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alright so in the next topic today I'm  Jeff Cote with Pacific yacht systems and  today we're gonna be talking about  selecting an inverter and some inverter  installation tips for your boat so  company's been around for 11 years you  know the big difference for us is  expertise - repetition and that  knowledge and that learnings is what I'm  trying to share with everyone here today  finding because I would say inverse is  probably within the top five things that  we do within our business it's one of  the most life-changing things to have on  a boat unless you're a Luddite but in  terms of the benefits what it costs and  what you get it's pretty up there in  terms of transformations for a boat  owner in terms of the creature comforts  that it gives or the convenience and it  gives from going from you know land life  living to boat living okay it makes it  for pretty seamless transition so what  is an inverter I mean and that's a good  question and I'm not gonna presume that  everyone here in the room knows an  inverter is really a device that takes  DC power and creates AC power that's  ultimately the purpose of an inverter  now what are the things that you want to  run off of an inverter it might be a TV  it might be refrigeration it might be  charging a computer it might be AC  outlets on your boat right those are  common things that inverters will run  now there is no limit to what an  inverter can do I've seen inverters the  size of this stage and three times the  size of the stage some inverters will  run Lily almost a small little village  right so there is no size but for both  purposes  you're gonna limit the things you're  gonna run on an inverter because simply  you just don't have endless power to run  all loads on an inverter but there is no  limits to what an inverter can do the  true limitation of an inverter is the  size and the battery bank that it's  connected to so an inverter is really  the opposite of a converter and  converters are things that we see on a  lot of older boats on the panel they're  gonna have a label converter and a  converter is a charger so the next thing  is okay so you know what an inverter is  what do you need for an inverter well  the first thing you need absolutely is a  battery bank and you  gonna need remember that inverse  especially if you're gonna run a  microwave or a coffee machine they draw  a lot of power right they draw as much  as probably you're winless all right  it's easy like I can see for example a  ceramic heater like a 12 amp ceramic  heater from West marine or whatever it  is those little kind of fact a Fra Mauro  heaters or something like that they're  gonna run at four maximum heat about a  hundred and forty amps at 12 volts a  windless is maybe 50 to 75 amps so this  is two winless is running and that's  just 12 amps you put two of those  heaters there you're drunk 300 amps  three of them you're drawing 400 amps  out of your battery back so you need a  pretty big battery bank and a  pre-meeting inverter to be able to  handle those loads  so when manufacturers think about a  battery bank they're thinking at least  200 amp hours 200 amp hours is to golf  car batteries in series and in series is  to group 30 ones in parallel right so  it's not a big battery bank it's a  battery bank you know this big or an 8 d  right which is about this big right so  not a massive battery bank but something  right it can't be a motorcycle batteries  it could but the inverter would be tiny  and generally for boats most of us work  in 12 volts or 24 volts so that's the  other thing you've got to ask yourself  is when I'm gonna be shopping for an  inverter what is my house battery  voltage is it 24 or 12 most of us is 12  and very very few of us have 32 maybe  one out of a hundred one out of 50 boat  owners have a 32 volt house system okay  that would be more from the 70s or early  80s great system it's just it's like  betta you know VHS versus meta way  better have a 34 32 volt system and it  just it didn't win you know 12 volt won  it is what it is we can't change it so  when you're gonna be purchasing an  inverter you're gonna have to consider  what's how is your house batteries wired  are they 12 volts or 24 volts alright so  the next question you have to ask  yourself when you think about in  inverters what's the purpose what am I  going to do with this inverter right  because not everyone uses an  for the same purpose so common things  that people want with inverter I want to  run the for example my partner wants to  run the microwave without having to  start the generator right in the morning  that could be one I want to have my  coffee machine like an espresso run in  the morning without having to start the  generator that's another one I want to  run a TV at night in an anchorage and  not have to run the generator that's  another one I want to recharge my power  tool batteries right again whenever  without having to be connected to shore  power or running a generator so you can  see like all these things are possible  without connected to shore power without  having a generator running but you've  got to look at the back of every single  device are going to talk about the  wattage you know some microwaves very  very compact my grades are only about  600 watts so microwaves are in 900 watts  somehow microwaves are 1200 watts so you  got to start figuring out the size a  hairdryer might be 1400 watts 1600 watts  so you got to think about what is the  purpose of my my of my inverter and  that's gonna allow you to figure out  what is the wattage of my inverter  because inverters come in all sizes okay  obviously you can even buy them smaller  than 300 but you know why bother  so you basically start at about three to  six hundred right what are the things  you're gonna be able to do like for  example I have a 300 watt inverter on my  boat and here's what my 300 watt  inverter does it runs a 40 inch LED TV  Iran's two media centers laptop charging  iPad charging basically every kind of  little NIT bit small little thing and  it's on 24/7 I leave it on all the time  anybody want to plug in anything it's  very little power draw because it's only  300 Watts anybody wants power they just  know that outlet is always powered and  it's easy breezy so that's what a 300  watt and won't run a vacuum I can tell  you that my cousin tried to run it blew  the breaker so they will not run a  vacuum but it's got to recharge devices  and it's going to run a TV and charge  computers no problem a thousand watt  inverter now that's a little bit more  popular what is a thousand watt inverter  small microwave small blender right and  then a 2000 watt inverter is gonna run  what like a coffee and espresso machine  right and it goes from there there's  3000 watt inverters as well that might  be concurrent use someone in the galley  using a microwave and someone else using  a coffee machine at the same time  concurrently at the same time so those  would be the thing the Ranger you're  thinking about at 12 volts the biggest  one is 2000 watt 24 you can go 4000 and  I have owners that go and we've done  we're doing a boat right now it's 8,000  watts you start stacking them right you  can have 4,000 4,000 iowa's on a boat  this summer I drove an 16 kilowatts  16,000 Watts he can run washing machines  the whole thing his whole boat can run  off the inverse I mean it's industrial  but that's what he wanted and that's  what he has so there's no limit of  course but the range is really between  three and three hundred and three  thousand is for most of us is the range  of the inverter that we're gonna choose  on a boat okay all right the next big  question is okay now you figured out hey  you've got a battery bank to run it  because you need a battery bank you  figured out what the voltage is so you  know that you figured out the size of  the inverter you want the next question  you've got to ask yourself is okay am i  dinner what type of low is am I going to  be running because there's a big  difference in AC between what are called  the resistive loads and inductive loads  and you're probably what's a resistive  load a resistive load is a toaster  resistance that's what it is it's eating  element let's say heater itself is a  resistive load like a light old lights  right incandescent lightbulb that's a  resistive load inductive loads are  motorized loads like a Nespresso machine  an owner of mine replaces Nespresso  three times first time terrible product  second time Nespresso makes an awful  product third time what oh and the the  third one worked at home but it broke on  the boat hmm  maybe Nespresso is not the problem what  could be the problem get a phone call go  on the boat  he's running a modified sine wave  inverter modified sine-wave inverters  are not good with inductive loads  they're less expensive than true sine  wave and they're not good for recharging  you know power tools batteries it can't  do that  your microwave is going to run great on  the generator Shore power but it's gonna  take forever to warm a cup of coffee or  soup on the inverter that's because  you're running a modified sine wave  inverter your TV has a line going  through it you can't see it but  generally the your partner can and is  driving you crazy  that's a modified sine wave inverter  your thruster controls which are  connected to a DC battery are humming  that's in a basically modified sine wave  inverter that's making it so anything  crazy or interference you turn the  inverter on in your auto pods working  and the boat veers off like 70 degrees  support every time the toaster comes on  that's a modified sine wave inverter  that happened when I got my boat didn't  know turn Karen's down below  we basically suddenly someone turns on  the making toast the bow goes 70 degrees  support that's a modified sine wave  inverter so all those reasons are a lot  of negatives right I mean let's be  honest there's not a lot of selling  points the only reason people buy  modified sine-wave inverters is for cost  and back in the day 10 15 20 years ago  it was a big difference it was  substantial but nowadays when you can  buy a true sine wave inverter for  between 50 40 cents per watt to $1.00  per watt maybe a dollar 10 per watt  there's really no incentive in my  opinion to run a modified sine wave  inverter now your choice your boat your  rules but to give you an idea I have  never installed a modified sine wave  inverter in 11 years in my business I've  never installed one I always try to  encourage the owner to go the true sine  wave front for all the benefits that I  talked about but you know maybe for you  you don't see that's the only thing you  do  your boat your inverter is gonna make  toast well then an inductor or a  modified sine wave inverter is perfect  for you it's gonna be certainly less  money okay oh the other thing too is by  the way also a modified sine wave  inverter is less efficient at converting  ace DC power to AC power so the other  thing too is you you have to care you  don't care about power on your boat you  have lots of it and you don't care if  it's inefficient you lose about 30% so  again it'd be sort of like doing a  conversion on your American dollar to  Canadian dollar instead of losing 2% on  each side of the transaction you're  losing 35% on each side of the  transaction so that's pretty significant  right a true sine wave modern inverter  is gonna cost you between five and ten  percent  modified sine-wave old inverter around  thirty five percent so considering that  battery banks are a finite capacity and  battery capacity on a boat is like money  it's very valuable and it's rare to lose  thirty five percent on your transaction  to convert DC power to AC power is a  pretty big deal  and I honestly have done some boats  where the only reason the owner changes  the inverter is just to get the energy  savings from going from modified to true  that's the only reason owner takes it  out works perfectly fine gives it to a  friend says that to a friend puts a true  one in and saves literally thirty  percent on his power for all inverter  loads and that can add up a lot because  some refrigerators on a boat run only on  shore power so you got a refrigerator or  a deep freezer on the flybridge  refrigerator not in the galley that's AC  driven you're attacking on 30% more  power consumption because you're running  a modified sine wave inverter that's  outdated okay so that would be another  thing to look for when you're shopping  for an inverter  the other thing too is when you're  looking at an inverter one thing that  you can consider and that's certainly  the reason why I ended up buying a 2000  watt inverter so I have a 300 that I  leave on all the time but the reason why  I wanted a 2000 watt inverter is not  really for the 2000 watt although that  was really good to sell it to other  stakeholders the real reason is I wanted  a high charge rate I have an 800 amp  hour battery bank and remember the max  the minimum charge rate for a battery  bank is 10% of battery capacity so 10%  of 800 is 80 amps right but would  flooded I can go all the way to 25% so I  got a hundred amp charger with a 2000  watt inverter and that's the reason I  put a 2000 watt inverter on my boat is  so that I got a hundred amp charger and  with the 100 amp charger I got a 2000  watt inverter so for me the the  justification and the drive to going to  a 2000 watt inverter was to get a  hundred amp charger so one stone to  birds and remember a give you an idea  800 amps standalone charger is about two  thousand dollars a 2000 watt  low-frequency so good quality inverter  charger is about two thousand dollars so  they're the same price and why would you  have two instead of one it's because  inverter chargers sell a hundred to one  to a single standalone charger so they  have mass production that cost per unit  is so much more down on an inverter  charger than a charger so it's  cost-effective to actually buy an  inverter charger versus just a charger  yeah different profiles absolutely yeah  all right so when you're gonna be buying  an inverter what are other things to  look for first of all you want to make  sure that it's marine certified and I  can go I could take 10 minutes explain  why but there is some automatic  switching that happens between the  neutral and the ground on an inverter  and that is absolutely essential and it  gets unsweet and sweet switch depending  if it's a source of power and a non  marine inverter won't do that if you  care about your underwater metals  meaning you care about Straker and  corrosion and you value money  I highly recommend that you choose a  Marine certified inverter sort of like a  Marine certified chargers the same thing  if you don't value money and you don't  care about losing your underwater metals  like your prop your struts right your  legs and all those things under your  boat then yes it can entire inverter or  can entire charger is right for you but  for everyone else that values money and  they want their boat to operate and they  don't want to lose all their medals and  they don't want Straker and corrosion I  highly suggest and tell you that you buy  a marine certified inverter charger the  other thing too is make sure what is  going to be that efficiency of the  inverter you want an inverter of course  you know you go from 12 volts to 120 of  course is going to be a factor of 10  right 12 into 120 is 10 there's going to  be a factor of 10 to convert but on top  of those 10 how much to convert from AC  to DC a modern really efficient charger  is going to do it within about five to  ten percent in efficient inexpensive  chargers are going to do it within about  thirty five percent so that means you  use a lot more of your battery power to  do the same thing if you buy an  unofficial or an inefficient inverter  the other thing too that started to  happen and it's a little bit more  sophisticated is that now inverters have  what's called a power assist mode so  your boat might have only 30 amps or 50  apps coming in and sometimes you have  surge loads that are inductive loads  their condition comes on a water maker  comes on a dishwasher comes on some  large load comes on that kicks you over  50 what can happen is the inverter for a  short period of time can actually take  that difference and suddenly give to  your about 70 amps of power so your  inverter can actually supplement your  Shore power connection as a way to avoid  tripping your Shore power breaker  different companies have different names  for it but that's kind of convenient you  might only have maybe in your boat you  only have 30 amps and sometimes just  four  short period of time you need 40 amps  for 20 seconds for whatever reason some  inverters will allow you to get the 40  ounce even though you're connected only  30 amps so the inverter will actually  sync with the shore power and will add  another 10 amps to the 30 amps that  you're getting from shore power to avoid  the shore power breaker from tripping  essential is that your inverter has the  ability to be disabled meaning that it  actually you can say inverter off and  this is going to be really key  especially when you're not onboard the  boat and you don't want your inverter to  automatically turn itself off when it  senses that there's no AC power coming  on the boat I've had a lot of boat  owners that have been very sad to find  out that they lost shore power in the  winter their inverter was on standby  they had heaters on board shore power  got lost because of a storm  whatever happened someone kicked the  cord their heaters now we're running  through the inverter from the batteries  and within two hours the batteries are  dead and a battery that is left  uncharged for a week two weeks a month  is a dead battery forever there is no  coming back from the other side if your  battery has left uncharged and  completely depleted for any period of  time you can bring a battery to zero you  can do it  it's gonna be very damaging the battery  but you have to recharge it the moment  it gets to zero the longer it stays in  that uncharged state at one point it's a  lost battery I had an owner I met him  again today he went on a traveling trip  a friend disconnected a short power cord  you know thinking I need more power  but what he didn't realize is when he  pulled the cord the breaker tripped  right  you can't disconnect a short power cord  under load person didn't think about  that pulled the cord  breaker trip he reconnected but the  breaker never came on the heaters were  on they ran off the inverter it was a  six thousand dollar AGM battery bank  just batteries he came back he had a six  thousand dollar bill just for batteries  that doesn't include taking the old  batteries out and putting new batteries  in so your inverter has to have a  disabled button a inverter off button  very essential okay do not buy and  invert it's always on because there's  may be unintended consequences when  something else happens you might want to  consider an inverter that has a built-in  charger certainly a little bit more time  to install because an inverter with a  built-in charger needs an AC input but  since you're already running a wire to  the AC out you're running two cables or  one cable it's not that big of a deal in  terms of labor so I would say 95 percent  of owners boat owners are choosing to  buy an inverter charger right because  then at the same time they're getting a  battery charger and an inverter maybe  90% so that's something to ask yourself  do I need a larger charger maybe I'm  changing my battery banks because I'm  putting an inverter in and if it's a  larger battery bank on my going to  recharge that larger battery bank a  large inverter charger will give you  that and then another thing too is that  and I'm not a big fan of it although  some of boat owners do like it is there  are modules that come with different  brands of inverters where the generator  can automatically start if the battery  voltage is too low I personally believe  that a generator should only be started  by an operator and that a machine  shouldn't decide when your generator  should turn on right because that  generator doesn't have a sense if the  seacock is open or closed right it  doesn't know so you can have the seacock  closed and then the generator starts the  cooling is closed damage to the water  impeller right it could be pretty  catastrophic in my opinion a generator  should be started by an operator but  some owners like convenience they want  automation and so if that's important to  you there are different manufacturers of  inverter chargers and inverters that  have automatic generator start modules  that can be tied to the inverter so  whenever the inverter sees a low voltage  and doesn't feel that it can provide  enough inverter to run your loads the  general will kick on automatically  this is a typical wiring schematic at  the bottom you can see a generator a  shore power there's a source selector  switch right here right power goes into  the inverter the out of the inverter  goes to the panel route some outlets the  inverter is powered from this battery  bank which is your house battery bank  there's an echo charge that allows this  charger to charge to battery banks  battery monitor it's a simplified  diagram it's a one-line diagram it's not  completely accurate we'll talk about a  more accurate one but it kind of gives  you a sense of how an inverter is wired  you would not wire an inverter like that  but this is kind of like let's not get  it too complicated this is right enough  but not completely accurate so now that  you've figured out which inverter you're  gonna buy how do you go about installing  one well first thing you got to ask  yourself is what loads am I gonna run  off my inverter and remember it's very  rare that I have an owner that says I  want to run all my AC lows on my boat on  an inverter when we install an inverter  I always like to make it foolproof  foolproof is for instance not having the  battery charger run off the inverter and  by the way I've seen that often so you  have your inverter that takes powers  from the batteries creates AC AC runs a  charger to recharge the batteries now  DaVinci's you know eternal machine of  power or whatever it is that has not  existed okay there is no such wheel that  creates power endlessly so you can't  take power to make power to give it back  and I've seen it often and so that would  be one load that you wouldn't want to  run off an inverter you wouldn't want to  run your battery charger off an inverter  so that would be a low that you would  choose to take off another one might be  your hot water tank even though you  might want it a hot water tank is  generally a 20 amp circuit 20 amp  circuit at 12 volts with your  efficiencies it's probably gonna be a  220 app load think about a 220 amp load  on your battery bank  that is a massive look you're winless is  maybe 50 to 75 right this is a huge huge  load on your battery bank and that low  is gonna run for 30 minutes so if you  have a hot water tank on your inverter  you need to have a very very very large  battery bank and so I always advise  owners I'm like it doesn't make sense  to run your hot water tank on your  inverter it just doesn't you might have  a water maker you can't run that on it  you would need a massive massive  inverter system to run you'd be like my  other boat owner that had at 12 kilowatt  or 8 kilowatt because the water maker  has huge inductive loads right take off  same thing with air conditioning you can  run an air conditioner off an inverter  but you need a large inverter system and  a large battery bank system to do that  we've done that with lithium of course  it's possible but for most of us it just  becomes too much of a burden so you  choose the lows that are gonna run off  the inverter and choose those that won't  okay and that's part of the first step  that you've got to decide when you  install your inverter here's an example  of blue see shows you kind of a like a  one-line diagram and that's kind of the  terminology we use we got non-inverted  loads hot water air conditioner could be  in here it could be I don't know a water  maker garbage compactor whatever it is  those would be non-inverted outs loads  that only work from shore power or  generator and then you have inverter  loads and notice the inverter is down  here and here's the input and there's a  breaker very essential there's a breaker  before the inverter the inverters here  and then there's out and then this  microwave outlets lightning it could be  entertainment system bail express view  you got a satellite TV system whatever  it is now notice when you're connected  Shore power the inverter loads are  effectively going to be run through a  mode called bypass or pass-through so  everything is gonna be running off of  shore power even with the inverter off  if you lose Shore power and the inverter  is enabled all the inverter loads are  going to be powered if the inverter  bottom is off  you lose your power all your inverter  loads are not working okay that is I  would say 99% of all our installations  follow this schematic that's how we do  it in non inverted loads and inverter  loads so want to emphasize that it's  really important that your inverter  charger has to have a breaker at the  source of AC power coming to the  inverter charger you want to make sure  that the AC wiring is not the solid  strand home wiring to inverter you'd be  shocked a lot of boats from the 80s  didn't have AC systems or 70s and it got  retrofitted and cost this King right  just get it done cheapest is better all  right and people in actually installed  Hart clearly like solid strand copper  wiring on boats from the 70s and 80s so  make sure that you're using me green  gray wire and I'll show a picture about  that and here's the big kick and that is  probably 95% of all non professionally  installed in inverters have this problem  first of all if you ever read an  inverter charger manual it's about and  I'm not gonna joke it's about not a  centimeter thick but half a cm you think  it's probably a hundred pages any  self-respecting man is gonna see that  manual and he's gonna see the inverter  box and say this is just stupid it's a  waste of my time I'm smarter than this  and they'll take the manual and they're  gonna use it for any other purpose than  reading material and they will then dive  in on the installation MacGyver style  and they're gonna get it to work and at  the end of their project they're gonna  really be proud of themselves because  the inverter will work but they're not  gonna have read anything and it's not  gonna work safely but they don't care  because as long as it works  it's MacGyver so one of the most missed  things on an inverter install is the  fact that when you separate your panel  you don't only intercept the hot leads  from the breakers you also have to find  the neutrals and bring them to a  separate neutral bus so you have a  neutral bus for non inverter loads and a  neutral bus for inverter lows your boats  not going to be wired like that  you're gonna have to literally peel the  loads off and create a non invert an  inverter bus and an inverter bus for  your neutrals and that is probably  missed and I would say 95% of all  inverter installations because no one is  gonna read an inverter manual because  it's just who would it's too thick right  and the other thing too a lot of  inverters if you've got a boat and it's  really questionable about the work that  was done on board a lot of boat owners  not reading the manual are gonna install  an inverter directly connected to shore  power between their AC panel so they're  gonna literally go in and they're gonna  pop the inverter in between their AC  panel and their Shore power plug they're  gonna be like well if I don't have Shore  power the inverter is gonna run my boat  and that would be a boat where the hot  water tank the battery charger and all  these things are run off the inverter  there's no circuit protection generally  in those situations because the circuit  breaker on a boat is generally not at  the shore power receptacle it's actually  on the AC panel so that whole line is  unprotected I cannot tell you there are  so many reasons why that is wrong but  that is very common if you got a guy  that did work on the boat for a case of  beer or for whatever then he probably  installed the inverter in line between  the shore power receptacle and the AC  panel because again he probably didn't  read the manual definitely no no okay so  look this is what AC wiring and it's  kind of hard but you know you want to  have wiring that is basically fine  strand tinned right flexible so it won't  break very essential if you're gonna  install an inverter on your boat make  sure that the inverter never is mounted  in a gasoline engine room  yes chargers are in gasoline engine  rooms but inverters cannot be mounted in  a gasoline engine room because there is  no such thing as an ignition protected  inverter many owners I would say anybody  who's got a gasoline boat and has an  inverter I'd say probably half of you  have the inverter in the gasoline engine  room why because the batteries are there  and there's a charger there and whoever  put the chart the inverter saw a charger  in zywall if the charge is good here and  the batteries are here where am I going  to put the inverter it's got to go in  the engine room  what they don't realize is if ever  there's a fuel leak maybe a fuel leak  from the fuel filter or fuel leak from  one of the hoses leaking fuel that fuel  is has a very very very low flash point  doesn't need a lot to ignite it's not  like diesel these are you can throw a  match on it it won't light and the other  problem with gas is the reason why it's  also called gas probably not just  gasoline coincidentally is it's very  gaseous like it actually expands right  that's why people in the summer blow up  from their lawn mower sheds you know and  they have no ventilation and the tank  was open and the whole space is filled  with gasoline they opened the light the  shed explodes  well that's what happens it goes  everywhere every whole compartment is  gonna be full especially in the heat it  gets warm and so it's essential that  your inverter and remember your inverter  is gonna be you're not gonna have the  blowers operating when you're gonna be  installing inverter because your engines  not working you're going to be sitting  in anchor so the code is very  black-and-white about this there isn't  black and white an inverter charger  cannot be mounted in a gasoline engine  room so essential that you install it  within the cabin of the boat but then  some people do that and drill huge holes  and they break that and by the way this  is 95% of all installations people  forget that huge hassle that builders go  to make sure that a gasoline engine room  is completely vapor proof from the cabin  like massive costs insane costs to do  that then people go in and they take  hole saws and they punch holes through  and I cannot tell you how many people  are proud of having their inverter  chargers in the cabin and there is  literally a hole this big between the  cabin and the engine room now their  whole cabin of their boat is part of the  engine room because any vapors from gas  are going to go through that whole  craziness and now people are living  families on board  kids and if that inverter ever turns on  and there's a gas leak you're gonna if  there's gonna be an explosion  so really essential if you're installing  on a gasoline boat you need to make sure  that those wires going through the  bulkheads are absolutely vapor proof the  other thing too is you want to make sure  that the inverter is mounted in a dry  location it can never be exposed to you  know  Spray or water rain make sure it's in a  good ventilation I have owners that put  it in under a settee and it's all closed  inverters create a lot of heat  you're gonna need ventilation to that  like some sort of louvered vent it will  shut down if you have it in an enclosed  space sort of like if I go in a freezer  you close the door I'm gonna die both of  lack of oxygen and the fact that I'm  gonna heat that space up and I'm gonna  cook myself it's just I cannot breathe  inverters are creating heat if there's  no ventilation in that space the  inverter will shut itself down through  overheating and it's going to give you  overheating error so it's really  essential that your inverter is not  mounted in a location where there's no  ventilation and the other thing too is  an inverter cannot be mounted you want  to mount it as close to the batteries  are possible but you don't want to mount  it directly above the batteries  especially for flooded lead-acid because  flooded lead-acid batteries when they  charge especially in bulk create a lot  of gas and that gas it's corrosive and  it rises and so you're gonna have  premature failure on your inverter  because you've got too much gassing so  the manual says all of this but make  sure that your inverter is close to the  batteries but not above them so here's  an example on a Grand Banks 36 I did  that in nineteen 2000 2008 you can see  the switch you can see the inverter the  the fuse we'll talk about that a little  bit later fuse when you install an  inverter you want to have the right fuse  the right amperage of the fuse you want  the fuse to be locally in the right  place so you want to class the fuse you  want a few size that is specified by the  manufacturer it's gonna be in the manual  and you want to have the fuse located at  the beginning of the circuit very  essential not anywhere in the circuit  because that fuse not only protects the  inverter it also protects the wire  feeding the inverter okay very essential  and also believe it or not it's really  hard to find a Class C if used in a  Chandler II the further north you go  like don't think you're gonna find one  in refuge cove for instance okay so and  remember your inverter is not just an  invert us also an inverter charger so if  you lose that fuse you lose your  and you lose your charger that's pretty  critical right even if you have a  generator on born now your charger will  never work because you don't have the  fuse so it's really essential to have a  spare fuse otherwise you're going to do  something like this and the owner never  did it it's just the previuos owner  never fixed it and by the way this is  actually quite common this is not a joke  they kept the fuse older though which is  kind of nice so they have the intent of  the fuse older but they just yeah they  figured the wire seems a little smaller  though so that's probably gonna catch on  fire before the other wire well they did  put a fuse and notice it's in front of  an engine and the engine is all negative  right so if you touch one and the paint  chips you'd have it Indiana Jones master  craft in your hands forever you know you  see I mean the welding would be amazing  your it would be like you'd be burnt  like three degrees your hands would be  seared on that thing like that wrench  would be dead hot be like lava hot so  yeah so they they use the wire as a fuse  and this is a Class D fuse holder well  those people are the why yeah I mean I  would love to meet these people one on  one with a beer I'm like what were you  thinking they'd be incredible  another thing too is when you install an  inverter and this is often overlooked  again it's in the manual you want a  master DC disconnect switch an on/off  switch that will disconnect DC power to  the inverter now that's what the code  says so as an tech I'm thinking well  why right I'm always curious well the  reason why is it sort of the same way  when you this call the service  disconnect in some ways because if  you're ever gonna play with AC on your  boat change an AC outlet what's your  first reaction or first instinct of what  you should do before you're gonna change  an AC outlet on your boat personally I  would disconnect the shore power port  I'm not gonna turn off the breaker of  the panel I'm not gonna take a chance  why not disconnect my boat from shore  power why trust a breaker when I can  physically disconnect my boat from shore  power that would be my instinct the  problem is if you have an inverter on  your boat inverters have this thing  that's called a standby mode Stan my  moans means I'm an inverter but if I  don't sense a load I'm not on so now you  have a little wand from Home Depot and a  GCI tester and you put in your AC outlet  your inverters on standby there's no  load you put it beside the AC outlet no  beeping you put your GFCI in there it's  like a five watt load no light you're  like this is amazing I am prepared and  ready to take away that GFCI and change  it there is no electricity AC  electricity on my boat you disconnect  you touch the hot and the neutral  suddenly the inverter says oh wait a  second I sense more than a 50 watt load  right because your fingers is definitely  more than 50 watt resistor here and be  like I think I've been asked to turn  myself on so now you're gonna get  electrocuted because your inverter was  on standby mode and hence why inverters  have a master DC disconnect and the  master DC disconnect should be labeled  and it's not something you'll ever touch  unless you're working on your AC system  okay so you don't mean it but you sure  do you know I'm saying that's why the  standards say so and the other point  that I'm trying to say there especially  if you have an inverter charger and this  is essential and often overlooked often  probably two three well one thirds of  the votes don't do this people are very  incentive to take shortcuts we all do  we're all trying to be efficient we're  trying to do things faster better what  the issue is that people will wire an  inverter charger at a panel because you  don't want to go all the way to the  batteries and they're thinking well the  batteries are too far there's already a  big cable there why would I bother I'm  just simply going to connect to the  panel connect to this switch and it's  already a switch switch location switch  distribution we call so they run the  inverter to that and they're like oh  look I just saved all this wire  to run another 10 feet so then what  happens is the owner of the boat goes  the charge is on by the way of this  point and the charger the owner says and  this happens all the time  all the time the owner goes oh I'm gonna  disconnect my batteries from my loads  and it takes the the main DC disconnect  for the boat turns it off but now  suddenly all the loads are still on and  then you're going what the hell I just  turned the batteries off and you did now  your battery charger is acting as a  power supply now a power supply and a  battery charger are two separate things  and a power supply is way more money  than a battery charger because the  battery charger assumes that there is a  battery there to take the shock loads of  the battery voltage going up and down a  power supply is able to hold steady  regardless of the voltage loads coming  in and off and it's going to hold at  13-3 a battery charger does not react  like that so now you have your inverter  charger running all your households on  your boat besides the point that it's  freaking the hell out of you right  you're like what the hell my batteries  are disconnected how can I have charged  now you're wondering where's the short  what's going on and then suddenly what  you do is you have maybe a load that  comes on takes a time for the charger to  react right the voltage drops light go  dim and then come back on again but now  what you do is you take the load off  then that's where you're gonna pay a  price because the charger does not react  instantly if you have 300 pounds on top  of you and suddenly the load is gone  you're gonna push up voltage is gonna  spike 18 20 24 25 30 because the  Chargers putting output of amps it  doesn't know that you're suddenly gonna  take away a load and it's not connected  to battery and something you're gonna  have a voltage spike and now all your  sensitive DC electronics that were  actually connected at a time are going  to blow up so that's the reason why you  always want to have an inverter charger  or all charger circuits alternators  chargers inverter chargers directly  connected to a battery and not switched  except if they have their own switch  right because if its own switch the  inverter won't be able to draw from it  and the charger it's it's lost both legs  okay so won't matter but very essential  so an inverter charger has to be  directly connected to an unconnected at  the battery via its own dedicated fuse  at the battery in its own dedicated  switch and that's what the code says and  that's how they should be wired but most  boats are not wired like that I was on a  boat it happened a week ago grand banks  42 beautiful boat beautiful amazing you  would think this boat is wired perfect  and it happened when we were on board  there was a dead short on the engine the  charger was actually connected directly  to the load side of the switch not to  the battery side we shut off the engine  battery switches but the dead short was  still happening and there's a fire in  the engine room on board and the owner  was there extremely scary stuff couldn't  disconnect it we're like what the hell's  happening it was because the charger was  connected to the load side of the switch  so the engine was always on even you  could actually you could have the engine  switches off and the ignition panel will  be popped you couldn't start the engine  because the charge is only 40 amps the  voltage was crashed I can only power 40  but the ignition would be on the gauges  would be on everything was on you think  you're connected and your engine  switches was off very confusing okay DC  wiring make sure that the wire size  meets the amperage or the wattage of  your device if you have a thousand watt  inverter and you're switching to 2000 or  3000 unfortunately the reality is that  the wire size feeding that thousand watt  inverter is not going to be sized for  2,000 or 3,000 it's not like a short  like a AC outlet where you can plug  whatever appliance you want in DC  because the wire size are so big and so  expensive people only use the cable size  that they need they don't oversize  everything for multiples of what they  need so make sure that the wire size can  handle the amperage and will offset the  voltage drop of that so there's a table  in the manual and it's gonna tell if the  the run to the inverter is 10 feet and  10 feet back you've got a 20 foot run  there's gonna be a table and says 20  foot run 2000 watt inverter you need  four OTT right and you got to follow it  okay make sure also and I've seen that  happen is that sort of like a carotid  artery right quarter are someone who's  not in shape sitting on the couch  watching TV you know it doesn't matter  that tons of cholesterol cord artery no  big deal  so the inverter might see twelve point  eight volts everything's good you're  looking uh got a crimp everything's done  well that's because you're not asking  anything of it you see I'm from the East  Coast you do the same person you say now  there's three feet of snow in the front  yard go shovel right that same person  sitting on the couch is completely fine  not breathing everything's okay now you  ask him though shovel snow for an hour  and a half he's gonna have a heart  attack in the front yard well your  inverter is the same thing you could  have twelve point eight volts perfect  connection under no-load to the  batteries but if you have a bad crimp on  that wire and you're running 200 or 300  amps continuous that crimp better be  perfect so make sure that your crimps on  high current draws to an inverter or a  thruster or a starter are perfect  otherwise a starter is only fifteen  seconds thrusters maybe five seconds on  and off but inverter can be continuous  you know maybe a partner is having a  hair dryer twenty five minutes you've  got a few teenage girls on board maybe  it's gonna be 60 minutes of hair dryers  who knows that load is gonna be pretty  hard and you made or make sure that your  crimp ie the lug on the wires perfect  also and this is not seen as essential  and the MacGyver's out there are gonna  say well why would you ever have a  shoulder on a highway what's the purpose  of having a shoulder to pull over  because my car never breaks down and the  car in front of me never breaks down and  we're always simply gonna run because  they're optimists right but some of us  know the reality is sometimes the car  breaks down and it can't actually Park  on a highway it needs to pull over a  chassis ground on an inverter is  basically the equivalent of a three wire  AC system and we've been to three wires  for over a hundred years okay old old  little houses were two wires hot and  neutral eventually someone figured out  that there needs to be a secondary path  to return because the path the ground  could be you so they have it what's  called a grounding wire  if you do not have a chassis ground on  that inverter you are foregoing you are  willing to say the last hundred years of  progress were stupid and I am gonna go  back to circa 1898 and I'm gonna do a  hot neutral a/c system on my boat now  yes of course it functions everything's  fine until it doesn't and if there's no  chassis ground and you touch the case  and it's energized this will be the last  inverter case you will ever touch you'll  get electrocuted and you will die so  essential to have chassis ground and I'm  not joking probably half of all  inverters don't have one because you  don't need one right it works without it  sorry you don't need a seat belt in a  car to drive it so you don't need it and  if they do have one they didn't read the  manual and the cable size is gauge 10  because most people that wire boats are  household electricians and again they  didn't read the manual and the manual  says that it needs to be one size  smaller than the largest cable size  connect to the inverter so if you're  feeding a 2 odd inverter you need one on  on the chassis ground because if you  don't and the chassis ground shorts to 2  watt positive that 10 gauge wire becomes  a fire wire and you will lose your boat  guaranteed there's no amount fire  extinguishers there's nothing you can do  your only source is to get off the boat  because it's gonna be a volcano that's  gonna turn on your boat that length of  wire will go full-blown will light up  like melt and lava on your boat so you  can never ever ever ever have a 10 gauge  wire as a chassis ground fed with a 2  watt positive wire you can but you're  asking for trouble and I talked about  that a little bit so if you're gonna use  your inverter charger make sure that you  turn your inverter function off right  never ever and this is important  especially with an inverter charger and  the labels are misleading because they  only say inverter on it but on your AC  paddle you might have an inverter and  it's gonna say inverter you think oh  well I'm gonna shut it off there if you  have an inverter shut off and you turn  the breaker off you're shutting off the  charger function as well and I've had  owners where they lose their battery  banks because they're looking at the  panel of like oh I'm don't need my  inverter you bow donor right no I don't  need the charger shut it off they walk  away  two months later they come back the  batteries are dead why they turned the  battery charger off on the inverter  function so never turn your battery  charger on the circuit breaker always on  the remote panel or the inverter and the  Justin lastly just to wrap up think  about this as an inverter charger it's  not just a device that runs a light in  your cabin right that inverter might run  your refrigeration so if you lose that  inverter you lose the food in your  fridge because that inverter is running  the lowest pass-through meaning if the  inverter dies even I'll generate or show  power the fridge won't get powered you  need to literally take it off and jump  those AC wires together now not many  people are gonna be willing to do that  so then what happens is they go to  Campbell River they go to Nanaimo they  go to Sydney and then they get another  inverter now those are easy points of  entry but if you're up in Discovery or  Browns and use the inverter your trip is  your fridge if it's running off AC is  done and now you won't run on shore  power and it won't even run off of a  generator so when you install an  inverter charger make sure that at one  point don't push your luck if you've got  a 20 year old inverter charger  appointment you got to ask yourself how  long is that inverter charger gonna last  and in this summer I probably change  about two dozen and I never change some  in the winter they fail under use that's  when we get called out so if you if it's  critical to you an inverter charger you  have one on your boat you got to ask  yourself how much luck can I have with  this inverter charger and what happens  if I lose it is it just gonna I'm not  gonna run the microwave big deal right  maybe my house the AC outlets are not  gonna work or am I gonna lose some  essential those like my refrigerator on  top of the flybridge and I'm going to  the Browns for two months and then  everything on board I won't be able to  do connect to shore power or anything  nothing is gonna run so those are things  you've got to think about how critical  your inverter charger is on your boat  and with that I'm going to let go  because we've got about two minutes and  someone else is in the room so I'll take  questions on the outside and thank you  everyone for your time