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[Music]  morning everyone good morning thank you  for a Bluewater cruising Association for  hosting this event so this is a  high-level view of what we're gonna be  talking today we're gonna be talking  about the storage of energy  what is that batteries on boats right  we're gonna be talking about how do you  generate power we're you know because it  was one thing to have batteries but you  got to replenish those batteries and  then how do you share power between  different devices on your boats because  we have sometimes multiple battery banks  maybe an engine battery in a house  battery bank and then we're going to  talk about monitoring the batteries like  how do you make sure that you have what  you think you have we're going to talk  about also distribution distribution is  also important how do you figure how do  you get the power from the batteries out  and then I want to talk a little bit  about galvanic protection and then also  as a precursor to tomorrow the  importance about fusing I've got some  videos on fusing and I'm going to be  talking about that as well okay so the  big concept that we're gonna be talking  a lot and I'm gonna be mentioning this  and there's the art of repetition until  it sinks in there's no tests but there  should be alright we're gonna be talking  about this concept here an undisturbed  adder can be made of one or ten or  twenty batteries I've done a we did a  big boat recently we had 32 batteries on  board there is no limit other than  budget and space on a boat for batteries  right but in this conceptual diagram I'm  showing a house battery and we're going  to be talking about this concept of  what's a none switch distribution and  unwished distribution means everything  before the switch meaning is always on  there's always a connection to the  battery even when you turn that battery  switch off like for example a bilge pump  in a boat in your boat no matter if you  turn that battery switch off if your  boat was wired to code and done properly  and that's a big if if right as we all  know it's a big if if if your boat is  wired properly  you're gonna actually be able to turn  your battery switch off and your bilge  pump should still be working your bilge  pumps are connected to what's called an  undisturbed on your boat and then after  that you have what's called the switch  distribution meaning let's say for  example your DC panel if you turn your  battery switch off your DC panel goes  dead okay and so we're gonna be talking  a lot about that and this is where  things are magical on boats like the  whole sort of mystery of boating happens  because people don't distinguish between  unswept and switch distribution and  that's going to be a big takeaway today  is where should my connection go is it  unswept or switch and if you don't care  well welcome to the world of magic and  it's a scary place I can tell you I get  phone calls all the time  and people like it doesn't make sense  I'm like you're right it doesn't make  sense and it's not you it's the  electrical system on your boat you're  absolutely right your expectations are  banging off your boat is simply not  giving you what normal should be and so  we're gonna actually review every single  one of those items one at a time today  and I'm gonna be presenting that picture  as we go along so it's gonna make more  and more sense okay the previous slide  was about DC distribution direct current  this is alternating current what we have  here in the room is pretty much all  alternating current except our phones  those are DC right there working off  batteries and we've got an example I  mean they get calm more complicated on a  big 80 or 90 or 100 or 150 footer but up  to maybe 60 70 feet it's pretty much  this just maybe more devices but it's  just more of the same so you've got a  short power cord you might have a source  selector switch if you have a generator  you might not like on my sailboat I  don't have a generator so I don't have a  source selector switch it powers my  panel and then my panel if you have an  inverter has a sub panel and that sub  panel might be just part of the same  panel you're thinking oh it's one well  no it's in the back the magic is it's  separated and then you're looking at  certain items that are basically only  run from shore power generator and then  items that might be just or loads that  might be running off of invar  or power for example a hot water tank is  not going to be powered by an inverter  you can't I get that question all the  time it's sort of like you could warm  your house with dollar bills or $20  bills literally putting them as logs in  the fireplace you could do it but it  would not be wise decision and you'd  burn through money very quickly  same thing with creating heat through  batteries is a really showstopper  there's no single boat that I've ever  seen that actually is able to generate  heat from their batteries well they can  for an hour or two you can but then you  have no more batteries like you can  literally burn money for heat but then  you have no more money and that's the  rate at which you would burn energy if  you were trying to heat your boat or hot  water tank with an inverter but a really  good example would be let's think about  a microwave or an AC outlet how common  is it on a boat to have an AC outlet  that you can actually plug in could be  anything could be your laptop it could  be I don't know it could be an espresso  machine it could be whatever you want  and have that AC outlet be energized by  an inverter or also powered through a  short power or generator so we'll talk  about all those so I'm giving you sort  of a little bit of an overview or we're  gonna go today and at the end of the day  we're gonna revisit those diagrams and  we're gonna revisit them as we go along  and it's gonna start making more and  more sense okay taking away that magic  that's the whole goal the mystery of  electrical systems all right with that  we're gonna get started with batteries  the heart of your electrical system  marine batteries come in all different  shapes and sizes basically that's an  image to show you that there's a lot of  different batteries out there there's no  such thing as a marine battery it's like  there's no such thing as a car we  conceptually can visualize what a car is  but there's no car it's cars or  collection of different devices that are  pretty much similar and a battery is the  same thing obviously they're gonna have  it positive and negative but you can buy  a battery in 4 volts you can buy a  battery that is 6 volts you can buy a  battery there's 12 volts right you can  buy a battery that is different  chemistry like  our cars a lot of cars are gonna have  flooded lead-acid batteries some cars  have AGM some boats have a GM AGM stands  for absorbed glass mat battery so  batteries come in all different sizes  and chemistry's from all different  manufacturers all built for a different  purpose and what we're gonna be talking  about in this first part of the course  is let's make sense of all your choices  so an engine battery is used to start  the engine or another really good  application is running a thruster on a  boat right a thruster and a starter a  very similar high amount of current draw  for a very short period of time right so  think about in your mind and I always  use batteries are so similar to us  people humans it's uncanny and think  about a sprinter would be a starter  battery so you think about an athlete  that does 100-meter dash and how that  athlete can't run a marathon they're  just not one in the same they're both  humans one is made for speed i short  bursts of energy right and they build a  crazy amount of power very very quickly  and a marathon runner they're both  extreme athletes the other one is long  duration  he's not running for 10 seconds now  they're doing two hours two hours and  ten minutes two hours and five minutes  for a marathon completely both  incredible athletes built for different  purpose okay so a thruster is another  example starter batteries are never  meant to be lift left in a discharged  state meaning once you have a big load  on a starter battery you need to worry  about how am I gonna replenish that  battery our cars do that every time you  start your car as soon as the engine  starts the alternator starts turning the  alternating starts turning basically  produces DC power DC power goes to your  engine battery and it recharges your  engine battery but if you start your  engine and you don't have an alternator  working and you keep doing that your  battery is gonna sulfate and sulfate is  codeword for it's gonna die prematurely  all batteries sulfate what you're trying  to do is you're trying to prevent aging  right you're trying to keep that battery  as young as possible for as long as  possible  and the other point that's very  important and I can't emphasize this  enough and this is the world of  experience is that batteries are built  for a purpose and you are tempting fate  if you try to have a starter battery do  a deep cycle application about 6 to 12  times a year I have a phone call from a  boater that had a battery explode in  their engine room generally it's a new  to them boat or a recently purchased  boat used and what happened was someone  was inclined to cut costs because  starter batteries cost less than  deep-cycle batteries and someone noticed  that their batteries were dead and when  they came to the battery store they were  given a choice either buy something for  X or buy something for 2x and in the  spirit of saving money because they're  trying to get rid of the boat and they  don't know the choices that they make  because ignorance is bliss they buy the  least expensive battery and they put it  in a deep cycle application and sure  enough a year or two later you're using  a deep set you're using a starter  battery and a deep cycle application and  those are not the same thing remember  think about a sprinter and a marathon  runner they're not the same athlete at  all and that battery will most likely  explode in your engine room I've had  stories of hatches blowing up off the  engines sulfur ik acid everywhere in the  engine room and an engine remember is a  place where there's a lot of metal and  sulfuric acid eats through metal so it's  a world of hurt it's a pretty sad day I  mean it's a very sad day and that's just  because someone cut corners they didn't  know what they're doing I don't think  anybody would intentionally do this  right nobody's going ha you know I'm  gonna put a poison pill on the boat they  just simply don't know because there's  so much choice and it's hard you know  and so as an owner of a boat I always  encourage when I do electrical audits I  always encourage owners I say hey make  sure your battery is what you think it  you know and they look the same right  that's the hard part they both look the  same but the inside is completely  different  so really emphasize if you have  deep-cycle batteries on your boat do you  right are they is the boat relatively  recent to you and who changed those  batteries and where you so  cost-conscious  which is a great thing we have to  because boats are expensive has we all  know they're very expensive to maintain  did somebody make a decision that didn't  understand the implications of that  choice and that's something to think  about and for starter batteries you  measure their capacity in what are  called cold cranking amps right their  ability to give amperage for a very  short period of time so this is an  example of an 8 D battery a flooded  lead-acid battery right here okay rolls  is a great company out of Nova Scotia  they're literally the rolls-royce of  batteries it's I know it's a coincidence  of the name but their top tier battery  deep cycle batteries look at that choice  crazy amount of choice so deep cycle  batteries or batteries that we use to  run lights our water pump even an  inverter we're gonna use those batteries  nav lights stereo navigation equipment  you think about it anything outside of  running your engine should be on a house  battery and those are deep cycle  batteries they're meant and I want to  emphasize like a marathon runner think  about it those batteries are meant you  know they might be discharging and we'll  talk about that later they might be  discharging your batteries for some  people don't recharge their batteries  for three days on the hook right they  get to a destination and they're gonna  leave their batteries be discharged for  a three-day period and then they're  gonna run it so for three days that  battery is discharging slowly but for  three days and then after three days  it's gonna start getting a charge and  their capacity and this is very  important the unit of measure for deep  cycle batteries is something called an  amp hour now that's confusing welcome to  the club  I remember graduating from University by  the way none of this made sense and I  did a full electrical design degree honestly  you go through the motions and you're  like oh  I got it I'm so good and then you own a  boat and you're like oh my god oh my god  I remember we were boating and I had a  friend of mine because I mean obviously  you go to school so you make friends in  your class he was an electrical expert and he had a master's and we were  completely useless  I mean helpless it was pathetic it was  so humbling let me tell you the ladies  on board we're having a blast they're  like all this education you guys think  you're so smart you can't figure a  starter circuit yeah that was a waste of  time well the reality is it's humbling  for everyone in hindsight you're like  wow this is really hard and one of those  things that's really hard is this  concept of an ant power like what the  hell is an AM power  well you've got to go back and you've  got to think about this concept of an  amp an amp is a little confusing because  what we don't realize is it tells us of  the rate at which something is going  it's similar to speed like kilometers  per hour or gallons per minute it's flow  if in it is instantaneous there's no  such thing as what is it's an amp over a  period of time is going to give you the  distance that travels so when you think  about the word kilometers per hour think  about the word speed an amp is  synonymous with the word speed if I say  to you for example I'm going 10  kilometers hour how much how much  distance did I travel well the only way  to know that is telling you how long I  traveled because you don't know how long  I track how far traveled without the  other element which is time and so what  they do to show the distance right the  unit of measure that is not over time  but is slowing like a kilogram a  kilometer whatever it is is an amp hour  that means at a certain rate for example  if you're drawing a water pump is  drawing 10 amps for an hour you're gonna  draw 10 amp hours right so an amp is  really synonymous with speed and that is  those two words are used interchangeably  all the time although they're completely  different units so think about that when  you're thinking about things quantities  and powers the rate at which you are  discharging something  the moment is amps and batteries are  quantified because it has to be there's  no speed in a battery it's about how  much energy does it hold and that energy  is called an amp power and you'll see  all of this is relevant later okay in  case you're thinking of glazing over and  falling asleep I know it's a little bit  tedious but it's definitely worth it so  you're thinking about this and you're  saying okay when I'm buying a light acid  batteries I really have sort of two  choices  am I gonna do traditional which is a  flooded lead-acid battery which is  pretty much familiar to all of us and  these are batteries that you have to top  off the fluid but if you drill the hole  in the bottom of the battery the  electrolyte would actually leak out  right it's sulfur acid inside a battery  and that electrolyte if you topped it  over or you put it sideways it's like a  container or a glass of water it needs  to be upright right because it's a  flooded lead-acid battery there's  another type of lead acid battery that  is very popular and those are called  Thiel valve regulated batteries as VR  for short of course there's acronyms  everywhere and the first of those  batteries that was sort of commercially  available was what's called a gel  battery and gel batteries didn't do too  well in the market because they were  very particular in their charging  rhythms or what their requirements were  and then a replacement for that or  another seal valve regulated battery is  a battery call than absorbed glass mat  battery an AGM boaters are commonly  going to refer to AGM batteries as gel  what they mean to say is it's a seal  valve regulated battery and since the  first battery to come out that would  seal valve was gel they're using gel as  sort of a descriptor for all batteries  that are seal valve regulated out of a  hundred motors maybe one of us is gonna  have a gel battery and generally it's  because you have a tiara and that's it  other than that you never encounter a  boat with gel batteries anymore super  rare  they're great batteries but they're very  fussy so there's no downside to gel  other than they're really fussy AG ends  are a little bit more  - under charge over charge and they're  gonna be easily we can replace them we  can actually put them in boats where  they had flooded and we don't have to  get an external regulator we'll talk  about that it's less complicated and  hence most borders that we deal with I'd  say about 80% in the end end up going  with AGM and about 20% have flooded  lead-acid batteries and another one -  now another variation is the carbon foam  AGM which is the Firefly battery we'll  talk about that as well so here are the  different sort of things you've got to  think about when you're thinking about  flooded one is think about this dollar  sign it's going to be sort of your form  meaning you can't get a better deal per  battery initially than a flooded  lead-acid battery no doubt if price is  king and you don't care about life and  don't care about a lot of variables  there's nothing that can beat the low  cost of a flooded lead-acid battery the  other thing - that's really important is  that flooded lead-acid batteries because  they can leak and they will leak they  will sweat at their end of life and that  end of life varies depending on how you  abuse the batteries it could be within  two years one year it could be up to ten  years if your baby them they will leak  and if you don't have a battery box  you're in a whole world or hurt because  that acid will never evaporate will  never sort of disappear it's gonna be  there we're just waiting to hit some  sort of metal and I've seen grown men  cry I've seen keel boats on boats where  the two the last two sets of keel boats  were gone because the bilge it was a dry  bilge and the sulfuric acid made it to  the last two keel boats and the two keel  boats were completely vaporized because  the sulphur Cassidy went through them so  battery box is very important for  flooded lead-acid and you need to  maintain them I have boaters that are  very determined their way is the right  way and I tell them if you don't top off  your flooded lead-acid battery we're  gonna see each other a lot more  frequently than we need to and they're  like I don't need to maintain my flooded  lead-acid battery because that's how  I've been doing it I said yes but that's  why we see you every second year I mean  we've got a good relationship but hey  maybe every five six seven eight years  you know it's expensive to change  batteries because your time right and  then you got to go buy them put them  back in and then your batteries fail so  maintenance of distilled water on a  flood a lot acid is very important I was  on a boat just recently the inverter  stopped working so first call is my  inverse death coming to replace it come  with a new inverter sure enough we come  on the boat the batteries that we're  powering the inverter were flooded  lead-acid battery the owner didn't even  know he had them never had maintained  them the batteries are dead dead they're  about 750 apiece there was for $3,000  that's an ouch that's gotta hurt  I don't care how deep your pockets are  that's gotta hurt three grand and that's  three grand capital costs that's not  your time to go get the batteries  putting them in and having us come to  the boat with an inverter realizing that  the inverter won't work it's not because  it's an inverter problem it's a battery  problem and it's not a battery problem  it's because literally you didn't feed  the cat the cat didn't die you decided  to not feed the cat right and then the  order is like sort of embarrassed and  I'm like well it's actually not that  embarrassing it happens a lot more than  you think but know where your batteries  are you know do they need love and and  and a big and by the way a really big em  it's like every single cell the one cell  that goes takes a whole battery bank  down so if you've got a battery bank  where some of the cells are hard to  reach and you don't like it and you're  like well I got eight out of ten cells I  mean this pretty damn good I'm close  well no it's actually you better save  your time because those two that don't  getting love are gonna die when they die  they're taking everyone down  it's so like a grenade so you got to  maintain every single cell every single  one of them got to have equal love and  that is a big burden for a lot of voters  and when Nigel Calder was here recently  a few years ago he said flooded  lead-acid batteries don't die they get  murdered and he's absolutely right  absolutely 100% right now some of us are  super diligent with maintenance you know  it's religion it's sort of like you're  just doing it ritualistic you're always  going to follow up on your mainland  schedules the  people's don't have flooded alive acid  battery can give you a good life if you  keep up to the contract of maintaining  your batteries and the other point two  is that they discharge about 15% per  month so meaning if you've got about and  this is really big - if bulk range this  is huge huge I can't emphasize that  enough if you a flooded lead-acid  battery has only about 1/3 of its  battery capacity that is usable 1/3 I  have people that say to me and say wow  Jeff your battery banks are ridiculous  why do you exaggerate I'm like  exaggerate it's math there's no  exaggeration everything is calculated  there is a method to this science and so  if you have a 600 amp hour battery bank  when you're actually using your boat and  you're out cruising you're only going to  be using 1/3 of that battery bank  meaning you need 3 times the battery  bank that you need with flooded  lead-acid batteries that's the ratio  think about batteries are a little bit  like you and I our ancestors you go back  a thousand years 700 years I don't think  my ancestors had any different DNA than  I did we're pretty much identical life  expectancy was about 25 years 30 years  if you were lucky now why they had a  hard life they were working there's no  nine-to-five there's no Monday to Friday  there's no you're out for survival  you're fighting the fight every day and  if you treat your batteries and they  need to do crazy work days imagine if  you have to work 21 hours a day seven  days a week you're not gonna make it to  80 there's no way you're gonna kill  yourself it'd be crazy and we ask  batteries we say two batteries you say  oh by the way I really don't care what  you need I'm gonna work you so hard but  then when you die is like a horse when  you die too prematurely I'm gonna be  really upset at you for not giving me  the life that I expect out of you life  expectancy is a function and a direct  function of the depth of discharge of  your batteries there's no other way  around it how deeply you discharge those  batteries and the number of times you do  it will affect your battery life so  that's super important and that's how  you get to 200 amp hours of usable ie a  ratio of one to three so you want 600  you better buy three times  it's what you would thought you need it  originally and that's why the battery  banks for flooded lead-acid batteries  are really big on the corollary that's  why a lithium battery banks are much  smaller because 80% of the battery is  usable right 80% with lithium is readily  usable and that's why people are  spending big bucks on lithium because  it's a way to have higher energy density  okay so this is an image of a flooded  lead-acid battery you can see there's  three cells three posts that you can  actually top off each cell is about 2.2  volts and that's how you get a 6 volt  battery gel batteries costs about twice  the amount of a flooded lead-acid  battery the electrolyte is in a gel  State so can't leak you can shoot it  with a gun you could drill in it it's  literally like jello it's a seal valve  regular battery we talked about that  earlier it's no maintenance is required  and that's a big one a lot of people  have a lot of promises in their lives a  lot of problems that a lot of promises  are also unkept we do that to ourselves  we do to our partners we do a children  we do to our friends or family but a  battery is an unforgiving creature she  doesn't care what your excuses are you  could have the longest list you want but  it will never care what your excuses are  you have to maintain that contract and a  gel battery a seal valve regularly a  battery does not need to be topped off  hence why it's really convenient because  there is no contract you put it in and  you don't have to give it any love until  it dies it's other than charging but big  caution and I put that in red man  there's stories online before my time of  people putting gel batteries and not  thinking about the alternator and the  battery charger and after a week the  batteries are dead and remember they pay  twice the price of a flooded you can  imagine how that hurts so he would go to  West Marine go to battery shop buy the  best put it in drop replacement a week  later the battery is completely toast  because gel batteries are very  susceptible to overcharging their charge  profile is much less than a flooded by  the acid battery and so that's why it's  generally you never see it because it  means you need to have a holistic  approach annalistic approach on a boat  is a pretty big objective most people  replace things in singular devices and  they're not looking at the big picture  so it was just not it's just not easy  for a general boater to put gel in a  boat notice here that's a really good -  is they discharge only about 2% a month  so some boaters have their boats on  mooring boys or in hangars and they  don't have a battery charger or they're  not on the boat all the time and they  can't charge their batteries like we did  all of DFO's fleet we change all their  batteries the Department of Fisheries  and Oceans we depart we change all their  batteries to flooded because they their  boats were in storage areas hangars and  they couldn't put them on Chargers and  when they would show up to the boat if  they had a flooded lead-acid battery  that battery would discharge about 15% a  month same thing with think about my  folks they have a place a little place  in Florida and in the summer there's  someone that drives our car every sort  of once a month if you don't drive your  car for six months like we see in those  zombie movies the car won't start if it  hasn't been run in six months you're not  gonna have any battery it's done the  cars dead so if you don't use your car  for a year you don't go to your car and  say all great I'm gonna start it the car  needs to be started because the battery  needs to be topped off because it's a  flooded lead-acid battery and that's why  people you see cars in storage areas  that have a little solar panel on top of  a tarp they're trying to maintain the  battery because nobody's driving their  car once a month and here's the reason  why people do gel is because what you  see isn't what you get it gets fifty  five percent of the usable battery  capacity remember flooded was thirty  five so now what that means is that you  only need a four hundred and property  bank to give you two hundred amp hours  you see how energy density becomes that  plate so that's why you can either have  more usable capacity with the same  batteries or have less batteries and  have the same usable capacity so we'll  have boaters that come to me and say  Jeff I need more power on my boat but I  can only because of physical limitations  and we all do doesn't big I don't care  how big your boat was I was under 90  foot or two weeks ago it was jam packed  to the rafters I mean that boat was  packed and you  125-foot er it's packed you get on a  30-footer it's packed you get on a 60  footer its back every single boat is  packed to the rafters with stuff and so  it's not like oh yeah look I have a room  that's completely empty let's put stuff  on it now every boat is packed and the  challenge as boarders is well I want  more capacity but where am I going to  put that extra capacity my battery bank  is this maybe I'll that too but some  can't even add to they have the space  they have for their batteries and so  what you end up doing is you say okay  I'm going to spend more money for  batteries so that I can with the same  amount of batteries have more usable  battery capacity and it's a trade-off  and people that have lithium do the same  thing they're saying I have so much  little space on my boat that I am  willing to pay a huge premium for power  because I have no other choice so that  happens as well and that's the choice  that all of us have is how much are you  willing to pay more for that space  premium and think about I always give  the analogy and I'm thinking about in  the city you build high-rises right in  the suburbs you build ranchers right  space is not at a premium far far away  from a city but in the downtown you  build high and that high comes with  looking at more energy density per  footprint higher batteries ways to limit  the footprint of your battery bank AGM  battery stand for absorbed glass mat  batteries and this is sort of there's  really two big choices in the marine  world right now and it's either AGM or  flooded lithium of course is a player  but you need to have the money to afford  it and you need to be committed but we  definitely do a Philippian as well it's  just a little bit of rare and the  electrolyte is in a glass map so it  can't leak which is great very limited  gassing it's maintenance-free there's no  top off right there's no maintenance of  the battery you can't add any  electrolyte you don't have to do that  which is great self discharge is also  very low like gel which is what we  thought because it's also a seal valve  regulated battery the capacity is  similar to gel it's also 55% and again  with AGM you can actually get 55 percent  of the battery is usable capacity and  again he  you could get away with only a 400 amp  hour battery bank to get 200 amp hours  of usable that's one of the main  differential reasons when I start  explaining to boaters their choice and  they come to me and say Jeff help me  choose a battery bank for my boat give  me an indication there's so much choice  I don't know where to go and I say well  listen there's there are implications  you don't just pay more money for the  same thing nobody wants to do that  nobody wants to pay the exact same  device for more money but when we look  for cars we don't shop for a car  strictly based on price we're looking  what are the features I get with that  car it's age its whatever how it drives  is a sports car is it a sedan you're  looking at all these different variables  and you're going yeah that's worth it to  me at the price that I'm gonna buy same  thing we did with our boats none of us  is going out and buying a boat strictly  based on price I mean otherwise we just  shop through Craigslist sort it lease  expensive and we'd all be looking for  the bargain boat and trust me there is  no bargain at $0 with a boat as we all  know there are no deals save me my  battery so you've got to think about the  value really essential so this is an AGM  battery really popular line a lifeline  you'll notice there's no electrolyte to  be topped off so Firefly batteries are  now three times the price right a  flooded lead-acid battery is one dollar  and a Firefly batteries gonna be three  times the price all the benefits of AGM  which is you know leak proof so you  don't need a container maintenance-free  doesn't vent and also it gives you  faster recharge rates which is really  important for people that are trying to  condense their charge time on a boat  this happens with motors that have fast  boats or sail boaters that are trying to  sail but the big thing is it's 12 times  the life cycle of flooded I joke around  and I say it's a family heirloom you'll  pull in your will it's sort of like  Johnny you're gonna have my batteries on  my boat when I go 20 years 30 years from  now your sister can have mums necklace  you'll get the Firefly back those  batteries will outlast most of all our  love for a certain boat 12 times is in  the land of the ridiculous it's like  living a thousand years at one point  you're like I can go like I don't need  to stick around that long  and that's one of the big advantage of  the Firefly the other really big thing  is this depth of discharge  so with Firefly now you can go all the  way down to 20% of capacity like lithium  the difference with lithium is lithium  the top end is also available from a  hundred to twenty is lithium with carbon  foam AGM you go from 85 to 20 and now  you're 65% of the battery bank is usable  and that's also how you get a huge  amount of usable capacity in a small  footprint we do go where we ended up  putting 32 because the owner didn't want  to have to worry it was an 85 footer and  they're like I don't want to worry about  power I'm tired  running the generator all the time it  drives us crazy and I want to be able to  run from you know 8 o'clock at night to  9 o'clock in the morning have everything  on and not have to worry about it and we  did that before that was impossible with  flooded and we didn't add more batteries  on the boat we just changed the  batteries to a firefly battery yes the  cost is much higher but it works hope is  not a strategy with batteries yes of  questions the question is can you mix  and match an old battery with a new  battery and in the past you wouldn't  have done that with AGM or gel because  the life cycle was so short that after a  year or 2 years the batteries would  already be in a different stage right  you know there's just there already so  different that it's going to be uneven  and you're gonna waste a new battery and  it's gonna be a waste of money but with  Firefly if the life cycle is 3600 right  cycles if you're bringing a battery and  you only use it 50 what's 50 on 3600  it's a rounding error  so with Firefly batteries unless you've  cycled them so intensely some owners are  saying you know what I'll do X this year  and next year if I only use my boat and  I'm only cruising slightly and I'm not  cruising every day bring my batteries  down every day next year I've only been  on the boat for 50 nights 50 nights on  3600 is inconsequential so that's where  the law of not adding batteries to an  existing bank can be changed because the  life duration is so bored  Nickolas that you can get away with it  and we do that so now think about it now  you only need a 300 amp hour battery  bank to do 200 usable of battery  capacity and that's a big deal  so they come in either 12 volts or 4  volts so when we do the big tall ones we  have to buy them obviously in threes or  if we go to 24 volts we buy them in six  sort of like when you think about a golf  cart battery nobody buys a single golf  cart battery there's no such thing you  can't at 6 volts you're not gonna go  somewhere and say I'm buying a 6 volt  battery they're like well what are you  gonna run with 6 volts nothing runs at 6  volts right so you have to always buy a  pair and then you wire them in series to  make a 12 volt battery so these  batteries here need to be bought in  threes and these batteries are 12 and  they can be bought in singles or if you  have a 24 volt bank like I was doing an  electrical survey the other day and the  thruster is running on 24 volts you  can't buy a 24 volt battery bank you buy  two twelves you put them in series or  you buy for four sixes and you do 24 but  you got to get yourself to that voltage  so this is an example of 6 v and notice  here that's sort of like that would be  called parallel right so all the  negatives are together  that's all parallel all the positives  are together right and then the negative  comes on one end and the positive on the  other one so that's six batteries that  are about 110 112 amp hours in parallel  for a 660 amp hour battery bank at 12  volts right and that's a distinction to  remember people say to me and I get this  all the time by the way there's no such  thing as a silly question but people all  the time tell me oh I've got to golf car  batteries they're out there each 220 amp  hours and I have two on my boat I have a  440 amp hour battery bank I'm like yeah  I wish us well it'd be great but you  can't add voltage and amp hours  otherwise it's a miracle and let's be  honest I'm not hoping for miracles a lot  in my life but it's ain't going to  happen and so you can't add voltage and  amp hours if the voltage stays the same  then the amp hours keep adding but if  you start adding the voltages then the  amp hours are gonna stay the same so  think about this like two golf carts and  series are going to be six volt plus six  volts equals 12 volts the amp hour  is still a 220 amp hour battery bank  right same thing with you had four golf  carts in series to make 24 it's 220 amp  hour 24 volt battery bank or battery in  this case not a bank because it's still  made of only one battery made of four  batteries in a series so I even see  manuals and books actually believe it or  not I was on a boat just recently in  September where the manual actually the  Builder was confused they were actually  confused they were saying that each  battery was they actually had doubled  the amp hours capacity on the boat now  realizing that you can't add voltages  and amp hours you got to choose one  otherwise it's pure magic and there is  no such thing alright so what you've got  to ask yourself when you're sizing a  battery bank on your boat you got to ask  yourself and people have you know people  come to me all the time they're like so  I need a battery bank Jeff how much I  like oh well let's go down the rabbit  hole together it's like how much to  remodel a kitchen well it depends all  right we're gonna have to start asking  questions there's not a single solution  for every one of us otherwise it'd just  be a manual it'd be the Bible here you  go  build your boat according to everyone  would do the same thing but with boats  everything is sort of custom it's  different so the first thing you've got  to ask yourself you've got to figure out  what your daily and power requirements  are cinnamon a little bit too I'm  thinking about my mother was so good  with money so good she was so frugal she  was amazing and she said well you're  gonna go traveling what is good you  spend every day on the trip what's your  daily what's your daily budget you know  when you travel what is it we're gonna  go to New York you know together I was  born on the East Coast how much is gonna  cost us how much money do we need to  bring before ATMs and stuff like that  and so you go okay you do the math and  you're like I'm gonna need $200 a day  $100 a day back pikers do it you know  out of college you know thirty dollars a  day whatever your number is you've got  to come out with what is gonna be your  daily amp our budget it's essential you  cannot size a battery bank without  knowing what you need it's like sizing  your retirement and not knowing what  your burn rate is  gee a million dollars in the bank you  need 10 million or you need nothing  what's your burn rate it's got to be  something and you got to know what your  a yearly burn rate is to figure out how  much money you need to save for  retirement and batteries are very  similar to that so what I'm trying to  emphasize here is that people come to me  and this I would say is 90% of the  voters come to me and say Jeff I really  use no power I'm super frugal I don't  have I don't have any power needs I'm  like oddly enough everyone says that yet  I'm in the business of delivering power  so let's walk back and let's figure out  how is it possible that nobody needs  power yet that's the very thing that I'm  sort of driven at solving and what  people don't take into consideration is  the loads of a refrigerator on your boat  the moment you take away a refrigerator  in your boat it's sort of like being  mortgage free your mortgage free you are  rich  absolutely congratulations a lot of envy  super aspirations to get there one day  but if you love fresh food and cold food  and cold beverages you have a mortgage  on your boat and I'm talking about a  mortgage without any down I'm talking  full payment I'm talking it's going to  be 80% of your income welcome to the  world of hurt okay there's no shortcuts  refrigeration is the largest number one  draw until your boat is basically  probably around to an eighty ninety  footer and you're running generators all  the time but up to that point  refrigeration is number one load on a  boat and the bigger the boat the more  refrigeration they have they have one on  the aft deck they want to have on the  flybridge they have a deep freeze down  below they have double door fridges and  you can have a sailboat or like I am and  a 30-footer and you have only then  you've got a big hunter 50-footer you  got two fridges you know like the  fridges just simply are growing  exponentially as a function of your size  and so refrigeration is the largest load  on a boat and if you think you're a  Luddite if you have any refrigeration on  your boat unfortunately you might be a  Luddite in your everyday spending I you  don't buy coffees you don't go out for  dinner as you turn the lights off all  the time but if you have a mortgage you  ain't rich not in a place like Vancouver  you can't be you just can't and so  refrigeration is going to be a huge part  of your daily a power needs  I'm giving you numbers here to sort of  imagine what is your burn rate on  typical boats you know is it 85 amp  hours a day is it 375 is it 500 you know  I've got some boats there are a thousand  a half hours a day there's no limit of  course you know but if you don't have a  battery monitor on your boat it's very  hard for you to know that so one way is  to ask someone like myself a Jeff I've  got this vote here's what I have and  I'll be able to guess it just because  you know experience sort of like a good  golfer knows what club to take depending  where they are right I have no clue what  I'm doing at golf so my dad always tells  me no no you can't do that right now  no you got to take this club right same  thing with amp-hours now if you haven't  a battery monitor on your boat  everyone should definitely should you're  gonna be able to actually know what your  burn rate is because you start your day  at noon in 12 off 24 hours later if you  didn't run the engine or have solar or  any recharge you'll be able to know like  yeah on a typical day ever and 100 amp  hours on a typical day ever in 200 amp  hours where it gets a little bit  complicated is that your burn rate in  the summer is different than the winter  because the lights are longer in the  winter you're running heat in the winter  heat comes from diesel but the  distribution of that heat is going to  come from batteries right so you've got  to know what's my number and that's you  see that what people are going offshore  I was looking at a spreadsheet the other  day what are my amp hours at a  destination and what are my amp hours  while under way two different numbers  you're not using an autopilot at a  destination but you're maybe going to be  using an autopilot if you don't have a  wind vane under way you're going to be  using your radar potentially 12 hours a  day are you going to be using your radar  at a destination or an anchorage  probably not so the numbers are  different for people that go offshore  underway or at destination and here in  BC or for a cruiser your power  consumption in the summer and in the  winter is going to be different so  depending if you only boat in the summer  then only care about the number in the  summer but if you boat in the shoulder  season and/or the winter then you have  to start considering you okay yeah well  I'm gonna draw more power in the winter  because the lights are gonna be on  longer the heat is gonna be on right  those are factors that come to play  you