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hi everyone jeff cote here with

votingtechtalk.com we've got a question

from a fellow boater named wendy wendy

asks jeff i've always been wondering how

long is it going to take for my

batteries to be drained if i ever lose

shore power at my marina

that's a great question wendy and

unfortunately it's not an easy one

so at the end of the day

the first thing we have to think about

is what sort of loads are we running on

our boat when we're connected to shore

power right and that's a question that

there's no simple all-in-one answer for

right

it really depends so the first thing i

do when i come to ashore and i connect

to shore power and i'm going to actually

be leaving the boat so the boat is going

to be unattended is the question here

that we're hearing from wendy

what do i recommend well the first thing

i recommend is to actually turn off all

the loads you don't need especially all

the loads that are going to be running

off of your battery

you're trying to effectively what you're

doing is you're preparing for the worst

right ultimately that's what you're

looking for you're you're thinking about

what could happen and those what could

is what happens if i lose short power

and how long and what would happen to my

batteries if i lost short power how long

would they be able to run and be top and

be like stay in a condition of healthy

state

well that first thing is take everything

off that you don't need so any sort of

load that you don't need maybe it's a dc

fan that you don't need it's the winter

time or maybe it's a light that you

don't need to run right i turn off all

dc circuits unless i intentionally want

to use them now there are certain

circuits that you shouldn't turn off and

generally those are called these

unswitched dc circuits these always on

circuits these circuits that are there

for your benefit and that could be a

bilge pump right it could be a carbon

monoxide detector it could be stereo

memory right there's certain things on

our boats that are always going to be

connected to shore power but then then

the question as a boater is what other

circuits will i energize

when i'm away and is it really critical

for that circuit to be energized in the

event that i would lose shore power

right

and so sometimes the only circuit i will

leave on is the refrigerator this is

going to be a conscious decision and i'm

going to make a decision i'm like oh i'm

going to be back in a few weeks i wanted

i don't want to have the hassle of

taking the food out of the fridge

and now that time could be a month to

you it could be some of us would be

willing to take that risk for two months

some of us don't care

that's all depends there's no right

answer it depends what you think is

important to you and so sometimes on my

boat i'm gonna actually if i'm not gone

from the boat for too long i'm actually

gonna have the refrigerator still

running

and i'm going to actually not take the

food out now i do that why

well i have two backups to shore power

right one is the sun the sun assuming

that the weather's good i've got a

significantly large solar array not a

coincidence and that acts as a backup

right so in the event that i actually am

disconnected from shore power pretty

much nine to ten months of the year my

solar array is significantly large

enough

that i can basically offset the loads of

refrigeration even in the shoulder

months not the winter months right so

december january maybe february that's

hard

but i can certainly do it from easily

from april to october

and so

basically i have a solar array that can

maintain and offset just refrigeration

loads that's one advantage the other

thing too that i've done on both

multiple boats including my own is also

putting a methanol fuel cell

so putting a methanol fuel cell is a

redundant power supply and i always make

sure that if i'm going to leave the boat

for a long period of time guess what i'm

going to have a full methanol fuel tank

in there sufficient enough to run

whatever loads are on board for an

extended period of time until i come

back and assess the situation

so first take off the loads now we get

into the meat of it the next is figuring

out what loads you have to run right so

if you decide that you're taking

everything off then yeah your batteries

could last for weeks and months right if

you've got nothing other than stereo

memory and everything's off other than a

battery monitor gauge or a voltmeter

you know for most of us that's going to

be months

right our battery banks are large enough

and we do enough stuff with our battery

banks that they can actually

handle a battery monitor working and a

bilge pump working randomly

you know unfrequently no problem and

that could last for months or at least a

month

but it all changes the moment we learn

that we turn the refrigerator on when we

turn the refrigerator on and we're

putting a load of maybe 30 amp hours 40

amp hours some of us 100 amp hours 150

amp hours the moment we put a load like

that on our boat

the battery bank is going to last a day

to a week

right for most of us and a week is on

the very top end that's very very rare

most of us it's a day or two and the

battery's gonna be drained and then

you're gonna have your batteries in a

damaged state

by the way this happened to another

boater just literally two days ago and

the batteries went down to zero point

something eight volts because there was

a load and the boat was disconnected

from shore power

unintentionally of course but it was and

so

you basically want to figure out what is

the size of your battery bank right so

know what the battery bank is your size

you should know that and if you don't

it's a good exercise you want to know if

your battery bank is 400 amp hours 200

powers 300 1000 2000

and then what you're going to do is

you're going to calculate if you've left

your refrigerator on and if it's running

at 50 amp hours a day and you've got a

500 amp hour battery bank theoretically

you should be able to run that about 10

days assuming everything is perfect now

everything's not perfect and

things are not going to work out the way

we would always want but you'd be able

to you know bring your battery bank to

easily probably 30 or 20 percent of

capacity without damaging it too

significantly

and so you might look at your battery

capacity and say well i've got 500 but

i'm only going to use 70 well that's 350

amps i've got a 50 amp load

my app hour load a day and that's about

it so make sure that you don't have too

many loads left on your boat when you

leave your boat unattended for a period

of time because remember this and this

is a very expensive lesson that you can

avoid learning yourself

batteries that are left uncharged

for long periods of time two weeks a

month two months three months are

permanently damaged

and they're not really recoverable you

can think they're recoverable but you're

always going to be a fraction of their

former selves

right you'll have something but it's not

going to be what it was so the best

prevention

the best advice is the prevention right

solving the problem from ever ever ever

happening and that's why wendy's

question is really good because we

should all think about what's going to

happen if i ever lose short power in my

boat and how long will my battery last

until i have to come back

and that's a great question so thanks

for asking i want to thank you for

watching this video don't forget to

subscribe if you want to get more of

this cool content and also check out our

website if you've got questions that are

unanswered we've actually taken the time

to answer quite a few questions and you

might be surprised to find the answer

right there on our website so thanks

again

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