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PYS Electrical Audit Aboard M/Y Impressions

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ya know yeah absolutely  alright so at first glance you're the  good news is you don't have too many  loads on your starter batteries which is  really good right  I'm just rare but good the other thing  I'm noticing is that you don't you don't  have wing nuts which is really good and  the batteries aren't put in parallel so  you have a dedicate port and starboard  battery which is good  you've got heat shrink connectors on  them so that's good too and you've got  battery boxes which is also really good  so no complaints there  okay yeah so the one problem already I  notice is that you have a battery  combiner on automatic battery combiner  down there what allows you it allows two  different batteries to be put in  parallel together if ever there's a  charging voltage and right now it's on  disable so that means that your both  your engine batteries are not recharging  your house unless you actually with the  use of a the switch you actually have it  on all at all so you have a device that  allows it to be automated but right now  it's disabled because the switch the  toggle switches to off yeah absolutely  but it's yeah absolutely so now I'm back  to now it's back to on yeah I think -  I've noticing which is good is your  windlass is off your house bank which is  good no off your engine batteries  so the big no-no that I'm seeing right  now is that you've got gasoline engines  and you've got AC outlets in your engine  compartment you can't have that that's  black on white you can never ever ever  ever have that doesn't matter yeah that  was previous owner did that the factory  didn't do that reason you can is because  gasoline all of that is non ignition  protected and if you ever have a gas  leak which is possible in an engine  compartment you you'd mean it would be  an explosion actually so it's really  important that AC outlet even though  it's convenient and a lot of people do  this because he wondering why the  builders didn't do it well the Builder  don't do it for because it's they're not  it's not there it's illegal to do so so  yeah and you're not the only one I would  say probably 80% of power builders that  have gasoline engines don't know this  and some previous owner at one point  modified it for the convenience you just  can't you just can't do it  the other thing I'm noticing too is that  you have an inverter but they put a non  ignition protected fuse in your engine  room that fuse has to be outside your  engine room it cannot be in this engine  room because it's not ignition protected  this fuse over here that fuse there is a  non ignition protected fuse and it can't  be in the engine room  absolutely but can't be so so it has to  be outside the engine it's just the type  of fuse it is different fuses some are  some art so over here a few things  you've got a temperature sensor that's  not being used which is pretty critical  because you have probably a large  inverter on board probably a 2000 yeah  and you've got a the battery temperature  sensor that's not installed it's just  loose oh yeah yeah it's just it's just  not installed yeah of course I write all  that stuff  you've got a few more loads than you  should on your batteries directly like  whenever you your batteries should only  ever be used as a like in a car you know  in our vehicles we have you know 20 30  40 loads in a car you know stereo  headlights there's so many different  loads a headlamp you know trunk lights  but at the end of the day you only see  on the when you put a car battery and  you only see two wires a positive and a  negative and it's the same thing should  apply for our boats really the same  thing and what you should do is you  should have positive and negative  distribution points and your batteries  shouldn't be those positive and negative  distribution points so that's really  important and it keeps everything  modular really clean like a tree you  know you start one trunk in the ground  only one and as you go up you branch out  and electricity uses the same type of  wording right they actually call them  branches and they even big big circuits  are actually called trunk lines not by  coincidence either the other thing I'm  noticing is that your battery bank these  six golf cart batteries are put in  parallel but the problem is your loads  these two batteries are gonna get the  brunt of the work these two are going to  be the next and then these ones are  gonna be really lazy because your  battery bank is not working as a whole  it's these two are doing the most of the  work and then these two support and then  these two it's a little bit like the  analogy I give is like in war you don't  go Indian file to attack the enemy you  go as a front because if you go as a  front you're gonna work together if you  go Indian file every shot the second  one's probably gonna get shot the third  one might be okay because yeah so it's  not good to be first and so it's always  good to work together and the only way  they can have a front line is for your  batteries to really work together and  that would mean that for example all  your positive loads would have to come  from one end of the batteries and then  your negatives would come from the other  yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah you know  it's more than a couple hours yeah so  I'd say about depending on the loads you  know less than half a day because then  what's the problem is you know the  positive or  negative wires that are here need to be  moved on the other end some wires are  not gonna be long enough so you have to  look so yeah that's the other thing too  the other issue that you have whenever  you have batteries that are separated  and you have a temperature sensor is  well which battery are you monitoring  and the problem is you need to you don't  ever want to have a situation called  thermal runaway so what you're doing is  you're trying to measure the warmest  battery so in your boat since these  batteries and these batteries aren't  together you have to make a decision  well which one is going to be the  warmest battery and I would guess it's  probably going to be one of these but if  you're wrong you could literally your  batteries could explode so whenever you  have a large charger or a board a boat  that's why the temperature sensor is  really really important  it generally doesn't happen but it can  happen that's what was happening with  the Sony laptops that would explode in  people's laps when they were charging it  was from thermal runaway  alright so house bank the one thing  that's good is that your your  interconnections are all actually proper  sized they've got good heat shrink the  one thing I'm a little disappointed is  that they used unten connect connectors  so you know everything here is tinned  right that's why you see you've got  you've got basically copper but that's  not tint like for example this good this  one here is a good example it's copper  inside because copper is really good  conductivity but what you want to do is  so that you don't have corrosion on here  because over time this is going to  become green like the beautiful Fairmont  Hotel roofs right they get all green and  nice that's what's going to happen it's  copper oxide so you know they went with  the right length of heat shrink which is  really rare most people don't know what  they're doing so they did the right  length of heat shrink but unfortunately  they chose the less expensive and then  one day you're gonna have to change this  if you would have gone with tint or the  previous owner would have done tin like  here yeah it would tint then you'll  never have to change it  oh it depends on how often you use your  boat until you until you get a good  sense of what your usages you should be  checking at least once a month once a  month yeah but then the problem is then  your batteries are not going to last as  long as you want so it's yeah you're  right and that's why I'm a really big  proponent of AGM batteries because you  don't have to ever look at them the  other thing too that I noticed which is  good is your battery box and this is  really rare is actually being held down  by not the box but by putting angle iron  or holders around it that's that's  really good and then the other thing too  is they have a bad a good strap holding  the batteries down which is also rare  and the other thing I notice is that  your batteries don't have any  contaminants or they haven't been  overfilled because you can see that  there's no sulfur casted on the top of  the batteries  the other things to that I'm noticing is  uh  you don't have a you don't have a house  which yeah but the thing is there's a  lot of lot yeah but you've got a house  load panels but like for example this  battery bank I'm seeing connections that  are directly connected to it that are  bypassing that switch I can see a lot of  them I can see your windlass is one of  them  you've got your inverter there's another  load here I'm not sure what that is a 50  amp load that's directly connected so  you you always need a circuit isolator  switch right like look at all those  loads here that are directly connected  the windlass I believe is this one right  here that's too small for the windlass  yeah I'm not sure what that is okay all  right so you should have it what's  really good is you should have the  ability to have a we're call they're  called circuit Isolators so what that  means is one switch that you can shut  off cuts everything except except those  pumps you never want to cut off based  pumps but other than that you want to be  able to cut off everything yeah but but  it has to happen at the battery yeah and  then for your house for your engine  batteries that's fine because there's no  loads prior to that but right now here  when you go to that switch there's loads  that are already directly connected to  this battery including for example your  inverter  no it's good and I also see that you've  got loads on your batteries are tapped  in multiple places like for example you  can see that you got a positive and a  negative wire tapping on this battery  bank and you've got other ones that are  coming over here so it's gonna be really  important to put all your batteries to  work together and the other thing too is  I'm noticing these flooded batteries  have no battery box and if they ever  leaked the damage is is unbelievable  like it's it's in Sulphur Cassatt is so  bad so yeah I really recommend that you  put the battery boxes for golf car  batteries they were trying to run a new  load directly to this panel versus other  loads that probably go through the side  of the boat and go over there yeah  that's probably the reason why they did  that it's good that they have it  switched and certain a circuit breaker  that's great but you should have a one  in Australia they don't even call them  switches they call them by the purpose  the switches the device but what you use  it for is for battery isolator and so  when I talk to my guys that are from  Australia they actually don't even call  them switches they're like oh you want  me to use a battery isolator which is  what you should have you should have a  battery isolator on your house bank  the other thing to them gnosis is how  effective is your battery monitor is it  working well quite well because I I  think there might be a problem with how  its wired yeah let me have a look at  that because you don't have a negative  distribution on your boat your negatives  are coming from multiple places what you  typically want to have is you want to  have one single place where all your  negatives are going to be right and then  and then have your batteries connected  to that you don't want to start having  engine nerves go here and then having  other engine negatives go somewhere else  and then you're having your house go  here you know I mean you want to have  all your negatives coming into one place  where it's kind of simple but your  battery shunt looks like it's working  that's why properly which is good  one two yeah I can see that at one point  those batteries were overfilled somebody  put baking soda on top of them with  whoever did this work remove the  caulking from your engine room to this  compartment and this compartment now is  part of your engine compartment and  therefore this an inverter is not  ignition protected and your inverter is  effectively like in your engine room and  if you ever have a gas leak  the vapors will come into this  compartment and whenever this inverter  comes on or off there's a chance of it  igniting and then therefore the boat  would explode so that's a really serious  concern really really serious you have  to have an on switch you don't have one  never installed no and and actually  that's nothing really honestly of all  the things I've talked to you about  right now you're on a ticking time bomb  if you have one of your your gas  fittings that leaks which can happen  right it's not the builders go to great  lengths to make that engine compartment  vapor proof on the positive DC  connection to your inverter yeah I'm  gonna have that down Oh everything is  written down in the report and and the  biggest concern is the fact that you've  got all those wires coming into that  compartment then coming into this area  and then coming back into this area  because what happens is when you've got  gases when it gets warm it expands and  it's gonna find its way everywhere and  it needs to be vapor proof not even like  even slightly it's got to be really well  sealed and what happens is all your  components in this compartment are not  ignition proofed but the ones in the  engine compartment are so that's why you  need to make sure that gas for all  circumstances always stays in that  compartment  well the switch is just for on/off but  the big concern is the fact that you  have a hole that  this big which a bunch of wires coming  through it and there is no caulking  there's nothing to stop gas to come  through that hole to come in through  that compartment and then fill that  compartment with gas and in turn filled  your bedroom with gas which in terms  feels this but this cabin with gas and  all the components in here and the  inverter is not ignition protected and  this is critical because if you ever  have one gas leak in one of your  fittings just a slow just as tiny gas  leak you're gonna find yourself in a  place where this boat could literally  explode yeah so so that's your it's not  uncommon to see it on gas boats because  most people don't know what they're  doing and they pretend to unfortunately  let me have a look at that after I take  a few more notes about your inverter  configure you could configure this to  tell you know but you and even have you  could leave the charger on all the time  what it would do is it would actually  you would say my breaker size and so  you'd say my breaker is 15 amps and then  whatever is left of power then I'm not  using on the boat from this heater what  you would do is you would have maybe  three amps four amps five amps which  could be used for your charger and would  never blow the breaker but the problem  right now is you can't configure this  because the it's it's all like gone  crazy they don't sell this anymore but  you can probably find this on eBay I  would get it changed yeah I would  definitely get another one because you'd  want it you I mean it's so useful I use  it all the time like I said I have the  same one I you know whenever I depending  on my breaker size I change my AC input  so it's very useful and you always want  to have your charger on always because  batteries flooded batteries lose half a  percent a day of charge so your  batteries are gonna and and every day  that you dare stay cold and uncharged  they sulfate and then you lose that  capacity forever  have the charger  it's not connected it doesn't work you  don't have any volts zero volts the only  thing I don't understand is where's your  charger for your batteries so there's a  problem that battery monitor is not  properly configured or not cannot it's  not a configuration it's not properly  wired  you    

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