  Western West Marine had called us on a  service call they're like this is weird  why are three Pro notic Chargers blowing  up in a row this is gonna be the fourth  one and we sent a technician down it was  because they literally the operator had  decided to save money to buy just simply  triplets wire and run the AC in and the  DC out from the same wire but when they  took the charger off they inverted it  and so when you disconnect DC lows on a  charger you're thinking this is benign  it's not a source of power it's just 12  volts but it was actually AC 120 coming  into the boat I would have died if I  went on that service call for sure  there's to be done there's no way I  would ever think that you'd have AC  input going to a battery charger output  never now I'm more cautious but this is  why the code matters right the code is  there so that things are predictable I  tell people all the time people say well  it doesn't matter it's just a color I'm  like well so is driving on the right  side of the street versus the left side  of Street it just makes it easier going  home when we all know where incoming  traffic is  right it's not that the road you can  drive on both sides you could drive in  Reverse on the wrong side it's gonna go  home but it's a little bit unexpected  and so this is a way for you to make it  easy for anybody else who ever works on  your boat to just go okay I got it  everything's to code let's guessing  right so any questions on a/c paneling  or a/c systems on your boat okay all  right    

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