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[Music]  you  [Music]  now it's one thing to store energy but  it's another big challenge to create  power so you can store it and that's  what we're gonna talk about next and  that's why a battery bank is good but  it's like having an ability have a large  bank account it's easy to have a large  bank account but it's much harder to  make money to store in your bank account  so when you leave a dock you can have a  dock and you can have your batteries  full but how are you going to recharge  those batteries and what we're gonna  talk about next is power generation how  do you create power so you can store  that energy in your batteries alright so  we started and we're basically we  started over here and we looked at the  heart of everything is your batteries  now we're gonna go through basically  this area here and we're going to talk  about the different ways that you can  actually generate power so that you can  store that power so the first thing  we're going to talk about which is sort  of the most popular device that I think  99% of boaters have on their boat is a  charger chargers are called as well  converters like on older boats it's a  marketing name right charger what is it  everything is a name that you define to  something but on older boats you'll see  the word converter that's a charger or I  used to like to use to put a little bit  of distinction I call them smart battery  chargers to distinguish them from other  battery chargers that maybe potentially  can overcharge batteries or under  charged batteries so here's conceptually  what we're talking about with a battery  charger a battery charger needs AC  current right to work and that AC  current can come from multiple sources  it could come from a generator it can  come from shore power right you're not  gonna have an inverter run a battery  charger because you know it's a vicious  loop so you've got two sources to run  your charger you're ready to connect it  to shore or you have a generator that's  running so now you've got a charger and  chargers for the most part have multiple  outputs right and so in this instance  we've got a charger in the middle and  it's charging both a house battery and  an engine  so that's what it does the engine  doesn't need to be running right like  nothing to do with the engine you could  have your mains running that's not gonna  run your charger and that's a common  misconception right  your engine running is turning the  alternator and your alternator has  nothing to do with running your battery  charger okay your battery charger only  runs on an AC source which is either  shore power connecting at a dock or if  you have have the opportunity of having  a generator some boats have multiple  generators running a charge so  effectively you use chargers and the  larger the charger will reduce the time  it takes to charge the batteries and  like we talked about minimum charge rate  is 10% so you got to make sure if you're  increasing the battery bank size on your  boat make sure your charger is sized for  that new battery bank size don't assume  that the builder built your boat in 1985  thought that you would double your back  and power battery bank capacity also  strongly emphasized and I cannot tell  you how often I take these Chargers if  your charger looks like from a different  era and it was an error that was  governed by engineers where aesthetics  did not matter the 1970s that charger  needs to go that charger has to go get  it out so how you tell if your charger  is good or not is if it looks ugly it  looks like no design aspect was involved  the opposite of an iPhone right iPhone  is not there's engineers there a lot of  my classmates work there but there's a  lot of people in marketing to make  things look pretty if your charger looks  from the 1970s or 80s you've got to get  rid of that charger that charger is a  ferrule resonant charger and it will  kill your batteries if it's left on okay  very very important and that's what they  used to call converters and the habit  and I talked to boaters that had boats  in the 70s and 80s they would literally  go down to their boat once a week once  every two weeks they'd go at lunch at  the clubhouse turn the charger on for a  couple hours go back turn the charger  off and that's how they would maintain  their batteries you could not leave a  charger on your boat  forever my charger nothing fancy zan  tracks inverter charger has been on my  boat for the 12 years that I've owned my  boat and it's on every moment that I'm  connected to shore power every moment as  a way to keep my batteries in float that  is exactly what they call a smart  charger and a smart charger does three  things it does bulk absorption float and  I over the years of trying to convey  this technical information what I've  come to realize is batteries are a lot  like us people when you eat food and  you're hungry and you come and you have  your famished  you're gonna eat at a very fast rate at  the beginning as you get near the end of  your meal  you're gonna slow down that's slowing  down when you're on a three-course or  four-course dinner  that's absorption you're still eating  but you're not eating as fast as you did  before that's bulk charging and at the  end when you're eating a little bit of  cheese or some grapes or a little bit of  almonds and you're just pecking it food  that's called floating that means you  could have a three-hour dinner at the  last hour you're just nibbling on food  that's float so bulk absorption float  that is the best way for you to recharge  your batteries at the fastest rate and  not overcharge the batteries and to  leave the charger on all the time most  batteries want to be on float all the  time not at all batteries I'm not gonna  get into it but most batteries want to  be on soap all right  so when you're looking at buying a  charger what are you looking for well  first of all you want to make sure that  you can select the battery type because  there's no such thing as just a battery  is it a flooded battery an AGM a gel a  spiral AGM there's all different kinds  or a bonus get one that you can actually  dial in the settings that's always  better right make sure that you have a  charger that's temperature compensated  temperature compensated is essential I  know it sounds geeky but when you think  about all the battery voltages that  we've ever heard about like 14 4 12 8 12  - those are sort of like  middle values that you hear all the time  those values come from a battery at 77  degrees Fahrenheit everything changes  when the temperature of the battery  changes when the battery gets colder the  voltages go higher when the battery gets  warmer the voltages go lower there's an  inverse correlation between battery  voltage and battery temperature the best  scenario is if you have a temperature  compensated charger the charger will not  assume that the battery is at 77 degrees  Fahrenheit which is by the way how often  does that happen  and will actually correct for higher  temperature or lower temperature so also  make sure you buy a marine model there's  huge implications if you like money and  like you're underwater metals and you do  not like changing your prop frequently  because of galvanic corrosion and you  have stuff under below the water and you  don't want to lose it and a hall out and  spend five grand 10 grand never ever buy  a kidney entire charger and put it on  your boat leave it on I'm not gonna go  into the details of why but I can tell  you it's gonna be painful very very  painful  props stainless steel shafts rudders  some are metal that are left underwater  with those Chargers can give you a lot  of grief never ever ever buy a  off-the-shelf charger in a non marine  model for your boat okay ever insulation  so what are the things we talked about  you want to make sure that your battery  bank and your charger your charge rate  is 10 percent of capacity this is 95  percent of you don't have this I just  know I mean I've been fortunate enough  to walk on and do maybe I don't know  2,000 3,000 electrical audits now  probably closer to 3,000 95 percent of  the charger leads are not fused they're  not because what does a grown man do  when there's an instruction manual in  front of them ignore it  why because grown men are infused with  knowledge and engineers are annoying and  why does someone  to say so much about so little and the  manual is meant for the box because if  someone maybe needs to read but  certainly not the person installing it  because they're infused with knowledge  and well it just it's sort of like  building IKEA without a manual it's not  gonna go well and the problem with the  electrical is you don't know that the  tables crooked you don't know that it's  not working  because you're just satisfied with  having a car that moves you don't have  brakes you don't have a seatbelt there's  no taillight and you're like look at  what I did it works  Chargers absolutely need to be fused at  the battery every connection and I'm  gonna safety first needs to be connected  to battery the only exception is a  starter only exception well first of all  Chargers must some of them do their  little like pro Mariner pro sports but  remember when you buy a piece of  equipment for your boat there's no such  thing as cookie cutter on a boat right  like your when you bits like building a  house you don't go to Home Depot and  you're like is there a pre-made house  here that I can buy and I'm just gonna  assemble no you buy building materials  to build your house so when you buy an  inverter you buy a charger you buy  anything it's one component one building  block of a big system same thing with an  inverter you buy an inverted date  doesn't come with a fuse doesn't come  with a switch doesn't come with a lot of  things this is come with a wiring that's  one piece like going to Home Depot and  buying a tub you buy your tub but now  you got a how are you gonna plumb it it  doesn't come with everything so that's  also the fallacy it's not like IKEA  where they put everything in the box  right there's no such thing on a boat  it's you buy one piece and then you  gotta buy the other pieces to make it  all work  so that's really important make sure and  I see this a lot that the breaker is  meant to size ball crate it's all about  you see this thing I'm always talking  about this this false sense of  satisfaction of making something work  and not thinking this is leads to so  much disappointment and remember what  most people in all of us do and have a  tendency you'll not blame yourself for  the failure you're gonna look elsewhere  and I tell this the same thing to my  text when something  doesn't work I never say to them oh yeah  it must be the equipment no I'm like no  no the real variable is us what did we  do that could be wrong look inside look  at yourself and for a battery charger  you might have connected your batteries  are full it's on flow only draws maybe  one app you leave the dock you go out  and then suddenly you come back and now  the batteries are neat to bulk charge  and now the Chargers not drawing one app  is drawing 10 apps or 15 amps and the  breaker was size only 5 the breaker  trips so it's about making sure that the  breaker is sized for the load and not  just working when the batteries are full  because the amp draw of your charger is  gonna vary depending on the charge rate  of the charger also I cannot tell you  how many times I've been on a boat for  example this boat owner decided to go  AGM great I didn't know him never talked  to me when a GM loved it AGM batteries  died after about 2 years a year and a  half  very unfortunate changes the battery  year later battery dies another year  later battery dies again now he's not  blaming the batteries because generally  it's like well the only thing I changed  was the battery so it must be the  batteries fault the third time he looked  inside he started reflecting what could  I have possibly done on my boat that  causes my AGM batteries to die after a  year year and a half so we got a call  went on board found out that the charger  was set to a fixed voltage that was  constantly it was in charge not charged  it was in basically a mode called power  supply mode and it was outputting 13.8  volts all the time dip switch the owner  didn't know was there and so the culprit  was that thinking that everything is  easy my number one rule having had a  business now for what 12 years is  nothing is easy there's exceptions  always assume the worst  nothing is ever ever easy I always think  what's left what's right how is this  gonna work so your charger make sure  that you select the correct battery type  for your charger and you might have a  boat right now and you think everything  was done right by the previous owner  wrong don't assume anything question  everything wonder oh I have a battery  charger does it the right setting right  that curiosity that thirst look into  things is not a gift that everyone has  as a boat owner if you want things to  last longer you have to always always go  hmm is it right and then actually if you  have a temp sensor connecting it to the  right place that's the other thing yeah  so you want I had an owner down in  Preston Beach they had a lifeline those  actually they were energy Northstar  batteries about not a thousand of  battery but close eight nine of them  they install the temperature sensor in  the wrong place and the batteries got  really hot and they lost their battery  bank boss-like and that's like seven  grand in batteries like that's starting  to hurt like if it doesn't hurt then you  really don't have problems seven grand  in batteries and that's not installed  that's just batteries and then you got  to take the batteries out right and we  had to disassemble furniture to give  them out put them back in just because  the temperature sensor was not installed  in the right place so that's a really  big issue I talked about that a little  bit earlier right a really common thing  I'd say with top five things that we do  in our business especially for power  boaters is people that come to us and  say Jeff I'm running my generator just  simply too long you know like my  generator does water maybe I'm doing  whatever I need to create hot water with  the hot water tank I'm doing certain  things on my boat that need a/c but I  once I've done the things I need to do  maybe maybe even my stove right once  I've done what I need to do which may be  on most votes is one or two hours a day  or maybe three hours a day the rest of  the time that I'm running my generator  is because it takes forever for my  batteries to charge back to full forever  some owners it's twelve hours eight  hours of running the generator in the  background to recharge the batteries  that's because the charger was not sized  with efficiency in mind then then the  Builder didn't build it so that you  could recharge your batteries quickly  they assumed that every night you'd come  back to dock and if it takes you 12  hours or 40  hours to recharge your batteries so be  it there are ten percents charge rate  but 10% might not be good enough so what  we do on many boats many votes is we'll  add a secondary charger you know you'll  have one charger that's 150 amps and  then we'll put another charger that's  100 amps now your charge rate is 250  amps and so that reduces the generator  runtime and remember if you have a  generator the generator wants to run  load it like an engine  engines wanna run loaded so having a  diesel generator on your boat that's  running at low loads because your  Chargers in absorption and you've got a  very small rate of charge and you're  only loading your generator by 10% or  15% isn't a good thing so having more  Chargers we had a one boat that had a  five kilowatt generator and we were  charging three Chargers at 350 amps that  order rent recharge his battery bank  once a week that's it that's what he  wanted that's what we did once a week he  ran it for two hours that's all he  needed to do boom in bulk and everything  else it was perfect quiet peaceful and  was a power motor so it is possible to  daisy chain chargers to put them  multiple chargers so that you can reduce  your charge rate all right so now we're  basically recapping what we talked about  with a battery charger right battery  chargers need AC and they've got  multiple outputs here's another little  tidbit before I open the floor to  questions if you've got a battery  charger not all charged leaves are the  same there's going to be multiple charge  leads like charge lead one two and three  the battery bag that needs the most  amount of charge needs to be on lean  number one because your battery charger  is not independently looking at every  lead and thinking oh what does lead Wan  want lead to lead three it's actually  looking at what lead wants once and it  replicates they don't see one another  but it replicates what lead once does on  LI 2 and Li 3 in other words if you have  a house battery bank you don't put house  battery bank on LI 3  you put house battery bank on lead one  and you might put your engines on lead  two and leave three okay questions about  battery chargers how come once again go  ahead oh absolutely yeah absolutely  and most chargers that's actually on the  lower side you're talking about about  question is would you cut a lead to put  a fuse on a battery charger most battery  chargers do not have leads on them they  just have posts most now if you have a  smaller charger maybe 20 amps or 15 or  30 amps that go into center console  fishing boats they're literally going to  be plug-in type of battery charger so  they've got an AC cable going to the  unit and they've got DC cable and going  out but that's for the most part for  more of a center console type of grade  II white 25-footer you know boat that  the charger is done aftermarket and  they're just putting it making it easy  for the owner and that charger is  actually gonna have fuse on the leads  when you buy a charger like could be as  an tracks it could be a pearl Mariner  could be a victor on there is no wiring  in that box the box comes with just the  charger then you have to connect the DC  sides and you can have AC side and you  have to buy that wiring completely  separate and then put fuses not at the  charger but fuses at the battery because  the charger will never output more than  realistically what it's meant to charge  and you're sizing the wire for that  charger the batteries though are endless  not endless but near endless energy so  you don't you want to make sure that the  leads always start at the source of  power and for our reason on a boat  that's the battery is the source of  power yes you had a question I'll come  to you once again  I have not seen one that's a good  question question is is there a battery  charger that has an external voltage  sensor and so that  why would someone ask that and that's a  like in a dream world if I get out I  would love that and the reason is  because there's such a thing as voltage  drop and we'll talk about voltage drop a  little bit tomorrow but voltage drop is  a reality what you put out is not what  you get and if you have voltage sense at  the battery you can actually adjust and  we'll talk about that with external  regulators because they do that you can  adjust the output of the charger or the  alternator so that you offset what's  called voltage drop I haven't seen one  never the charger output is always  looking at just what is the voltage at  the post and that's what internal  regulars one second yeah go ahead no no  they're all I have brains give you an  example on my boat I have one charger 1  external regulator 6 controllers 6 solar  panels each solar panel on my boat has a  controller and I have a methanol fuel  cell I have 9 devices on my boat that  recharge my batteries potentially none  of them talk to one another they're all  doing one thing looking at voltage and  they're all looking at voltage and the  rate at which they pulse and look at  voltage is what tells them to come on  line or not it's sort of like the way I  was thinking about it before was like  imagine you come from a large family and  you have tons of kids the Keen ones are  always asking my mom can I help can I  help the ones that ask the fastest are  gonna do the most work the ones that  don't ask us quickly they ask mom maybe  once a day mom do you need any help  those are the ones that are gonna get  away with doing less so the devices that  pulse and look at voltage the quickest  are the ones they're gonna do the most  amount of work but they don't need to  actually talk together now if you go  full crazy and obviously no problem you  buy a full Victoria on full master volt  system you can actually have them all  talk to one another and they'll yes it's  possible but you can retrofit without  that yeah you question over here  that's a great question question is what  should be the size of my fuse from a  battery charger and the output of the  charger let's say the nominal charger is  40 amps are you gonna fuse it will talk  about fusing later but it's a good  question now do you fuse the wire at 40  amps if the charger does 40 no why  because you don't want to have nuisance  tripping because we don't live in the  Star Trek world where someone's going to  check that fuse if it's blown all the  time right there's not a little robot on  top of the fuse looking and telling you  that a fuse is blown you won't know that  it's blown  so you don't want to ever have a  nuisance tripping so you rate the wire  to handle one point to five times right  so it's the chargers 40 amps you rate  the wire for 50 amps and you rate the  the fuse for 50 amps that's a common  mistake where people now a device will  pull more than its rates but a charger  you never want your charger to trip by  nuisance right so the VHF says put a 7a  fuse you put at 7 amp use there's a  difference between a draw and a push  right so an alternator all these devices  that push you don't have one have  nuisance tripping and the way to do that  is to do a correction factor about 1.25  times okay any other questions oh yes go  ahead  alright could be an ATO ATC to be honest  if you rate the fuse we'll talk about  that too there's different fuses some  fuses you actually have to physically  change some fuses or thermal circuit  breakers I'm gonna get into that a  little bit later and I'm gonna dwelve  into the pros and cons of each but yeah  there's a choice out there and I won't  talk about it now because I have a whole  section on fuses I know it's kind of  boring but I love geeking out like that  alright any other questions on chargers  alright okay if you don't have a charger  on your boat almost black and white you  need to charge on your boat unless  you're going offshore you'll never  connect to shore power which is  different but for most of us our coastal  cruising there's a huge benefit of  having a battery charger if you're  sailing around the  world forever you don't have a generator  you don't need a charger you'll never  use it yeah because they're there they  overcharge they overestimated what the  battery wanted the float voltage is too  high the float voltage is too high and  they underestimated what the battery  could take in bulk so they were over  cautious on one and under cautious on  the other like they screwed up on both  sides the charger doesn't output as much  as it could it's too cautious it's they  were worried about it and they also  thought that battery needed a higher  flow charge so it's kind of a lose-lose  and smart Chargers have been around for  at least almost 20 years like probably  25 like this is not new technology it's  not like an unproven thing right like  it's not like revolutionary but some  chargers on those have been there for 40  years those have got to go