View Transcript

Hide Transcript

Transcript is auto-generated.

[Music]  [Music]  you  next we're gonna talk about inverter  alright so now we've got an inverter  right here in the middle and this is not  an inverter charger this is an inverter  so the biggest issues when you trouble  an inverter honestly is remember what I  said yesterday and this was important  inverters have no ability of saying no  they will do whatever you ask of them  the only thing that protects them is  going to be this fuse right here that is  rated and extremely specified by the  manufacturer of your inverter and that  fuse will stop the inverter from doing  too much work in the summer or in the  winter fall or spring people get a  little bit enthusiastic of what an  inverter can do they try to run their  heaters ceramic heaters through the  inverter when they're at Anchorage  thinking hey you know what I need more  heat I don't have my generator running  I'm not connected Shore power I'm gonna  plug in all my heaters now besides the  point that you are burning through your  batteries faster than they can ever  experience you're talking about a life  event of epic proportions in terms of  the load the inverter is gonna try to do  what you want it's gonna say hey you  know that's what they want the only  thing that saves that inverter is this  fuse this fuse will blow protecting the  inverter but now you don't understand  why your inverter doesn't work anymore  and if you're not connected to shore  power which you probably aren't because  you're using your inverter this inverter  lights up for two needs two things  generally it needs either shore power or  it needs battery power and if you're not  connected to shore power because you're  running your inverter then this thing  goes dark and it's dead and you don't  know why first step it's change that  fuse before you change that fuse you  turn the switch off right so there's no  load change the fuse make sure the  connection is done perfectly  remember stainless steel is not  conductive that fuse is going to have  stainless steel washers if you put that  stainless steel washer between the fuse  holder in between the fuse holder in the  fuse you will melt that fuse holder  it will melt literally down and I that  fuse older does not melt easily because  stainless is not practically non  conductive like four percent I'm not  sure something like that stainless steel  is not a conductive material like copper  so you're changing the fuse make sure  every the washers are in the exact same  order they were in okay this is very  important change that fuse turn the  switch back on this should light up all  right  it does not light up okay was the switch  accidentally turned off shouldn't  because it's out of the way it's hidden  it's not very accessible but someone  could have been your engine room playing  with switches right that's off that's  another one  the other issue might be the remote  panel I don't have a remote panel here  but this here has a remote panel and  generally you can do everything on an  inverter or you can do it at the remote  panel forget the remote panel go to the  inverter try to turn it on or off at the  inverter on older inverters the freedom  brand you know the one that's super  popular like probably 80% of all boats  have that inverter on board does that  tracks inverter from heart interface the  communication port could die on that  device or the monitor could for whatever  reason die the inverter is still intact  but it does not communicate via the  remote control if the inverter works on  the inverter but you can enable or  disable it on the remote the problem is  not the inverter per se it's the  communication port on the inverter  charger or on the inverter end or the  remote the other thing too is you might  want to look at see that if there's an  AC output on this you might be blaming  the inverter but it's not the inverter  of the problem you have an AC output but  you have not enabled these circuit  breakers that are powering whatever  appliance you want to power like the  microwave the outlets you're blaming the  inverter but actually the outlets are  not on because an inverter does not  power directly anything  it goes through circuit breakers okay so  the circuit breakers have to be on No  you can't blame your microwave not  working to the inverter if the microwave  breaker is not turned on oh yeah  absolutely this is just a conceptual  they're absolutely on big boats there's  just one panel but at the back they're  effectively two on most boats if you  have an inverter on your boat and it's  probably done conceptually on the front  you think you have one but in reality  the panel is broken in parts in the back  there are ways that the way that it's  wired so this is just a conceptual  saying that these are inverter loads or  AC bypass loads and these are not  inverter loads there's just separating  them but they're they're effectively  separated but they're one beside one  another and the panel looks one but it's  actually been divided into two parts  that's how you divide non-inverted and  invertible on a boat yeah there are ways  by the way we're gonna go down a rabbit  hole just warning everyone here just  gonna go down for about 30 seconds and  we're gonna come back okay don't want to  lose anybody nobody exits inverters have  this feature called pass through this  panel here should have a breaker here  called inverter it's not an inverter  breaker anymore  it's an inverter charger breaker that  has to be on all the time forever and  ever and ever never turn it off it  should have a cap it shouldn't even be a  circuit breaker it should be a thermal  circuit breaker but they don't exist and  that's how they are never turn it off  this if there's AC coming in here  there's AC going there and goes in if AC  s here it goes there this devices sees  AC coming in says I have AC going in  even though you told me to be an  inverter you mean only be an inverter if  I don't see AC then it sends AC out here  and then this is AC panel inverter lows  not or bypass loads that's how it works  we're back out of the rabbit hole okay  remember rule number one nothing's easy  remember one nothing is easy we're just  trying to keep it simple your inverter  you don't have AC at all on board right  now there's generators not on short  powers not on that's why the - is why  would your inverter not work it's pretty  straightforward you have a fuse that's  blown this is off this has Oh still  works but the remote panel doesn't they  do fail or you have AC coming out of  here and this here the breakers that you  think should work actually don't work  because they're not on or they failed  potentially most of the time 90% of the  time your inverter is going to fail here  or the inverter is gonna die and you're  gonna be disappointed that a 20 year old  piece of equipment of electronic  equipment died on your boat and I remind  people all the time I'm like oh really  you're disappointed your 25 year old  inverter died I mean like so in your  personal life at home at the office you  have pieces of electronic equipment  electronic full full-on boards like a  full computer that's giving you great  service after 25 years I'm like would  should I take a pen and paper and start  writing down all these items because  you're gonna go so quickly or is my - my  hands too much to start counting how  many things in your life are 25 years  old electronic full-blown that are  working 25 you know and then you think  oh in a marine environment full of  vibration in an engine room where it  gets hot Oh 25 years you're disappointed  okay well maybe we need to align your  expectations someone maybe didn't tell  you what's involved in an inverter  they lost honestly 15 20 25 but at one  point like you can't this is not gonna  work forever right like it will fail and  they do fail because most of them were  installed in the wave of invader craze  which was sub 2000 between 95 and 2000  if you had a boat you got an inverter  and it's a heart interface freedom 10 15  20 25 30 there are in British Columbia  if there's 15,000 votes with inverters  12 thousands of them have that inverter  on board everybody got an inverter in  that era and everybody got the same one  and those inverters are now failing they  just are they're just normal and they  fail only when you use them inverters  don't fail on the dock  they don't fail when you don't use them  they don't fail just before you go they  fail under use when your way so you  eliminate the obvious if you eliminated  the obvious and everything else then  it's the inverter sub inverters can be  fixed some inverters can't if it's a  budget inverter can be fixed if it's an  expensive an inverter generally can be  fixed budget inverters are  high-frequency expensive inverters are  low frequency one that's heavy one  that's big is expensive one that's small  and tiny and it's cheap can be fixed  that's how it works any questions on  troubleshooting an inverter on a boat  now really rare very rare you could  certainly have a circuit breaker on this  device that fails there's an AC circuit  breaker on this device and that's a  really good point this here has an  output breaker I've seen that where that  house AC output breaker has blown  there's a little thermal circuit breaker  on the panel on the inverter so that's  possible but AC panels don't fail I mean  I've seen dead shorts where they melt in  the back but then you're starting  everything's not working on your boat or  it's like oh I smell fire on my boat  nothing's working  should I have someone come on board I'm  like can you please leave the boat right  away  stay far and not use your boat until  someone comes like literally I had an  owner he's like my wife smells fire saw  a little bit of smoke behind the panel  you think we should have someone come on  board and we were at Coal Harbour at  Royal Van and I only tell her one of my  technicians I'm like drop everything  you're doing right now and you need to  get yourself to Coal Harbour the other  side and sure enough there was a dead  shorten that happened in the back of the  panel and breakers that started melting  onto one another and it was pretty close  so we disconnected the shore power and  then  fixed it but yeah so circuit breaker  over here could fail but panel failure  is extremely rare extremely rare it  happens but very rare any other  questions on troubleshooting or  diagnosing an inverter