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[Music]  good morning everyone good morning thank  you for a Bluewater cruising Association  for hosting this event what is an  alternator an alternator and it sounds  silly as a question but actually it's a  pretty common one alternators are on on  engines they only work and give DC  output when the engine is turning and  some alternators won't even output at  low rpm meaning if you're an 800 rpm  you're also your engine disturbing but  it's not enough to self excite the  alternator and so you might have an  alternate working and you're at 800 and  it won't even turn on it needs to be a  1,100 1,200 rpm so an alternator creates  DC power and DC power alone and it's  meant to recharge a battery okay that's  how its wired generally in our cars in  boats  99 percent of us have this set up here  on the left you have an alternator and  the alternator is daisy chained to the  starter solenoid voice post and in turn  that post is connected to an on/off or  source selector battery switch and that  switch is connected to battery and this  is 99% of all boats starting circuits  that's how they are the one on the  right-hand side which is a lot simpler  is actually on not even 1% of the boats  and the one on the right is much easier  and much better and the reason is  there's less things that can go wrong  because this on/off switch is can cause  a world of hurt you can stop a car with  a wall your car will stop guaranteed if  you turn your battery switch off and  this is in 99% of the cases again you  don't have an alternator feel  disconnected this battery switch it's  like 99  - so much so that I've never seen it  wired so that would mean that I've never  been on a boat I'd never seen it and  that's like probably I know I'm probably  had eight thousand boats now that I've  seen I've never seen it so at this point  at this point I've never seen it but  people say it's a feature and it's true  it is a feature but nobody wires it if  you turn your battery switch off when  your engine is running guess what  happens you toast your alternator your  alternator dies it's done it's like  stopping your car suddenly so that's why  on all battery switches if you read the  fine print on all our boats is gonna say  never turn off when engine is running  every single switch this one even says  is like right here you can't see it it's  in yellow every single switch from the  1970s onwards never turn off one engine  is running and that means that your  alternator if you ever are worried that  your engine is not running or it's  running weird or you do something and I  did that by the way 2006 Bob my boat  April Fool's Day Easter a long weekend  invited a bunch of friends on board and  I was worried in my alternator was we're  not working and what I did is like oh I  wonder if it's got a good connection and  with a lot of bravado a lotta bravado  because I mean men need a lot of bravado  when they do things lots of confidence  I turned the battery switch off and I  can guarantee you my altar never worked  after that until I got it replaced I  blew out the alternator and this is why  I'm here in front of you because I  learned from my own mistakes as well  might we all do right we have to and I  thought it was easy and that it was  foolproof  but it's not foolproof 99% of our boats  are like this and if you turn that  battery switch off when your alternator  is running you'll lose your alternator  so the purpose of an alternator is to  convert engine rotation and enough  engine rotation to DC output alternators  have nothing to do with your generator  running although generators have  alternators but that's to recharge the  battery that started the generator have  nothing to do with shore power you could  have your alternator removed and your  Shore power it's still work shore power  or generator recharge batteries through  converters or now known as battery  chargers right and the reason why we  spend as motors a lot of money on  alternate  is a way to reduce the charge time of  our batteries right  sailors worry about that all the time I  want to motor out of an anchorage for as  little time as possible motor into an  anchorage as little time as possible  when possible when possible being the  key word here and I want my alternator  recharge my batteries and so what we end  up doing is installing high bigger and  bigger alternators which are called high  output alternators on engines so that we  recharge the batteries at a faster rate  of charge okay  same thing with tiaras for example fast  boats boats that aren't gonna be running  for a long time because they're going at  30 knots because I mean you can't run  for five hours a day at 30 knots at one  point you're gonna do a circumnavigation  of North America you can't just do like  you're not gonna do 300 miles a day  you're just gonna be going down the  coast so I 1 point all these fast boats  what they're doing is they're putting  high output alternators as well like  tiara all stock come with high output  alternators and external regulators like  a sailboat er because like a sail  boarder they're not going to be ideally  running their engine that long they  can't for the fuel bill they can't for  many reasons they're just going to blow  by you know you can't be covering that  speed all the time and so they're gonna  have high output alternators or trawlers  are gonna do the same thing big battery  banks you need to recharge the battery  bank you might not have a generator your  alternator is the only way of recharging  your alternator when you're not  connected to shore power this is a  revelation it's sort of like the  difference between marketing and reality  when you say you have 120 amp alternator  or a 4 instant a stock alternators 255  amp alternator these are all the caveats  and the fine print that you don't  realize from what you started to where  you're gonna get in life it's sort of  like your investments you have promised  returns and then you have your real  returns you're gonna make double-digit  growth over the next 10 years and then  yous looking like it hasn't really  panned out that well  oh yeah well let me tell you the reasons  why I wasn't able to do what I promised  I was going to do would be the  difference between a 55 amp alternator  and what you're actually gonna get so 55  amp is co rated first thing as soon as  it get warms you D rate by 15% then you  also have to realize that your  alternator never runs at max  rpm output who redlines an engine you  know if you've got a gasoline engine or  a diesel engine who's running their  engine at 3,200 rpm nobody you can't  you'd blow up the engine so you're  running maybe if you don't care about  fuel maybe 85 percent wide-open throttle  loaded maybe 26 2700 rpm and that's who  does that a few maybe but not many and  so they're doing it at 2100 how many  power motors are running their boats at  1400 1200 rpm output of an alternator is  a function of rotation speed the lower  the rotation speed the lower the  alternate output it's not an on/off  device the more rotations it does the  better output it is Karl alternators are  rounded to have only high output at high  rpm because who drives a car at 30  kilometres an hour  nobody maybe for moments but generally  you're at 50 60 70 100 hundred 20 so  what happens km/h of course so what  happens is you end up having an  alternator and because you're trying to  save fuel you're also not realizing your  alternator now you're running your  alternate at low rpm and a low rpm now  you're getting a fraction of what your  output you thought you were getting so  then you get a fraction of that output  and then the other point too is that you  actually have an internal regulator on  those alternators and they D rate an  alternator right off the top by 2/3 so  you take all of those factors up and  even if you run a 55 amp alternator at  like almost 2600 rpm you're lucky to get  about 30 35 and that's a full rpm so not  for your about 20-25 you started at 55  now you're 2025 it's like income you  know gross versus net now remember  you've got lows on your boat when you're  running your engine and when you're  running you've got your chartplotter on  you've got nav you've got your  refrigerator your you've got expenses  what's your income that's going to make  more than what your drawers are at that  given moment so imagine your alternator  let's say you're running at nearly load  you're running a 30 amp output  alternator but the loads are 1015 you're  only netting 15 amps and your battery  bank is 220 app hours which is a tiny  battery bank how long does it take to  we charge a battery bank at 15 amps if  it's 220 right and you brought it way  all the way down to maybe 50 percent or  lower that's a long time of engine run  time  that's three hours four hours to just  get a quarter of that battery bank to  get a third 15 into 66 that's four and a  half hours of engine run done you can do  it you get yourself into deficit and you  hear these stories all the time about  borders I just can't  I'm always every day's worse I'm running  my engine but it's not enough  it's because they have a stock  alternator internal regulator and they  have a small alternator output and  they're being cautious for fuel  consumption and they throttle back  nobody's running their boats at wide  open throttle 85 percent of load well  maybe some of us are but very few  you want to make sure that its ignition  protected right because especially if  you've got a gasoline engine room but  even it's not why take a chance like by  an ignition protected alternator and  then the variables that are going to  affect the output of your alternator are  going to be the belt and the engine  manufacturers limitations but nowadays  you can either do dual vo belt or  serpentine belts and so we're often  putting I did a sailboat about a 43-foot  sailboat we ended up putting a 215 amp  alternator on a Yanmar 55 horse engine  right doesn't have a generator right so  now it's a way for that owner to make it  rain right when they work they're  earning like at a high rate and so what  they do because they're earning at a  high rate they don't have to work as  long right it's much better to work at a  high rate for a short period of time and  then work along hours for a very little  return and so you've got to consider the  engine recommendations what type of  drive belt you have like a single V belt  for example is maximum 90 amp alternator  that's it 90 amp and then I had a boat  at once it was about a 30-foot sailboat  years ago to golf car batteries and he  put 160 amp alternator on board this is  25 horse engine and I was like kudos  pretty awesome 160 amp alternator and we  know that a flooded lead-acid battery  can only take a quarter of its charge as  a charge rate quarter of a charge of 250  or 220 is 55 mph  yeah good you're ready for a bigger  battery bank but that alternator is  completely useless to you because your  battery bank is too small as a function  of your alternator hence you don't want  to go too big it's like it's like a  symphony right you don't want one piece  in the symphony to be on a loudhailer  and then everyone to be dead quiet and  not to be amplified like it's got to be  all sort of unison everything has to  play together and so you can't you size  your alternator based on your battery  bank size which is deep cycle battery  bank size right  and you got to make sure that you change  your drive system if you're gonna go  beyond 90 amps the other thing that's  happened on my own boat I remember what  I told you when you buy a boat you don't  just buy a boat you buy the owners the  previous owner and I can't tell you how  important that is I had a boat owner  that believed he knew everything about  electrical and that belief was very  intrinsic to who you was and on my own  boat he upgraded the alternator from a  stock 55 to a 120 he did he decided that  he was going to increase the wire size  on the alternator positive wire to one  not just pretty amazing  good for him pretty impressed almost  there pretty good the negative didn't do  a thing  he didn't think about the circuit he  thought that the positive wire like when  we plug into a wall we don't realize  there's actually three wires going every  AC outlet in the wall it's called a  cable for a reason there's actually  three different wires in every cable he  thought the positive cable was just a  cable that did everything the positive  was alone in itself good enough but on  your boat a circuit is literally in and  out and so you can't just do something  big on the positive and not worry about  the return and so the negative the  return was like a gauge 8 unrelated  though that wire was crispy almost  burned over and the connections were all  like corroded from overheating because  he installed a large alternator but  didn't think about the whole circuit so  it's very important that both the  positive and negative wires can handle  the increase right look at the different  size of alternators and also if you're  gonna install v-belts or stuff like that  misalignment you're gonna see very  quickly on your boat that's caused by  actually having a lot of dusting you  know you see those engine rooms you open  it up there almost caked you know with  like black powder on the end on the  alternator and around that's really  because of belt slippage or misalignment  of a belt and these are critical things  to worry about when you increase your  alternator size  and you do that why so that you can  recharge your house batteries under way  faster so that when you get at a  destination you don't have to recharge  your batteries on idle because let's be  honest everyone should know that under  no circumstances given a choice you  should run your engine at idle unloaded  all right that is not good engines want  to be run at 85 percent fuel wise you  don't like it but a diesel engine wants  to run load it 85 they'll run forever at  85 you run them at less you do that for  fuel you run them at 14 or 1,200 rpm  with just an alternator arm not good not  good at all doing at an anchorage and  running an engine it's not good for your  engine any questions on alternators so  the belt is a belt about this thick and  it literally has sort of a it looks like  a trapezoidal there's a section at the  bottom that's about you know narrow like  this and it runs around the crankshaft  pulley the water pump pulley and your  alternator and that's your crankshaft  pulley is actually what turns that's  where the drive force happens and it  turns your water pump and your  alternator as you get with bigger and  bigger alternators it takes more  friction to make the move right you know  if you push two things together it's  very hard but once starts something  starts slipping there's a difference  between what's called and I'm gonna bore  people here between static friction and  kinetic friction and one starts up  slipping that's what happens when you're  in loops you can walk down a roof slowly  but once you start sliding you can't  stop yourself because now the  coefficient of friction is different so  on a boat and those V belts once they  start slipping it's done they slept more  than before and that causes heat right  when you rub your hands together you  warm  that heat makes the water pump pulley  fail first because the bearings in there  trance it basically transfers the heat  soap and time is what we have in our  normal cars now it's about an inch wide  depending seven-eighths and those belts  are way better at carrying higher amount  of friction it's a bigger surface area  right  and that's the difference between a  serpentine belt and a V belt on engines  most of us with older engines have  serpent V belts newer engines and people  that have modified kits because you can  modify have serpentine is the drop in  output linear with an alter you know  it's actually a curve and when you buy a  marine alternator people are it's funny  you know we all are incented in life to  cut costs and we make decisions and then  we justifies those issues and stir  ourselves I see it all the time  purchasing and people are gonna say they  were on the low cost and then they  justify themselves why the low cost was  the best reason is sort of they make the  decision first instantly low cost is  best and then they find reasons to  justify but what they're not considering  is that a car alternator and I emphasize  that before a little bit they're wounded  the way that they're designed for is  high output at high rpm a marine  alternator like from balm or electro max  are going to be wounded there's small  production runs they're giving you high  output at low rpm the curve goes like  this almost at 1,200 gets you to nearly  70% of output and then gradually  increases to 100% of output over the  next let's say 1,400 rpm but a car  alternators gonna go like this it's  gonna be the first like until you get to  like 2100 aren't 100 rpm you're gonna  have like a joke of an hour output it's  only going to give you good output at  the top end of the range but people want  to buy the cheap alternator and the  cheap alternative means an alternate is  mass-produced now that it's bad quality  it's made for a different application  and that's why marine all dairies are  more expensive is because they're small  production runs they're not making a  million of them they're doing a thousand  two hundred three hundred and so that's  why you pay for custom but charging your  batteries at a fast rate of charge is  not something you want to cut corners on  because we all need power any other  questions yeah so if you have a two  alternators let's say that's common you  could have two alternators on one engine  or two alternator an alternator per  engine going back to a house battery it  doesn't matter if they're on two engines  or one engine it's the same if there  external regulators on board and we'll  talk about external regulars next you  don't work nicely if they're both  internal regulators one of them is  probably on one point one of them Inc is  going to kick out sooner than you want  and then that's going to affect your  engine gauges it's possible that your  gauges your rpm gauges and everything  are going to stop working because that  alternators gonna go passive he's like I  don't know what's going on here but  there's a higher rate of charge I don't  need to do anything I'm disabling myself  and that alternator which might be  running also your tach gauge is gonna  actually shut off an external regulator  is sort of what I consider a god device  it's a perfect device every single  border should have one there is no  downside like an isolation transformer  there's absolutely no downside  other than costs in having one whoever  invented he or she invented that device  I'd high-five them hugs the whole nine  yards it's a perfect device besides cost  this device and we're going to go  through it I see there's a lot of stuff  going to it right and I'm not gonna  explain everything right now we'll talk  about that a little bit later it's not  easy to install there's a lot of got  jets again the manual is intimidating  and most people what do they do  including the people that you pay to  work on your boats do they leave the  manual huh  they'll be bothered come on let's  improvise and the only thing - I can  tell you there's nothing worse than an  order pressing as installer to go  quicker you know what happens there's no  such thing is this you don't whip an  employee to go faster guess what they do  when they go faster they make mistakes  and they take shortcuts you don't simply  go faster you don't and so I have been  on countless boats cameras boats where  someone spend a lot of money having an  external regular installed and they  undid most of all the benefits of it  because it was jerry-rigged it was  working but not to its full potential  why because someone was inclined to  either get it done before lunch or just  move on or whatever and they lose out of  all the benefits that we're going to  talk about so an alternator I talked  about a little bit before and I said  okay so you've got an alternator but  altered  have and they all come in let's like  this in our cars they have what's called  an internal regulator and it's it's  basically a device that's worth nothing  and I know five dollars two dollars is  dumb and with dumb means you've got to  be if it's dumb and it's not smart  you've got to be cautious right you got  a plate safe and so what they're doing  is they're making sure that they never  overcharge a battery and that also means  that they never charge the battery  quickly so internal regulators are going  to be the slowest way for you to  recharge your battery and there's no  settings you can't do anything it's  always going to output the same it has a  lot of negative side effects but it's  two dollars or five dollars it's built  into every alternator and that's called  an internal regulator the reasons why we  go to external regulators and I probably  do about 200 of these a year is because  it transforms your alternator into a  smart three-phase charger now your  alternator is acting like bulk  absorption flow that's a good reason  okay  next is that your alternator output is  going to probably effectively double  from what you had before okay double the  multiple reasons for that one because  it's smart the other thing too is that  it offsets what's a factor called  voltage drop meaning it looks at what  the batteries is getting as voltage and  it doesn't assume that the alternator  output at the alternator post is the  same at the battery so it's actually  knowing and I've actually was  interviewing a few people recently and  they were asking me I want they were  telling me what they want net for  compensation because they were normally  working offshore I'm like net I'm like  what are you talking about I don't know  what net is what is your tax situation I  don't know don't care I can only pay you  on gross like seriously that's it gross  only what your net what you do with are  ESPYs deductions all that is on you I  will only pay you on gross and the net  that's on you can't tell what your tax  situation is an external regulator  actually knows doesn't care about gross  and doesn't care about the voltage the  voltage on the alternator could be 15 16  volts whatever it is it will offset the  voltage drop to the battery meaning the  only thing it looks like is that net it  does  opposite of what I do with when I pay  people on the team so this device here  is actually offsetting voltage drop  because it measures voltage at the house  battery that needs it this is by the way  a really big deal as you can imagine  what your net and gross are very  different very different this device  basically offset it you tell them I want  to make a hundred thousand dollars  they're like okay based on your  situation  I don't care your taxes you need one  hundred and fifty thousand you'll get  $100,000 in the bank so it miraculously  offsets for voltage drop okay which is  pretty amazing the other thing too  that's incredible about this device is  you can actually program it to do AGM  gel lithium flooded custom charge  profiles you can tweak it I can play  with timers I can do whatever I want  it's way more sophisticated than a  battery charger you could ever imagine  cruisers that go offshore have to have  this this is how you equalize adult  battery bank this will cause your  alternator to act as Equalization this  reduces your charge rate dramatically  okay and on top of it if it wasn't good  enough its temperature compensated so  now your alternator is not overcharging  in the summer or under charging in the  winter and on top of it it also measures  also the alternator temperature and it  senses when the alternator is working  too hot and it says you know what let's  tap out  let's wait let's pull back let's reduce  the field voltage you're working too  hard it's like having a heart rate  monitor at one point when you're at 170  or 180 you're like you know what maybe I  need to pull back on the spinning a  little bit I'm gonna pop one this thing  actually does temperature compensation  not only for the battery but for the  alternator and it says you know what  let's reduce the field voltage let's not  work as hard because the alternator is  getting too warm hence it's a god device  it's a perfect of us there is nothing  wrong with this device everything about  it is perfect so a lot of the owners  that are going to be buying huge battery  banks that are maybe need a custom  charge profile are going to be ending  getting an external regulator like that  these are sort of like serpentine police  you can see these are the kits that you  end up installing crankshaft pulley this  is the alternator pulley and  the water pump pulley a bunch of  companies are doing that so we end  retrofitting boats that have V belts for  high output alternators with these kits  you can actually then geeking out I was  on another boat recently they're like oh  I want my absorption timer to be  different I'd like it's cutting off too  early we're like Oh fine no problem  we're tweaking it out you can do  everything you could ever imagine it's  just perfect the big issue though and I  can't emphasize this enough remember  this the Builder of your boat never  anticipated any changes on your boat  meaning whatever they put on the boat  was meant to work together with what was  built on the boat you change your  alternator from the 55 amp alternator  120 180 220 260 amp alternator never  ever assume that the alter near positive  wire is meant to handle from 55 amps to  260 amps so you change the alternator  then you also have to change you can see  some of the pictures look at the big  wires someone is running see those large  wires there all right they've got to  change the wires going to the alternator  so you change one large component you  have to worry about the things that are  connected to it like a balm our external  regulator in Canada is gonna cost sub  600 in Canadian dollars so maybe I know  what's that in US 450 maybe 450 600  bucks for an external regulator well  it's gonna take you putting it in it's  gonna take about a day of effort yeah a  day of effort and then you got to have  your existing alternator if you have one  modified for external field and any  alternative shops gonna do that it's  tricky you gotta you know it's not it's  one of the most complicated things to do  on a boat but it's one of the most  rewarding thing to do on a boat like I  always tell sailors for example the  dream is as a sailor is half an hour out  half an hour in if you can see all the  rest of the journey I mean that's  paradise you know like you just mowed it  out of the Anchorage and then you sail  into the sunset and then half an hour in  and if you can recharge that on a dip  per day basis and have that alternator  within an hour of running recharge your  battery bank or read  charge for two days like I did on that  43 sailboat when we put the 260 amp on  260 amp hours or 60 amps you're putting  that in in an hour of runtime he's done  more power in his battery bank than he  could ever need for that day he can go  for one hour of engine runtime for two  days on anger right that's sort of a  dream yeah because you're gonna have to  remove you're gonna have to disable the  internal regulator to make it be driven  by an external regulator yeah because  there's no plug for that they didn't  anticipate so you got to take the  alternator off bring it to an  alternative shop tell them disable the  internal regulator modified for external  field field is basically the actuator  that drives the alternator and then you  install the external regulator on the  boat and you follow the instructions to  the letter to the letter my my installs  are always bigger I'm an engineer I  don't I don't cut corners always bigger  on my boat my altar near too hot too hot  for OTT would have been absurd but I got  close I got close I don't I don't I  don't know no no absolutely you want you  don't want the last thing you want to do  think about as motors how many things do  we need to worry about as motors  navigation being pretty up there weather  next other boaters around us that don't  know what they're doing right and then  you take that and then you've got all  your systems and the things that are  going to break naturally on your boat  even if you do things perfectly you  really don't need to put other  curveballs to your boat that are  self-induced like that's just making  your life harder you know it's like  tying your hand behind your back and go  into sports or something like I know I  need all my marbles when I boat it  there's already enough going on and so  you never make a wire smaller than you  need to bigger is always better  side on the air of caution any other  questions are we good with external  regulators Solar is a pretty miraculous  thing as well this is what typical sore  setups look like you've got a solar  panel you got your controller and yes  you always need a  controller always need a controller and  you could do we do often solar back  solar panels or solar arrays in series  and you can see there's only two wires  coming back right and there's a series  jumper and you can have a series with  more panels but there's reasons at one  point why you don't want to do too much  on most of the boats that we do either  limit our panels in series to two panels  in series because I don't want someone  to hurt themselves with DC voltage most  people believe that DC voltage is benign  because they generally touch 12 or 24  volts but if you end up putting two  about three four or five panels in  series you could have 120 volts coming  in on your controller and you're used to  thinking that DC is benign because every  time you touch your battery it's all  good you've never been hurt by touching  your battery and I was thinking people  that own and operate a boat you know  have habits and they're not always  thinking oh yeah it's a solar array you  know my open voltage could be 120 volts  DC and that would be sort of a  unforgettable moment so I'm like you  know what let's play it safe here this  is not industrial application where the  only people touching this are gonna be  like certified electricians like red sea  electricians so let's keep the voltages  at a reasonable level where it's only  gonna hurt a little bit but not too much  a typical saw solar panels come in all  different voltages some only output 8  volts some output 20 volts some output  30 volts and every time you wire it in  the series of voltages that's higher and  higher and on one side of the controller  you're gonna have maybe 12 volts or 24  volts and then you could have 80-100  coming on the other side so that's the  reason why we don't wire too many panels  in series just as sort of a precaution  because it's not an industrial  application the first question that I  normally get when we size people's  arrays is Jeff should i do mono or poly  and they tell me a common question that  I get asked is Jeff what's the  difference between a 100 watt panel poly  in a hundred watt mono which one is  going to give me the most output and I'm  remembering the trick question that was  asked by my grade 2 teacher  asking the class what is heavier a ton  of feathers or a fan of bricks right I  got it wrong I remember that I haven't  forgotten and the question is that your  question they're both a ton does it  matter  right so a hundred watt mono panel is  going to be smaller than a hundred watt  poly panel a poly panel is less  efficient hence it needs more space  right like an AGM battery has more  usable battery capacity or a lithium for  example right lithium batteries are more  energy dense you need less volume with a  more energy dense product and so with  mono the biggest thing is their high  efficiency so if you want you have X  amount of surface area you'll have  higher output covering that surface area  with mono than you would with Paulie  but a hundred watt poly is the same  output as a hundred watt mono panel okay  and the cost in there may be like why  are we all going with mono I mean when  they'd be better it seems to be better  the reason is cost for a twenty five  percent increase in capacity or output  you pay a 50 percent premium in price so  you'll pay more money for a model panel  than you would for a poly panel of the  same size okay so the globes for solar  and we've reached on that a little bit  earlier was okay well so what's the  purpose for solar solar could be and I  have a lot of owners and boaters that  say Jeff I've got a boat on a mooring  ball and I want solar panels to just  trickle charge maintain my batteries  while in front of you know they have a  cottage somewhere they don't have power  they keep their boat at the dock and  there's no power or they keep their boat  on a mooring ball there's no power and  they want to keep their batteries topped  off that would be the easiest thing next  they might say Jeff I want to go and I  want to extend I want to offset my  refrigeration on my boat meaning my  refrigeration takes 15 hours a day  I want a solar array that's going to  offset that the rest of my power  are pretty modest and I like that and  then I have other boaters like myself  let's say Jeff I'm almost looking for  daily amp our net like I want my solar  array to give me more power or at lunch  as much as I'm using everyday so that I  need no other means of recharging my  battery when the sun is shining on  average I never need to plug in never  need to run the alternator I can just  charge my batteries from solar all the  time well lastly I'll have other boaters  are going to say Jeff I can stay at the  hook right now one day and I'd like to  stay too or I'm staying at the hook two  days and I want to say a third day but I  don't want increase my battery bank size  right because that would be one way of  doing it would be increasing your  battery bank size so they say I'd like  to have a way to stay longer in  Anchorage without having to run my  engine so the good news is the math to  actually calculate how much how do you  convert from amp hours to watts there's  actually a short form there's a long  formula but there's a short formula and  what you end up doing is you end up  saying it's either you do a  multiplication or division but depends  where you go but it's the same thing so  if you start for example and you have a  hundred watt panel and you want to say  how much of that panel is going to give  me an amp hours you're actually going to  multiply it by let's say a factor so  watts times 25 percent is equal to what  your daily amp power output is so for  instance if you have 100 watt array  you're gonna get 25 amp hours a day of  solar panel and if you want to go the  other way let's say you say Jeff and was  on my vote Jeff can you help me Jeff I  have a hundred a power output how big  for my solar array B I multiply times 4  and I got a 400 watt array so on my boat  I went bigger 450 so I have a 450 watt  array and that meets my daily  consumption in the summer of a hundred  amp hours a day and on my boat in the  summer from May to September here at  this latitude in this part of the world  I never have to plug into Shore power or  run my alternator ever and I never have  and I always have more power than I need  every day my batteries are topped off  from the Sun so that would be an end an  extreme end would be meat daily output  and then the other extreme would be I'm  starting a solar and I just want to  sleep and float maintain I had an owner  just recently again saying you know what  we don't have anything on our boat but  we're gone in the wintertime and we just  but we don't have a battery charger  we're at a dock there's no power there  and I want to be able to top off my  batteries and flow charge them when  we're not there even in the winter I'm  like perfect we'll put a small solar  array and will flow charge your  batteries right and maintain them when  there's no loads but if they had the  refrigerator on then we'd have to make a  much bigger array to offset  refrigeration loads plus maintaining  loads okay all right so the question is  can you use a demon fire electric to run  off solar you would need a pretty  significant solar way to do that you  know if you can't run solar to run a  demon fire what do you do and you're  right the best thing though I have to  say in this cold climate where we are  the biggest problem for mildew on our  boats is not that the boats are too cold  is there to warm people think that the  higher the temperature the better the  boat is it's the opposite you want just  slightly higher than ambient just  slightly the bigger the Delta the more  your boat is going to sweat on the  inside it's like the opposite think  about a like saying a beer bottle and  you think about those commercials or a  can of coke in the summer and you see  all that condensation right so you've  got a cold beverage and a warm air  surface that causes condensation and the  wintertime on our boat our haul sweats  like there's no tomorrow there's  practically flooding in our boat if  they're if the bilge your certain places  where the water can't get in the bilge  those be pools of water on our boat in  different areas of our boat because the  hall is sweating so much because again  the inside of the boat is warm the water  temperature might be 7 degrees 8 degrees  Celsius 50 degrees Fahrenheit there's a  delta between the inside cabin  temperature and the water temperature  and that Delta causes the boat to sweat  so you never ever  want to have your boat to be much warmer  than the water temp just slightly but  not a lot  what is the rule of thumb for a 100 watt  panel so 100 watt mono is going to be I  know that offhand is typical is 42  inches by 21 inches that's a mono and a  poly would be probably 26 by 42 another  one to a really popular size is a  hundred and seventy watt panel mono is  sixty inches by twenty six and a poly  panel of same size 60 inches by twenty  six is 145 watt so you see how you same  size now one is poly they're exactly the  same size then obviously the mono will  always have higher output because it's  more efficient  always in series like here you see how  it's positive negative positive negative  positive to negative  the challenge with parallel is that  remember like a battery you can add  either voltages or current remember if  you want them in series like we do the  voltage increases but the apps stay the  same until you get to the controller if  you wire them in parallel the voltage  are all the same but the ampacity and  the abs coming down the wire increase  and the challenge is then you have huge  conductors leaving the solar panels so  to keep the voltage cabling down right  that cable solar panel cabling we do is  we actually bring the voltage up offset  voltage drop and then we don't have  large cables leaving a surface area  coming down and that's why we never wire  anything in parallel we always wire them  in series if at all a lot of cases we  just wire them to dedicated controllers  and I'm going to talk about that solar  panels are a little bit like batteries  they come in all different sizes and  shapes at our shop we have 60 different  panel sizes in stock and I don't have  all the panels I only have a subset it's  a little bit like Jenga like a Tetris  you know they all are different  rectangular sizes some some are square  more rectangular than others and this is  an example 170 150 you know 85-75 65 75  Q and that's just from one manufacturer  one side line and as or mono and then  every manufacturer has models and  Pauli's and then so there's tons of  choice and when you end up choosing a  solar panel one of the criteria is is  you do what you can right lay generally  it's the first step is like all want  solar give me a give me an estimate I'm  like okay yeah all right but first more  questions what do we have where are we  gonna mount them how much space do you  have we're gonna mount them on an arch  are we gonna minimum the bimini are we  gonna mount them on the surface on a  clearly on your deck right are we gonna  walk on them are we not gonna walk on  them there's a lot of variables how much  space you have do you have a power boat  where you have a huge heart top right  that's easier  and I do that a lot do we have a huge  Bimini do you take your baby on and off  are we only working on the Dodger some  owners are gonna put them like literally  on the decks glue them on the decks  we'll put them on the brow of powerboats  get out on catamarans we did eight on a  big can of around right on the brow you  can walk on them there's so much choice  because unfortunately with boats that's  why there's not a boat there's how many  different boat models  there's no wide one-size-fits-all so you  have to make a solution these are  example of rigid panels rigid panels are  about this thick over an inch you know  an inch and a half thick and because the  solar panels the flexible ones are about  the thickness of a coin you end up  spending at least 3 2 X cheep cheep 2 X  you know the least expensive rigid to  the least expensive flexible it's gonna  be probably a factor of 2 and then it  goes up but you can end up with let's  say there's some high end for example  german-made flexible solar panels that  are 10 X of the cheapest you know panels  that are made in Asia like it could be a  10x difference it's sort of like a car  you can buy a car for close to you know  15,000 and you can buy a car for 200,000  and that's not the whole range that's  just the ranges that I've heard from you  know solar panels the same thing and  depending on the manufacturers so when  you buy solar panels think about this  shorthand for real you do wattage  divided by four to give you your daily  amp hour estimate right so if you have a  200 watt solar array you will get 50 amp  hours a day 50 amp hours to give you an  example if you have a modest  refrigerator on your boat and your  sailboat and it's anywhere between 30  and 40 feet that's probably going to  offset your refrigeration in British  Columbia people don't realize we're  actually better off in the summer than  anywhere else  well most places eight we're on the  western side of a time zone which is  really good the days that because of a  latitude or longer so in British  Columbia in the summer from May to June  or not June but September your days are  long  and that longer output makes a really  big difference if you have a boat in the  Caribbean you'll never have a 16-hour  day in the Caribbean anytime of the year  on average is a 12-hour day in the  summer here you could have a 17 hour day  you know all daylight starts at 5 for  sure 5 for sure we wake up at 5:00 every  every morning every day I can tell you  in the summer it's not dark at 5:00 it's  starting to break and it can go up to 10  and the more north we go the better it  is right but in the winter it's the  exact opposite you end up paying for it  the net effect is the same but here  people only boat in the summer most of  us and so solar gives us more output  here in the summer so it's actually  worse in the Caribbean because they  don't have as long solar time now in the  wintertime here it's abysmal and in the  Caribbean it would be great in the  winter time because the days are not  much shorter in the winter versus the  summer does that make sense I'm a good  translator I grew up in a bilingual  family so this is really good this is  where I get to translate so what happens  when drop droppings get on your solar  panel thank you mom  ah yeah so first of all is good question  actually one thing is people are always  worried about well what happens with my  solar panels are they going to be gonna  have to clean them all the time what  happens with bird droppings seems valid  question nothing could be further from  the truth the reason is a solar panel is  a completely perfectly smooth surface  it's it's literally made of glass it's  an epoxy our boat it seems almost  intentional that birds are dropping like  over d-day like it's an aerial  bombardment on the decks like the whole  boat is covered and we come to the boat  where our heart drops we're like oh my  god  seriously like and we're looking around  like it couldn't be worse and all our  Bimini and Dodger is completely covered  and there's never any droppings on the  solar panels now how is that possible  well what happens is that there are  obviously droppings they're guaranteed  gonna happen because it's on the canvas  it's on the deck is there's nothing to  stick to our decks are porous the you  know the let's say the fabric that's  holding the CL is porous it's  it doesn't disappear but when it lands  on a solar panel there's literally  nothing to stuck to so it dries up and  it probably just blows away  I have never brushed my solar panels  ever once ever because it happens and  then there's it's such a perfectly  smooth surface now you also have to be  careful it's a little more like having a  non-stick pan you don't buy a nonstick  pan and start bringing a metal brush to  it because the moment you do that you're  gonna undo the benefit of it being  perfectly smooth  so when we wash our solar panel let's it  because of Poland you know there's a  month where our boat is where there's  Poland everywhere in the air this sort  of like everything is yellow yeah or  cold us around here right or airplane  you know the flow planes in coal harbour  we just use a hose I've never touched  them with a rag never did anything yeah  so it's not enough to affect the cell  because I mean you'd have to have a hell  of a bird drop a dropping to affect the  output okay okay so next we're going to  talk a little bit about controllers  there's two different types  I've never installed a PWM controller in  my life again sort of like a modified  sine-wave these are about 20%  inefficient and these are about 2%  inefficient so if you buy a hundred watt  solar panel and you install a PWM you've  converted your hundred watt panel to an  seventy eight wall panel by buying the  least expensive controller you could buy  of course it's half the price or a third  of a price of another one but it won't  make sense if you buy a quality panel to  cheap out with a cheap controller I've  never bought a PWM never installed one  if you have an array with me  there's no way I I would I would just  not do it I would abstain I'd be like I  can't do it I just won't do it it's  silly I'm not gonna do it so we always  do NP P T's they're way more efficient  they cost more money but the advantage  with MPPT is they allow for a higher  input voltage which is really good when  we wire them in series and also MPPT  volt solar panels allow you to boost  panel voltage some panel voltages are  going to be only eight volts and you  have a 12 volt battery so you need to  boost the voltage other  panels are going to be 22 volts you need  to bring down the voltage at the end of  the day an MPPT controller is going to  convert the voltage for what the battery  needs at that given moment and they're  going to go through a three-phase  absorption there another three-phase  charging they're gonna go bulk  absorption and float so it makes your  soul so if your bodies are completely  for example on my boat if I'm connected  to shore power my solar panels are gonna  sense that and they're not going to  charge the batteries because it's sunny  outside they're going to see the Sun  they're gonna like okay I've got power  available to do the batteries need it  like a battery charger would or like an  external regulator would it makes a  decision on my boat I have six  controllers six solar panels each  controller is looking at the battery  voltage and making its own decision of  if it makes sense to charge the battery  or not without a controller you would  cook the batteries for sure because  there's no such thing as a 12 volt solar  panel and even if it's 12 volt 12 volts  not a charging voltage so okay you make  it 14 but sometimes your batteries don't  want 14 14 we cook the batteries over  multiple days so you can never ever ever  connect a solar panel directly the  batteries without a controller you need  to always throttle output and the way  the throttle output from the Sun is via  a controller they come in all different  sizes you've got to spec them out we do  a lot of design for people in the United  States and in Europe or even Asia and  when we're doing our solar arrays and  we're designing them well you know some  people are having huge arrays 1200 Watts  1700 watts but then the panels and we've  got to decide okay what controller are  we gonna put on each panel or so there's  no such thing as a magical controller  does everything you buy a controller  like you buy a battery for a purpose  every controller has different  specifications what are the maximum  wattage coming in what's our maximum  abbs coming in all these different  features some are made just for lithium  batteries some are made for a flooded  lead-acid some have the option of  programming inside so unfortunately  nothing is easy and you need to do your  homework in choosing the right  controller for the right solar panel so  make sure you buy an MPPT based on your  battery voltage because a controller  needs to know am I going to be charging  a 24 volt battery or 12 volt battery  what is the maximum array amperage  what's the maximum array voltage and  then also if I've got batteries that are  a GM or Firefly wouldn't it be nice if I  can go in there in the controller and  say by the way here's a custom charge  flow file and then you set everything  you want and they can charge that  battery exactly like you want it all  right so don't go sort of one size fits  all those sort of tailor to your  batteries and you can do that with  controllers one last point  that's why on sailboats we end up a lot  of times installing one controller per  panel just because of shading issues if  we're doing a big power boat and we're  on a hardtop and there's going to be no  shading then besides the high voltage  I'm not might be doubling up panels I'm  do more I could to put them all in one  but I won't because I it's not an  industrial application and I'm thinking  about the owner or the technician that  doesn't know better that's going to get  electrocuted when he changes their solar  controller one day so that's why I keep  the voltages down but you could if  there's no shading you could have as  many panels as you want in series and  then the controller would be able to  handle that but then the voltages could  be crazy right it could be 200 volts 300  volts but you wouldn't want to do that  on a boat and then making sure that you  configure I can't tell you how often  people buy good gear but then they think  it's just plug and play right so that's  really essential is to have taking the  time to configure the controller to do  the right charge profile so these are  again a summary of and notice this is a  small controller a bigger controller  right two panels in series this is 130  this is a 75 15 75 volts in 15 amps 100  volts ins 30 amps max any questions on  solar in our climate with the amount of  cloudiness that we have does that impact  performance my number four is a  realistic number in the summer I'm a  geek I help justify my decisions I have  a counter on my solar I quantify the  daily output every day I put in an Excel  spreadsheet I'm sort of like I'm  challenged okay there's no doubt there's  no doubt  the output on good days when it's a  clear blue sky I've seen higher than  2.65 so remember my four so my 450 water  a gives me on average about 150 nap  hours a day I've seen the number go like  up to way above 150 commonly so that  would be a factor of three I've seen a  170 amp hours on those beautiful blue  days in June and July when the sky is  perfectly blue like almost not it looks  like it today actually outside I'll get  way better output so for for me is a  Optima not an optimistic is it sort of a  realistic number in British Columbia in  the summer between May and September now  in the winter time forget about it I  mean it's not the Sun is not up here  it's down a bit there it barely gets  over the horizon it's only sunny for  eight hours and it's raining it's so  like Noah's Flood yeah I'm in that point  you've got everything against you the  Sun is on the rise in the days short and  you're like certain and this is that's  it this is a time when everyone's gonna  evacuate on a boat like there's gonna be  flooding there's no way I mean on those  days its factor of 10 what you do in the  summer you know there's no way I mean  it's just yeah we boat in the wintertime  and soar does something but in December  when we're out of Christmas the shortest  day of the year  that's it's negligible but you know what  I was out in September late September  and I got more output then I got a full  day summers worth because it was a sunny  day so the question is are rigid solar  panels or flexible solar panels more  efficient or less efficient than one  another they're the same efficiency so  if you buy a hundred watt mono rigid or  100 watt mono flexible they're going to  be the exact same size the difference is  price you're gonna pay way more money  for the same quality by a multiple of if  you go it's flexible so rigid is always  less way less money then flex  always okay so with that we're going to  start with methanol fuel cell you might  have heard of this for people they go  offshore it's definitely not you know a  perfect device far from it because the  big problem would be where the hell are  you gonna give the fuel this is more for  coastal cruisers that don't have a  generator on board have an alternator  but the alternator is insufficient they  can't put solar for whatever reason or  they choose not to and this is a way to  have effectively a battery charger and  instead of that battery charger powered  by AC which is your generator or Shore  power or an alternator by the revolution  of your engine right the crankshaft  pulley this is actually powered by  methanol and you can get those in  different sizes physically they're about  this big no this this narrow this high  and then about this long they weigh  about thirty pounds you can fit them in  lockers as less there's a little bit of  ventilation because they do create heat  and they're gonna give you a daily  output in 12 volts of either 80 amp  hours a day 140 amp hours a day or 210  app hours a day you don't need to be  connected shore power this fuel  cartridge is about a thousand amp hours  of power and this actually charges the  battery and it senses when they need to  be charged like your battery charger so  it cuts itself on and off I even did an  85 foot power boat where we installed  commercial units there's thousands of  these units in Alberta in the old sound  application so instead of doing  telemetric data and running all their  gear and having generators that would  have to be serviced and fueled and  everything else it's huge in the oil  sector though installing methanol fuel  cells we did a job once even for the  Coast Guard for powering weather  stations as a backup and so it's not an  AC generator which is really important  so it's  can't run any AC loads you'll need an  inverter for that it's not gonna run a  dive compressor it's not gonna do any of  your AC loads this is strictly a DC  device like a battery charger and it's  good for boaters that have a battery  bank that can get bigger and they and  they can't fit solar and they were  thinking about a way to offset their  loads and they want to stay at an  anchorage for a longer period of time  but that being said if you're gonna go  boarding for 365 days a year for the  next 10 years you're not going to do  this because the fuel is going to be too  expensive over time right you're gonna  want to end up doing like some of my  other motors which is getting a huge  slower rate right like I'm preparing  people to go offshore massive solar  arrays right wind turbines because  they're the problem is not only the  money to buy the fuel but where are you  gonna get it you're in the middle of  nowhere you're going off grid this is  better for coastal cruisers people that  use their boat in the summer and they're  sort of like deficient in their power  but they want to have more power but  they don't want to invest huge amount of  money in a huge solar array and or they  can't fit one in like there's boaters  that don't like having a bimini they  always take it off they'd like to be in  the Sun well if you're a sailboat ER and  you don't have a radar arch you don't  have a Bimini where the hell are you  gonna put solar panels I mean on the  Dodger but that's not going to change  your life two panels on a Dodger is not  enough - it's gonna make a difference  but it's not gonna change your world and  so that might be an auction we've done a  bunch of boats that will just say do  races Vic Maui's or Transpac they'll do  that instead of running the engine so  they'll bring that on board and you know  run all of the navigator to be sailing  to Hawaii but it doesn't matter if you  get a ye then eventually it'll turn  around and they'll come back with a boat  so that makes sense if they have enough  fuel they're gone for 10 not 10 days but  two weeks three weeks and so they'll  have that on board as a way to run all  their navigator without running the  engine because they're sailing they're  talked about the different sizes right  what we do on our boat to offset the  worry  about not having enough fuel is I have a  210 model on my boat and I always carry  two spare fuel cartridges I used about 2  to 3 fuel cartridges a year and so I  have my years fuel supply on board at  any given time so when I'm in I'm a  prepper you know I'm ready  like seriously there could be end of the  world there like even my friends there's  people have numbers there like we're  just coming aboard your boat and we'll  be fine while the world just falls apart  I'm like yeah we're pretty good like the  boat is all good and like you go on  board  we're in desolation Sound or in the  middle of Anchorage we run out of  methanol fuel Sal I'm not going oh my  god where am I gonna get my next meal  I'm like it's all good there's one  canister with ready to be changed and  after that one runs out I have another  one and that's my fuel burn for the year  so we always carry extra and those fuel  cartridges are about this big they're 10  liters so it's not this big this big so  it's a little bit bigger than a 4 gallon  jar right in Canada about $85 less  obviously in the States and a methanol  fuel cell and Canadian is around 3,500  5,000 7,000 for each level you know 80  142 10 and that's in Canadian dollars  obviously the exchange rate makes it  less in the States some orders end up  doing that because they changed boats  frequently they'll change boats every  three four or five years I've had some  boats where we've changed that unit  twice already sort of like a suitcase  it's not Specht when they sell the boat  and then we do buy another boat and we  just put it on the other boat where do  we mount the cell it can fit in a lot of  places a lot of times like on my boat  it's in the v-berth under the cabin  forward cabin hatch I've done a bunch of  sail boats hunters they're gonna be  around the companionway table you know  that you sette dining-table other owners  I did a Beneteau we put it literally in  between at the after boat a flock er  like literally underneath the steering  wheel almost you know between the port  and starboard lazarette at the  to the boat we put it there some people  have these huge monstrous lazarette  there are two cabin sailboats you know  one cabin up front and only one cabin on  the side and then they have this giant  stowaway kind of like Locker that you  can actually almost stand in we'll put  it in there  power boats we do a lot on trawlers like  tons on trawlers and we'll put them in  this settee you generally don't want to  have it in the engine room because they  don't like heat so if you have it in the  engine room you can't be running it at  the same time as your engine is running  because this thing is going to over temp  engine rooms can get really hot very hot  like they get very hot so you generally  now we've also installed them an engine  room sometimes but we the cabinet it's  the only place that fits and we say the  owner don't run this when you're running  your engine because when you're running  engine you have your alternate anyways  so it's sort of like you're double  dipping oh absolutely the question is  can you put it right beside a starter  battery yeah that could be anywhere  yeah and it's not hard to install it  takes about a day you know like if you  had it on the floor here would take an  hour joke not even 20 minutes on a boat  is just running the wires between  different battery banks where is this  going to be installed to where it's  going and then from the control panel  because you have a control panel you can  turn it on or off you can have it  automatic and it off you can have it on  so it's not that big in on this big 85  footer we did we installed two  commercial units they were about this  big and a lot of owners actually end up  taking out their generators it's a huge  generator replacement in this climate  we're lucky we don't have we have  summers without heat I mean if you've  lived in the eastern seaboard or other  places there's crazy amount of heat and  so a lot of boaters here don't need a  generator for running air conditioning  and so that the generators don't run  that often and when they become  problematic the only reason they run  their generator is to recharge the  batteries that's it it's just to make  hot water and run the Chargers and so if  your generator is giving you a lot of  grief than what people end up doing is  they say screw it with a generator take  it out and then we end up putting a  methanol fuel cell  obviously I  fraction of the weight one fifteenth of  the weight one tenth of the size again I  mean a generators you know inside a boat  is always at least this big and bigger  and this thing is again only about this  big and it weighs only thirty pounds or  something so it's very light the  question is there an intake and exhaust  yeah absolutely if there's an intake at  the front and there's an exhaust in the  back it it's it produces the same amount  of carbon dioxide as a cat breathing so  people ask me all the time they're like  oh but you know if if I'm in a closed  cabin space and this thing is working  I'm gonna die I'm like if you're in that  space - and you're in a fridge and you  close the door you're gonna die as well  like and it makes the vibe this the  noises again cat 21 decibels it's a cat  purring you have to concentrate to hear  it the question is you have to vent it  out absolutely not no no not all another  question yeah the point is the same  thing on our v-berth in this summer in  the winter not so much because the hall  it's cooling constantly and inside of  the boat but in the summer when it's  really warm and if we have our methanol  fuel cell on we'll have to make sure  there's enough ventilation in that sort  of cupboard that is enclosed it's pretty  big but if it's not big enough at one  point it does create heat and if  something else is creating warmth it  doesn't like it question was why do I  have an e for if I have so much solar  panels it's really good question and  it's a simple one i boat all year around  I'm an on recovering boat alcoholic  there is not a day in the winter where  if I I go we we spend two weeks of  Christmas on the boat I can spend five  days in December I could spend January a  whole week on the boat I generally get  more boating time in the winter when  other people aren't voting just because  there's less phone calls that's less  crazy for work and in the wintertime the  solar panels are just not outputting  anything that's reasonable and in the  winter time remember what I talked about  the battery consumption earlier and I  said there's a difference between  making consumption and at Anchorage  consumption well here in British  Columbia would be you know there's a  difference between being using your boat  in the summer in the winter in the  wintertime your amp our consumption goes  way through the roof because you're  trying to heat up the boat and you're  heating up the boat with diesel right  but the circulation of that heat either  through you know forced air or coolant  comes at a high at DC lows way more  surpassing your refrigerator loads and  so in the wintertime you'll draw way  more power than you will in the summer  like in the original time I'm probably  drawing over 250 300 half hours a day at  Anchorage in the middle of nowhere  without connected to shore power because  the lights are on from you know five  o'clock you know until bedtime you want  to keep the boat warm and it's you know  maybe only five six seven ten degrees  outside and to make everyone happy in  the boat we're running in the daytime  anywhere between 18 and 21 C there is a  reasonable question there would be an e  for a good way to recharge a dedicated  battery for the winless it would be an  overkill you would end up buying what's  called a DC to DC charger and get a  charge that is only that can actually  recharge that battery from another  battery source is how I would do it this  is way too expensive there's ways of  doing it at one thirtieth of the price  of that so there's no need AC and DC  generators I'm trying to differentiate  between the two  on the left hand side this is what this  is how the magic of your AC generator  recharges your battery and on the right  hand side if you had a DC generator it's  what it looks like one of the hardest  and best part of my job is to remotely  help voters in the middle of nowhere  solve problems it's both the hardest  thing I do and it's also the most  rewarding thing I do and that's where I  sort of learn all my experience you know  solving problems can't sit on the side  and when we have a boarder that calls in  and says my batteries are not charging  when I'm running my generator and he has  an AC generator Exhibit A on the left  hand side is the things that need to  work for that to happen and if he had a  DC generator or she you look at exhibit  Bravo on the right hand side much more  straightforward right so if you have an  AC generator on your boat or a shore  power for that matter this is generally  well especially with generator because  you know you're going to have a source  selector switch you've got a generator  connect to a source selector switch and  that source selector switch has to exist  because your boat is either powered by a  seashore or generator so you have to  have that that's this big single point  of failure happens all the time and over  time they wear out then it's got to go  to an AC panel the AC panel has got to  get all the thing there's also a breaker  on that charger on that AC generator  goes to source selector go step panel  panel goes to a converter which is now  called the battery charger and the  battery charger goes to multiple  batteries through fuses you can see  there's a lot of steps here so that's  effectively how your AC generator  recharges your battery not to be  confused with this small little tiny  alternator that's inside that device  that is only ever ever connected to the  dedicated generator battery okay  alternate generators also have  alternators but they're puny and tiny  and they're only meant to recharge the  battery that started the generator you  would never ever ever ever use that bad  alternator to recharge a deep-cycle  battery bank it would be on forever and  even on forever you would never be able  to meet the loads I mean they're  outputting like 10 apps 10 abs is what  most of us use for power it would never  be enough to recharge a battery bank  it's only meant to recharge a battery  that started the generator okay any  questions on this before we take a break  I just want to show it in case any of  you have an AC generator source selector  switches can come in like those throw  switches and other ones are the  sort of a little breaker thing that you  can't only turn one source at a time  yeah but your per course which is  different that's a DC one that's not an  AC one yeah it's a cross Newman it's a  German switch they're very expensive and  sometimes they're like double pole  breakers and you have a little slider I  don't know if some of you been on Bay  liners for example they have that they  don't have big source selector switches  they'll have little sliders and you can  only select one thing at a time you know  it forces you you can't because you  don't want to have your generator and  your shore power at the same time  together powering your boat because then  it would be a very eventful memorable  moment yeah that's right that's another  way of doing a surf selector yeah that's  making sure that you only have one  source coming - yeah and on some boats  like we were on a boat the other day you  know had two generators to shore right  for Shore offshore right and then  generally to one January through two and  on another big boat it was three  generators you know after one aft to  forward one for two and then there's  three generators on board night gen 2 de  gens right and never ends there's just  always more stuff the the question is  those little Honda portable generators  they were never meant to go on a boat  ever just so you know they actually  don't they're not grounded believe it or  not you're going back to like Edison  days the invention of electricity to  wire systems 100 year old homes like  circa before not this century not the  last one but the one before that you're  on a two wire system so the lights on  your panel the reverse polarity is  because there's no ground it's floating  I reversed polarity light works by  measuring a differential between a  ground and a neutral that's how it does  it's very simple just a light and a  neutral ground should be bonded at the  source of power ie connected and if  they're bonded they're gonna be no like  the lights going to be simply nothing  because they're both have the same  potential same voltage you can't connect  two things to the same play  and have any power difference right but  when you what they're looking for  reverse polarity they're looking to have  some sort of voltage on the neutral and  the neutral on the ground should never  be different they should be the same so  as soon as the light starts riding up a  little bit it senses that you might have  voltage on your neutral which you  shouldn't you can't it's supposed to be  bonded to your ground what happens with  the Honda generator is that the ground  is not neutral it's floating and your  neutral coming in is not bonded so the  light is just looking at the  differential between the neutral in the  ground and since they're not common that  light might become not so bright but  bright enough that it thinks that you've  got a reverse polarity what it means is  you're on a floating ground system no  it's not you it's you can't use that  notice the problem is you can't use  those Honda generators on a boat you  should not use those Gerry's it's not  safe you're on a two wire system if you  ever have a short like like it's like  saying to your electricians you know  this whole thing about three wires and  grounds I don't believe in it I'm  thinking we're gonna save a wire and  we're gonna just go two wires through  the house and I like antique the problem  is the generator the generator is not  grounded it's floating you're holding it  in your hands it's in a briefcase  not a not a not a not a suitcase one I  know and you know what I did the exact  same area you did when I bought my boat  I have a Honda 2000 generator and I  discovered it the hard way  in 2006 I bought one too and I was like  well is that and then was asking  questions nobody had answers and I  started going down the rabbit hole and I  haven't used my Honda generator since  inside the shop waiting for whenever  we're gonna lose power on land yeah