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[Music]  [Music]  you  all right I'm not even open the floor  two meters I'm gonna dive right into the  real meat battery monitors this is the  number one thing that I believe that I  do on boats not because it gives us a  lot of revenue but because it is  absolutely information is power and this  takes away the whole mystery of what's  happened to your batteries so a battery  monitor like in here is actually going  to be measuring voltage at the battery  and it's actually going to be measuring  current going in and out of the battery  bank huge current is incredibly  incredibly important because with that  information the battery monitor is  actually able to average over time what  is the battery capacity in percentage  and it's actually able to track what is  the battery it could be 90 percent 95  percent 50 percent and it's also going  to tell you all right now you're  discharging you're charging at whatever  it's sort of like a speedometer so a  battery monitor is both an odometer  tells you how much you've taken out  right how much distance you've covered  with your batteries and it also tells  you the rate at which you're going  you're going to bed why are your  batteries being drawn to 30 amps what  are you doing why oh I left the  chartplotter on and the radars on and I  have two Sounders on Oh my nav systems  suite is on totally forgot you want to  know what the your batteries are not  ever expressing to you how they feel or  how they're doing unless you have a  battery monitor so battery monitors are  incredible devices they cost between 250  300 maybe if you go all out for 450 of  course there's no end you go and super  integrated but something like that costs  maybe 250 dollars fuel gauge for your  battery state of charge of the batteries  I remember that question I was saying oh  I don't know how much amp hours am I  using a day how am I going to size my  battery bank how am I going to size my  solar array all this magical information  that you have no idea what it is this  will tell you this will tell you what  your amp our budget is it's going to  tell you just simply log it everyday you  find an average you like you know on  average I use  225 amp hours then you can start sizing  everything from there there's all  different models Victor on is a big ones  and Trax is a big one  blue C's makes a really nice one there's  all of the choices but those are  predominantly the ones we go for and  what I like about it is it takes the  whole guesswork out of knowing where  your batteries are there's no more do  you think we're gonna be able to last  another day here it's like well the  batteries are at 85% we're good so  everyone on board doesn't have to follow  away my gut feeling is we're good  because I can tell you how many times I  hear from boaters or partners of voters  that tell me the thing I find the most  annoying is waking up at 4 o'clock in  the morning my inverter is my inverter  is beeping meaning low power the  refrigerators have died and now I'm  talking my food in the refrigerator that  you just provided in source on a long  trip and I got to start the generators  in the middle of the night when I'm in  an anchorage which has a little bit of  serenity and there's neighbors  potentially sailors who are less than  understanding about a generator being  run and you like and you're a social  person in the morning you like to look  eye to eye a certain people when you do  your tender ID there is nothing you  might not care about it but your partner  most likely does and that embarrassing  moment can be avoided with this because  then you know you're like you know what  we got to run the generator for longer  tonight because we're gonna be 1214  hours without a generator and we need  enough power we need about 20% the last  the night and right now we don't have  enough so you start knowing what your  usage is and it takes away the magic out  of managing your batteries lastly on  this what I would say which is really  interesting when you have that you have  so much power when you talk to a  technician someone who knows batteries  the information is so powerful for  diagnosing what's happening to your  batteries and knowing what's going on  because you don't need a voltmeter  you're telling me all this information  you're sending me this stuff on a  datasheet you're taking a picture you're  sending to me I'm like okay here's  what's happening this and that that you  you can actually have people provide you  remote support if you call someone you  say I think my batteries are dead help  the the only answer could be well I need  to go on board  mean but if you have that I've helped so  many boaters in desolation Sound  Sunshine Coast Gulf Islands Browns  outside of Vancouver Island they tell  them like okay here's what's going on  here's what's happening  look for a dead short there's probably  this there's probably that oh no you're  fine oh the meters off oh you you have  actually intelligence without this  you're like something's not right  oh okay sure yeah yeah I'm gonna go with  that cat right no power it's like a  chart you need data you need tests  I need that sort of information to be  able to narrow down what the problem is  so well suited for deep cycle batteries  there's problems with installs people  obviously don't read the manual clearly  but that's okay  if you read the manual you follow the  manual it will work and the big thing I  think which is amazing is once you have  voltage right at the battery if your  panel has no power and I see battery  voltage at the battery I know that the  problem is between the batteries in the  panel so you might be in pandemonium  panic  I lost my batteries everything's falling  apart my vacation is ruined but the  problem is that one of the fuses or  switch between your panel and the  batteries has blown or was turned off  and then suddenly I know well if you've  got power the batteries the problem is  between the batteries in the panel no  problem let's work through it and then  suddenly you're like oh I was down  stairs changing an oil filter and I was  working my engine and I turned the  battery switches and then we went away  and I was checking and then I came back  and then my house battery was dead and  I'm like oh my god what's happening and  you're like well it's okay you got a  battery monitor what's the battery  voltage where do I see that oh I'm on  the panel at zero I'm like no no that's  not the battery that's battery at the  panel what's battery voltage at the  battery oh it's 29 okay well what did  you change in the engine room oh yeah I  changed all this switches off because I  was changing okay well let's go back  boom boom and then suddenly you know  everyone's a hero vacations not ruined  so it's great all right  so that is monitoring yeah questions  yeah I saw that state-of-charge drips  address I'm gonna keep that for later  for the sake of time but yes promising  future there's innovation happening  believe it or not and all this stuff it  is absolutely possible yeah there there  is there are things that are happening  here's here's in a general rule that I  have with innovation for marine as a  general rule as you can see I'm a geek  ad right I love technology but on my  boat when I'm in the middle nowhere I'm  a slow adopter I'm like yeah you know  what let's see how it works there are  some voters that don't mind being first  adopters early adopters and we're like  but we warn you know you're gonna be the  first person to put this on your boat  I've never tried we're trying but be  opened things might not go as well as  the brochure promised and then you let  it you know so you don't want to be a  first adopter always you have to open  eyes right know that if you're a first  adopter you're gonna go in there and  maybe do it as a backup like if I was  gonna put one of those I keep my old  going on and I put the new one in  because they could be in parallel see  how that goes and once you have enough  of track record and there's enough first  adopters out there that have proven that  the marketing is true because that's the  key proven then the marketing is true  then you're willing to adopt that on  your boat but unfortunately not all  marketing arms of all companies are  necessarily completely understand the  limitations of their products sometimes  they go to market sooner than they  should for various reasons and as a  boater you don't necessarily want to be  the one doing their product testing that  actually happens by the way electronics  with a lotta different products so there  is a balance to find between going you  and waiting a little bit to see what the  market actually  it's flushes out yeah you absolutely  have to you have to cut the cable and  put it into yeah the shunt is like that  you can also have what's called a CT a  current transformer which measures  through magnetic flux there's two ways  but battery monitors for the most part  are actually working through shunts  shunts have a known resistance V equals  IR if you know what a resistance is and  you measure the voltage across you will  be able to calculate what the current is  and that's what a shunt is a current  transformer is a device that measures  flux gate every every wire actually  emits a magnetic flux and if you put a  crown stress there's people will use the  word donuts on more advanced boats like  north ovens Fleming's and stuff like  that where the owners completely go nuts  that's why those boats are like five  times the price of a normal boat where  they monitor everything they're trying  to go to Star Trek levels they'll have  current transformers on everything now  my dream but financially not possible  it's just crazy right it's just yeah  yeah oh absolutely yeah the question is  is your battery monitor going to show  you percentage diminishing over time if  your battery if you're if for example  you don't you're not on flow charging  and you're disconnected absolutely it's  gonna go 99 depending on what your  ghost's loads are some boats have ghost  loads that are a lot more than you think  they are and this monitor will tell you  your like I have all my switches off  this is a good way to know that MacGyver  was on your boat I have all my switches  off and I'm drawing five amps what the  hell I'm like oh my god was on your boat  he looked at the DC panels like well  that's too confusing I'm gonna go  straight to the battery because the  battery is what I understand and then  you look at the battery and sure enough  there's like I've seen boats no joke  fifteen circuits unsweet  fuse on the batteries like there's not  enough post they start moving to the  other positive post they're like I got  this like I'm going right to the battery  panel that's hard and there it all  switched unfused and then you can't shut  off those circuits and they're like well  how am i drawing so much it's like well  yeah because the no space on the breaker  panel they can't be bothered to try to  integrate they give up and I call those  Ghost loads loads that are unswept and  unknown and that takes time the battery  monitor would tell you about those loads  not individually but it would tell you  you have a problem you can tell I love  this device a little bit two hundred and  fifty three hundred dollars right so  think about the value that you get out  of a battery monitor I'd say about three  hours on average three hours maybe for  two depending on average three the key  the key which is and this is the key I  have countless countless countless  owners that have the shunt wired in the  wrong place and then we start getting in  these argument of discussions that their  refrigerator is drawers no power I've  had that my fridge is so efficient it  doesn't draw power and it's on because  the shunt doesn't capture it therefore  it draws no power I have had owners that  argue with me that their heaters are  magic  they draw no power either they're just  fuel the the fans and the fuel pump are  completely power free they don't run  like crazy heated arguments I'm like oh  god seriously I'm inside voice I'm like  I gotta be patient I'm like I know  that's what the monitor says but did you  ever consider that potentially the  monitor is not wired properly now that's  the scary part of being about a bold  odor and I learned this the hard way  because when I bought my boat years ago  I assumed that like my car everything  was done right and then I realized that  things aren't right on a boat very few  people have that bar of doing things  properly it took years to undo all the  MacGyver's all the craziness that was  done on my boat to have it be what it  should be so if something doesn't seem  right something doesn't feels like magic  sort of like outside of the realm of  normal  it's because it's probably not giving  you write data or it's wrong or  something's not normal so battery  monitors the location of the shunt is  absolutely utterly critical and I cannot  tell you how many boats have it  installed at the wrong location just one  only one bank and you only need two  because you only should only have one  house bank for the most part exceptions  possible but most people should only  have one house battery bank