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[Music]  good morning everyone good morning thank  you for a Bluewater cruising Association  for hosting this event power generation  is how do you recreate energy it's like  earning money it's like having a salary  a job it's one thing to have a bank  account congratulations you have a bank  account and mum and dad could have  dropped a thousand they could drop ten  grand they could have dropped a hundred  but at one point you will run out of  money and you need to ask yourself how  will I replenish that battery bank right  because the battery might come full from  the store and that's great like having  ten grand in the bank account but what  are you going to do when you run out  because eventually the battery will  drain and you need to replenish it  so batteries need to be recharged and  that recharging either happens through  chargers inverter chargers alternators  there's even wind generators there's tow  generators DC generators AC generators  there's all different ways of recharging  a battery and we're gonna look at some  of them we're gonna be talking about a  charger right here on the slide right a  charger is a converter we're gonna talk  about an alternator we're gonna talk a  lot about solar and we're gonna talk a  little bit about fuel cells but also an  alternator is really sort of in Agenor  DC well not a DC general but a wind  turbine or tow gen are really very  similar to alternators right something's  rotating and spinning and creating an  output so all those devices would always  be connected to us which distribution  Chargers used to be called converters  that word died because they would  overcharge batteries and so the  marketing departments were smart enough  to abandon that word  it's like certain names in history are  never given to children again right  there's certain names from world war ii  that nobody's ever had again as a kid  and a converter is not a name that  nobody's giving to any devices anymore  they just simply don't do it it is the  device but nowadays they call them  chargers and when  they call it a charger what they're  trying to symbolize is that it's a  three-stage battery charger so it goes  through bulk absorption float converters  were just devices that would convert AC  to DC and in comparison an inverter  inverts DC to AC right so convert and  invert are just mirror opposites of one  another  so a battery charger what's the fuel for  a battery charger and honestly that  question happens 500 times a year and  people say what happens when I'm running  my engine it does my battery charger  work and the answer is no a battery  charger it needs an AC source and it's  confusing because you're thinking  alternator AC alternating current right  same word but that's just bad choice of  words  the reality is that your charger on your  boat your converter will only work if it  senses AC and it the input is AC it can  either come from shore power right  connected as a dock or running an AC  generator running your main engine  propulsion engine will not involve the  charger whatsoever and that's a really  good concept that is often overlooked is  that your charger has no bearing when  your engine is running unless you're  running the generator at the same time  but when you're underway and you've got  propulsion your battery charger is not  at play meaning your battery charger  could be shot it could be thrown  overboard it could be dropped in the  ocean doesn't matter your battery  charger has no involvement and it's not  at all related to when your engine is  running okay those are completely  separate things and that's important for  troubleshooting because sometimes you're  going to lose one but you don't lose the  other most boats have a battery charger  and an alternator most of us okay so  it's not uncommon to have both devices  now of course if you're a cruising sail  boater and you're going offshore and you  value money you're not going to be  connecting to shore power all the time  because Doctson  races that are nice destinations outside  of British Columbia are extremely  expensive and people tend to shy away  from going to marinas for reasons of  cash flow  there's just ridiculously expensive you  can't do it every day it's be like  staying at room you know in a 10-year  journey at one point you need deep  pockets for that and so most people end  up anchoring and they recharge their  batteries not with battery chargers but  with alternators but for now what we're  gonna talk about is a battery charger  battery charger can either be single  output or multiple outputs right they  can have one battery connected to it or  a battery bank it doesn't matter but  they can have up to three battery banks  one example would be a sailboat would be  house batteries could be made of one or  ten batteries it doesn't matter that's a  bank and then an engine start battery  and maybe a windless battery or a  thruster battery right so you could have  cell boaters I think about hunters and  bigger the boats eventually they started  having thrusters because you know they  have a lot of side winds and the decks  are pretty high nowadays and so your  docking a 50 foot sailboat or 45 foot  sailboat it's not unusual to have a bow  thruster that bow thruster might have a  battery bank and so you have a battery  charger that might have an output for  the engine battery the house battery and  the thruster battery bank and remember a  battery is not a single thing it could  be made of a bank it's made of multiple  batteries or a battery so a battery  charger can charge multiple battery  banks okay so it's either one two or  three I've never seen a four I'll go you  know that doesn't mean they don't exist  but I've never seen a four so in this  case is battery charger powered from AC  is charging to an engine battery and is  also recharging a house battery okay  notice how important it is there's fuses  95% of you unless we did work on your  boat don't have fuses on your on your  battery charger circuit 95% of you and  the reason is men are too good and too  infused with knowledge to read a manual  and so it's dumb to read a manual and  they don't do it and that includes the  manufacturers by the way every single  person that's ever worked on your boat  most people are simply born with the  gift of knowledge and so unrelated  though they make errors but  they're not there to realize that  they've made those errors and so 95% of  you do not have battery chargers that  are fused and if they are fused they  fuse them at the wrong place because  again they didn't read the manual so  look for your battery charger fuses and  they should be at the engine and the  house battery but in this case if it's  connected to a nun switch distribution  which it should the fuse is right here  right or in some cases if it's a smaller  boat like I don't know you have a 26 or  30-foot boat and it doesn't have endless  stuff on it because there are 30-foot  boats that have a lot of gear on them  like a cot water for example as crazy as  as big as a 45-footer in gear they won't  have all the connections to battery  because there's just way too much things  on a 30-foot cut water so they have also  what are called unsession because  otherwise the battery post would be have  20 30 connections on it so that's what a  battery charger does it basically recap  charges your boat from a shore power  from an AC source either Shore Jen right  smart battery chargers reduce the time  it takes to charge your batteries in the  past battery chargers before being smart  when they used to be call converters  they were overly cautious on the charge  time but then they overshot and it's not  uncommon to hear boaters that were  boating in the 70s and 80s that would  never be able to leave their battery  charger on their boat 24/7 they would  actually have toxic Club members they  would go down to their boat before they  go on a trip and they would actually  turn on the charger overnight before  they go because they knew that if they  love their charger on for a month or two  months they would boil their batteries  the Chargers were overly charging at the  top-end at the end and they would  basically the word float is a recent  word they would trickle charge nobody  uses trickle charging anymore trickle  charging again as a marketing word it's  a word that we define a definition to  and that would cause the batteries to  blow over  so boaters that have old chargers end up  having to literally manually turn their  charger on or off because if they leave  it on for a month or two months they'll  come back and their batteries are going  to become  completely empty the electrolyte even if  it was an AGM they kill it these you  can't save an AGM that's overcharged and  you can't change the flooded lead-acid  battery if it's overcharged too if it's  dry it's done and those batteries you  get that sense of it smells like rotten  eggs that's the smell you come onboard  so you want a smart battery charger if  it doesn't say smart on it it's not  smart there's trust me  Mercedes always puts their logo on a car  they don't build a car without putting  their sign on it if it was smart they  would label that smart nobody's gonna  put a product and not advertise their  product if it is what it is  it'd be crazy it's like there's no way  GM battery doesn't brag about being a GM  maybe why would you do that I mean you  people were like why do I pay twice oh  it's it's a hidden AGM you don't know  surprise no it's not gonna work like  that okay so you want to make sure that  your battery charger is a smart battery  charger and if you have a good battery  charger your battery life is going to be  what you would have hoped for  if you don't deplete the batteries too  low but if you've got a good battery  charger and and it's the right size and  it's a smart one and your batteries are  never depleted below what we talked  about you know the 50% 30% 20% and if  you love your batteries and you have the  right charger your batteries are going  to give you a good life but the charger  is essential you got to make sure it's  to be faced right the other thing too  three phases is what we talked about  earlier we had a question bulk  absorption float right so think about  that seven-course dinner you know you're  chowing down you're super hungry you  haven't eaten for a day you know your  first four courses go down like no  problem you know around five and six  you're taping off like it's it's hard  but you're powering through because you  want to get to the top and then once you  get to seven you're like that's it I  can't do no more and then you go to  float okay you want a charger that has  float if it says trickle charge on it  and it's not worth having on your boat  it's an anchor it's it's dead weight get  it off your boat you want a battery  charger that can allow and we had a  question earlier about you know having  if you've got AGM batteries and you're  changing to age  well if you're going to a gym you need a  battery charger that has an AGM charge  profile on there because you can't have  a flooded let out or an AGM battery on a  flooded lead-acid profile you can't do  that well you can but again your battery  life is going to be shorter than you  want  you also want chargers that are  temperature compensated I want to  emphasize this is so critical when we  think about battery voltages we're  thinking about numbers like 14 4 13 3 12  6 12 to 10.5 all those numbers if you've  ever heard them and you're thinking oh  yeah yeah you're talking about you know  absorption voltage flow voltage full  battery 50% dead those numbers are all  at a temperature compensated battery of  77 degrees Fahrenheit the moment the  battery temperature goes lower the  voltage goes higher if the temperature  of the battery goes higher the voltage  needs to go lower there's an inverse  correlation between battery temperature  and voltages so in the summer when  you're charging your batteries if you  had a temperature compensated charger  your voltages are gonna be lower than  you would ever see you'll be like oh  that's weird my battery's never made it  to 14 4 they only made it to 14 1 is my  charger damaged no it's your batteries  are warm you know the water is now  warmer the air the ambient air is warmer  but in the winter now it's much colder  and your boating IC batteries that go up  to 15 volts people are freaking out oh  my okay alright let's calm down all good  all right I'm gonna walk you through  this disconnect your temperature sensor  from your charger let's see what happens  and then suddenly the Bell voltage drops  a 14-4 I'm like you can please yourself  by you're charging the batteries in  staying at 14 for it's the same thing I  eat more in the fall in the winter than  I do in the summer again remember that  human analogy batteries are like people  I have a bigger appetite in the winter  when it's colder then I do in the summer  I lettuce salad super light things in  the winter time don't give me that I'm  preparing for like the dark days am I  getting ready for hibernation your  batteries are exact same thing they want  higher voltages in the cold temperature  lower voltages and if you have a  temperature compensated charger guess  what's going to happen to your batteries  they're gonna live longer right and  that's why  you want a temperature compensated  battery charger so I'm giving examples  of different chargers I want to  emphasize this is ignore at your peril  ignore it your peril and I get that oh  my god at least three times a week  question Jeff my batteries are dead my  charger doesn't work I'm gonna go to  Kitty and tire and I'm gonna buy a  cheapo battery charger and I'm gonna  connect it and I'm solved and I won't  see you until mate because I solved my  problem I'm like you you should yeah  yeah sure  yeah absolutely no problem just so you  know a marine battery charger does this  lovely thing of not actually connecting  the neutral and the ground on your  battery charger they do that marine  battery chargers have an isolated ground  in neutral they are not connected as  they should be because if you have a  ground connected neutral and ground  you're bypassing your isolation  transformer and your galvanic isolator  and I've gone on surveys where the  underwater metals we're completely  destroyed like I mean eaten away gone  and then yet they had a galvanic  isolator onboard they basically bypass  it's like literally blowing a hole in  your wall protecting your boat you're  literally opening your boat to Straker  and corrosion so never ever ever ever  bring a non marine battery charger  onboard your boat now if you do so and  you have straight current corrosion in  your marina and you've been fine over  the years because you have a galvanic  isolator now you just brought the  drawbridge down you said to you know the  barbarians at the gate you come on in  and have fun my underwater medals are  for your use and your use only and  unrelated I'm gonna get a 20 30 40 50 60  thousand dollar bill for underwater  metal damage you know you could lose  your keel your skeg your prop your shaft  right haul out you pull your boat  it looks like World War 3 underneath it  looks like literally termites went to  town and  is because you had invited streaker and  corrosion on your boat why because you  decided to take a shortcut and the  shortcut was a non marine model never  ever break now if you take those  batteries out of the boat and you put  them on the dock and you do them at home  there's no problem but you remember your  boat is not your home it's completely  different than a car you can take the  batteries home and charge them at home  no problem but you cannot have your  boats your batteries connected to your  boat and connect a non marine charger on  those batteries black and white and if  you do so well it's gonna be interesting  I can promise ok installation tips on  battery chargers we talked about this  right really important 10% of the  battery charger rate I cannot emphasize  enough how often I see folks where they  have large battery banks and no one  thought about looking at the battery  charger it'd be like building a third  and fourth and fifth story to a  traditional home where the basement was  meant to support only one level you  can't just add levels to your house you  can say hey you know what let's just  let's do a high-rise let's I'm thinking  the Builder must have thought about me  maybe doing a high-rise we're willing to  spend the money upfront unbeknownst to  me with no benefit to them and they gave  me a boat that will do anything I can  ever imagine not gonna happen  now builders don't do that because it's  not prudent financially unproven so why  do they do they build their Chargers to  the battery bang they put on the boat  you change the battery bank on your boat  you change the charger there's just no  way around it no way around so the  question is how do you size a battery  charger you size a battery charger for  the nominal battery capacity of all  deep-cycle batteries on your boat so if  you had for example two house battery  banks which is pretty rare nowadays  pretty rare nobody does that anymore but  let's say you had an inverter bank and a  house battery bank and an engine starter  battery you would add up the nominal  capacity the rated capacity of your  inverter bank the rated capacity of your  house bank you would add them together  so if you had a 400 ampere a power  inverter bank a 400 amp hour deep house  bank those are now 800  rated capacity you would need an 80 amp  charger for that battery bank minimum  remember I did a presentation I did this  presentation at blue waters this year in  January so 910 months ago and the fellow  hosting the presentation was a field tech in Alberta and he had a I never  it was so interesting the way he was  describing and he was saying the  standards are the minimum they're never  what you shoot for right and and that's  what's so weird about the marina  environment is people think that it's a  lofty goal you know this sort of like  well you'll never get there so don't  really try but if you're halfway to the  standard you're good in the moon in the  land world like on land people go beyond  the code the build is the minimum you  need to do it's not what you're  targeting and so 10% is minimum you can  go higher you can do 15 now you can't go  400 percent right but like for a  lead-acid battery is gonna be between  25% and 10 so I often do 15-20 percent  right but minimum is 10 the other thing  too that's really popular is people are  gonna say well Jeff my battery bank is  larger than any inverter charger or  charger that's available like think  about it the larger charger you can buy  right now at 12 volts is a hundred and  fifty amp charger that comes with a 3000  watt inverter charger that's it you  can't get bigger there's no single  charger that is a Marine that is bigger  than 150 amps at 12 volts and it comes  with an inverter charger it's a 3000  watt inverter charger Jeff my battery  bank is bigger than 1500 amp hours I  want to charge at a faster rate and my  battery bank is bigger so what you end  up doing is you end up adding stacking  multiple Chargers in parallel to  increase the charge rate so on some  boats I have two Chargers running in  parallel three Chargers running in  parallel right because some of the boats  I'm doing the battery banks are 3000 app  hours I can't get a 3,300 am  charger so I start adding them I stack  them or some boats are gonna have to  inverter charges on the wall right big  boats to inverter charges on the wall  both inverse are either playing they can  give you double the inverter capacity  and double the charging capacity not  unusual you'll have two charges on the  wall two inverter Chargers each  outputting 150 and now you're gonna have  your charge rate is going to be 300 amps  coming in your battery bank so you can  stack chargers and you stack Chargers to  meet the minimum charge time or to get a  lower charge time for example very  common with a lot of boaters is Jeff I  have a thousand amp hour battery bank  and it takes forever to run those  batteries back to 85 percent I'm running  my generator eight hours a day it's  driving me and the missus crazy I we've  got  sailboat errs as friends we want to keep  them as friends you know like we go in  base you know we don't like to have the  sideway glances we get it eight hours is  unacceptable to run a generator I'm just  not comfortable with doing that help me  bring my generator run time less well  how you would do that is by stacking  chargers and so you add multiple you  have a 150 and then we might add another  100 and then another 100 and so I might  get 350 amps of charge rate right into a  firefly battery bank and it can take it  no problem right but I couldn't do 350  and a thousand that's 35 percent in a  flooded but I can easily do that in a  firefly back and now the battery bank  instead of charging at a hundred amp 150  amp rate it's charging at 350 so some  cases I bring the generator run dying  from eight hours to two hours that  evokes an emotional response from people  I've had partners their wives hugging me  like oh my god thank God  where have you been all my life I've  been here all the time I'm like why  haven't we met you for the last four  years I hate my generator now two hours  a day it's sort of reasonable right two  hours at 8:00 not too bad eight hours a  day at one point I asked myself is it  better just leave it all the time  make it your normal and at that point  it's sort of like it never goes off it's  a generator on boat you know oh that's  no  you sort of like it's in the background  I'm gonna lose my hearing but it doesn't  matter you know it's okay so that's a  way of doing that and that's actually  pretty common on trawlers you know we do  that a lot on trawlers and we'll just  end up stacking multiple chargers yeah  question  if I Jeff if I have it thousand amp hour  battery bank and I have you say that I  should get a hundred amp battery charger  what's why is the implication what if I  only have a fifty amp charger what's the  implication and that thought that you  brought up Murry is exactly the reason  why people don't follow rules they think  well what's the implication is just  gonna take twice as long to charge the  battery bank I mean I'm charging it  fifty before I was a hundred it's just  time I've got time when I connect to  shore power can taking the time you want  the challenge is is if you do not have  enough pressure which is amps on that  charger to go 200 amps when your bulk  charging because it only matters in bulk  you will not reenergize the whole  battery you'll reenergize 99% of that  battery 98% but the next time you go  charging that 2% that never got  recharged the first time or 1% it's gone  next time you're charging 99 of 99 next  time that it's 98 99 of 98.1 and then  you start doing fractions of fractions  of fractions of fractions and that's  where people like myself asked you did  your batteries die suddenly no no they  didn't die suddenly they were just I  only had two years with him I don't know  why it was just there was nothing sudden  it was just but now there's nothing left  because if there's no sudden event  there's no catastrophic failure is that  chronically you were recharging your  batteries a little bit less it's like  giving you 100 calories less a day if I  had 100 calories less a day that I need  I wouldn't feel it I'd live but every  day 100 calories left I'm gonna die I  can't I can't have less than I need but  it's won't be catastrophic you won't see  it on the voltmeter your battery monitor  won't even notice everyone's gonna be  happy but if you chronically under eat  just by a little it's not enough and you  will die and that not enough is because  you're not charging and bulk rate at  enough to re-energize all that surface  area on that battery so hence you have  to do 10% minimum and every builder  on earth does ten I mean it's sort of  there it's just what happens is the  moment we get our boats were like wow  that's not enough batteries I need more  batteries I can't I mean you can't do  this and then you add more batteries and  then you don't think about the charger  yeah so the question is if I have a  thousand amp hour battery bank and I  have a hundred amp battery charger will  I meet my 10% requirement yes you will  10% is the minimum and you will now is  it better 15 yeah  17 18 the middle of a range is better so  if the range is 10 to 25 then you want  to be around 18 percent but 10 percent  is is good enough it's it's the minimum  that bigger is better but not too big  because then you're wasting your time  because the battery can't take that  higher charge rate  you can't go higher than 25 percent 18  percent would be a good number if you're  gonna shoot the middle of the middle  would be good so do 180 amp hour 180  amps on a thousand a power battery think  the question is if you've got a thousand  and power deep-cycle battery bank and  you have an ad for example battery and  it's a two hundred and amp hour it's not  two hundred amp hours but it could be  it's a starter battery so I don't know  they wouldn't measure a starter battery  Knapp hours they would measure it in  cold cranking amps but you know let's  call it it is 200 amp hours just because  I know but they don't label it on the  box they're gonna call it 1800 CCA do  you have to worry about the engine  battery no you don't because an engine  battery never depletes below 99% 98% the  10% applies to the deep cycle portion  because your engine start battery or a  starter battery should never ever ever  ever be brought down below like 95% if  you use your starter battery as a deep  cycle well you're gonna ruin your  battery so quickly and or if you do it  so often like people that do it  unbeknownst to them your battery will  explode I mean that's a good reason not  to do it an explosion is something  honestly if you have your partner on the  boat when a battery explodes you're  switching over to RVing like it's  guaranteed or it's in the cottage  industry or simply we're staying home  and we're gonna explore gardening to  they're like it's not gonna happen right  there's no way this was not part of the  deal like explosions are not part of the  experience so yeah don't worry about  starter batteries starter batteries are  never meant to be deep cycled and so  bulk doesn't ever apply to them if it's  why properly the question is if you've  got a dual purpose AGM battery and  you're using it for engine should you  include that battery in your calculation  of the minimum of 10% no it's only  batteries that are used for deep cycle  applications ones that are going to go  to 50 percent of capacity so the  question is recommendations on inverter  chargers no Chargers and I made  recommendations on chargers whenever  you're buying gear for your boat if  you've never heard of the brand and no  one's ever heard of it and people are  like oh interesting write code for what  the hell have you done do not buy a  brand that you've never heard of or  never seen anywhere okay so you've got  to go with things that don't have weird  names that have never been heard so you  stick with the known stuff like master  volt Magnum zan tracks Vic Tron  you know like like before trace right  was huge I mean now it's Magnum but like  big names where they have something to  lose right where they don't want their  reputation right to be lost so go with  well reputed brands because remember if  your charger fails not all Chargers fail  under charging some fail over charging  and you could overcharge a battery bank  that's gone so not only do you lose your  two thousand dollar charger but you lose  your 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 dollar  battery bank and the manufacturer of the  charger does not care it's only replaces  the charger it will never replace what  it damaged  hence chargers are not to be taken  lightly overcharging is a very serious  problem if it happens you're done it's  sort of like honestly being force-fed if  you're force-fed you're gonna explode  and the battery will explode and there's  no coming back from that