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all right so now we're in the inside of  the vessel and we're about to look at  the DC before DC main distribution now  we're going to look at the DC panel so  the DC distribution now there was doing  a bunch of circuits that were directly  connected and now here we've got a DC  panel so you can see this is a DC panel  that's undergone some changes the first  thing that I really like about what I'm  seeing is you'll notice there's actually  yes you labeling it doesn't may not look  modern than the way it was originally  but at least everything is labeled it's  quite common to see both like this where  you need to almost have a translator oh  yeah you know steaming light is actually  my running light on my fridge is  actually my inverter my water is  actually something else and so I really  like that this whole panel is actually  was relabeled I think that's really  essential especially when things get  crazy on a boat it's important to know  where certain breakers are the other  thing to of noticing is actually even  the size of the breakers you can see you  know 15 15 at 5 5 5 15 5 5 so this is  telling us the size of the breakers here  you can see there's actually three  panels here there's a DC panel with a  battery monitor that we saw the shunt a  little bit earlier naturally it used to  be other things here that have been  removed and this is another sub DC  distribution and this is an AC breaker  now on an older boat like this there's  no voltmeter which if this was a new  panel you'd have to have a voltmeter and  also you you have a reverse polarity  light that's good  and so that's kind of the front of the  panel not a too unusual you know again  the front end of the panel looks really  good so what we're going to do now is  we're going to have a look behind the  panel and we're going to drop this down  and here we've got  I mean this certainly is in what a DC  panel on a new you vote would look like  so there is definitely room for  improvement here the good news and let's  start with the good news is I'm seeing a  lot it looks like someone maybe it's the  owner or someone else as overtime  started labeling all the wires right and  and yes this cable is going to a breaker  that's labeled water pressure but now  you can actually tell just from looking  at the behind that actually you know  here's we got an alarm and someone's  taking the time to start labeling every  not every wire but most of the water so  that's the good news you can see  basically you've got feet coming in  right you got this is basically the feed  coming in and you've got another feed  coming in what's confusing about this as  you can see is you're you know on this  bow they're using black wires for DC and  then they're using red electrical tape  to indicate that it's actually positive  so that's something you've got to be  really careful on an older boat like  this that you always look for the  telltale clues and it certainly if we  were wiring this boat we would  absolutely use red for for positives and  yellow for negative so that's the good  first thing that concerns me right away  and because it's a big safety factor is  the back of this AC panel does not have  a cover this is a double pole breaker if  you touch any of these wires here you  could die like I'm an inch away from  potentially dying  I suppose that they've got a little bus  protector here on top of the hot that's  feeding all these now notice actually  all these cables are actually red now  that for me is a huge issue red is 12  volts never doesn't mean 120 hot and  here we've got red cabling actually  indicating 120 so that means that  someone needs to actually really know  what they're doing and they need to  understand that this is AC and actually  now we're using AC and but we're using  red and so it would not be  uncommon for maybe maybe an amateur and  do-it-yourself to actually think this is  denying like here right  everything here's 12 volts and under not  understand that this is actually a  hundred twenty and so if you touch any  one of those breakers when they actually  the breakers on you again can have a  chance of dying so I'm there's there's I  believe there's a lot of room to  maneuver and a lot of things but  whenever death is at play and I'm not  trying to make this a big deal out of  nothing  I simply think there's no excuse to have  any red on any at all  AC circuits period the color it should  be black black and white and you'll  actually notice they this is use out of  convenience right you've got a cable  here  you know black white and green and what  the owner did or someone or it could  have been a do-it-yourself it could be a  mechanic it could be a so-called  electrician probably had a big spool of  red wire wanted to the wires were too  short right to reach this panel and so  what they use is they ended up using red  to extend all the wires making back to  the panel and so that's an absolute  modal we've got a neutral bus here which  is great it's covered over time it would  actually be good to label those neutrals  too you've got a double pole breaker  which is you need one which is great so  this is the AC speed coming in you've  got a grounding bus which is great well  if I really like that the neutral bus  like I said I like double pole I like  but I really don't like that there's no  back cover and you actually need to have  a mechanical device to get access to  that you should not be able to just drop  down a panel and get access to that this  side this side you're fine but AC you  can access so easily so now that we're  looking at we've let go the AC I would  look at now the DC side and you know on  my boat to be honest I had something  summer when I got my boat my boat is 27  years old and my DC distribution wasn't  like that built from  Factory but I can tell you that previous  owners made it look like that and what I  did on my boat and you see this wood  really new builds or bigger boats what  they'll do is they'll actually bring all  these wires and they'll bring them to  terminal strips and so what you would do  is you would bring all these wires you  take them all off the breakers and you  bring them right on the back and you  install on the back here a bunch of  terminal strips and these terminal  strips would actually terminate all  those wires and then the great thing  about doing that is the length of the  wire is going to be long enough to reach  all that back wall without using all  these butt connectors everywhere these  web connectors are going to really cause  a lot of grief but connectors just cause  a lot of pain over time so you take all  of this and you bring them all over here  on the positives on terminal strips and  then you install those negative bus bars  not here but again over here and then  what you do is you take from this  terminal strips you install and you  route bundles of cables that go to this  breaker and this breaker and so what it  does is it clean so over time as you're  adding new or taking new circuits or Auk  you're never actually going back to the  breakers you're always going back to the  terminal strip because everything from  here to there stays the same and so what  you would do is maybe you would oversize  the wire so that as if you ever decided  to change a 5 amps a 15 amp the any  cable in that bundle would be able to  handle 15 amps and so that would be  really big thing that I would recommend  doing on this boat and what it does is  it allows that when you lift open and  close this you're not going to have a  accidental wires getting pinched getting  crushed getting twisted right because  over time what's going to happen is that  might cause the panel to you know act  intermittently you can actually see  layering here now what I mean by that is  you can see things that were done  recently and things that are more legacy  you can tell this is a new relatively  new cable right so this is a new DC  cable that's coming from  the common ground bus that we saw down  below feeds here there's a little jumper  that comes across and then you can  actually notice there's another cable  over here and what you commonly see on a  lot of boats especially Browns and it's  really essential to you should never  ground or like Browns are like trees a  tree never grows back onto itself right  and when you talk about electricity you  really think about people use words like  trunk and branches and a tree as it  leaves the ground right goes on a trunk  the trunk might then separate into other  trunks and then eventually the branches  but a branch never grows back onto  itself right so the sap doesn't turn in  in a loop right it actually goes out and  there's never more than one path to a  leaf you can only go from Earth to a  leaf on one path only and when you're  doing grounds on the boat people think  that more is better and what they ended  up doing is they end up starting to look  oh well I don't have a path to the  engine I'm going to have another path to  DC ground but then they're realizing  that their engine ground is connected to  the common ground and now what they did  is they did actually a current loop  because now what they're doing is like  they think Moore is Mary or Mary or so  what you want to do if you're actually  wiring your boat especially on the  ground is you never ever ever want to  have a loop it's got to be like a tree a  leaf has only one path all the way back  to ground and so here what we have is  you've got a cable that's the legacy  cable we actually saw that cable that  cable is connected down the low to the  engine right and so it's a path to  ground and it would be because remember  the engine is also connected to the  common ground because the engine battery  and the house battery are connected to  the DC distribution common ground that  cable can be removed now that this cable  is here and that would give you one path  to ground so it's very essential as you  add you pass the ground to remove the  old paths to them they're going to that  you can see here is you actually have  some we're looking at the back of a  source selector switch and we're looking  at another fuse holder notice this fuse  holder how the fuse is  actually you can actually click on the  sides here alright and if you undo these  Phillips you can actually screw that  fuse all the way down so but to fit that  fuse all the way down you need to undo  both of these slightly and then actually  retighten them so this fuse is not  removable when both of these are  actually tightened down you've got a  source selector this actually a fuse  holder and fuse is actually made to run  this small little inverter and this  cable over here is the ground that goes  into this cable here and goes into this  little portable small inverter how do I  choose what's the right breaker size  well first of all a really common thing  if you're a do-it-yourselfer which I  would really recommend you get is one of  these clamp on DC multimeters don't be I  remember when I first got my boat years  ago and I was all excited when to buy a  tool and then I ended up buying an AC  model only so make sure that if you buy  one of these you just don't go to Home  Depot because home depot is most likely  going to just have an AC model you want  a DC AC model and if you do that you can  actually clamp around a cable and you  could actually measure the current going  in and out of that cable so if you've  got a load and you're not sure what the  load is is my water prompt drawing to  answer is it drawing 100m now I'm  exaggerating it's probably drawing 7  amps or 15 or or maybe 5 it depends on  what's running what you want to do is if  you clamp on this around the cable you  can tell actually what the draw of the  pump is so you'd want to always make  sure that that breaker is never going to  cause nuisance tripping right so you  don't want to you're drawing four and a  half amps you don't want to have a 5 amp  breaker idea I think is this you're  changing the breaker size always make  sure that the breaker is there to not  just protect the appliance but also  protect the wire the line in between the  breaker and the appliance so that line  for example if you've got I don't know  you might be putting a water pump on  board and you have a water pump and  you're using a gauge 16 wire well a  gauge 16 wire is not going to be able to  handle the loads of a water pump right  not a standard water pump  you want to make sure that you always  have at least the conductor between the  appliance and the breaker that can  handle the amperage that the breaker is  going to give so it's really about  sizing finding out what the load is with  a clamp-on meter or simply reading the  specs on the device if you can find them  and then making sure that the line  feeding that appliance is actually the  right size and then you can size the  breaker to only not only protect the  line but also protect the appliance is  there a formula for the size of the  breaker nope like twice no I would say  you probably want to do a ratio  generally for nuisance tripping I would  say you probably want to do at least  maybe a 25% you know so you'd never get  close so if you've got for example up a  10 at breaker you don't want to be  running 8 or 9 amps out of that give  yourself a little bit of room now if  you're getting specific really these  breakers are generally not to protect  the appliance because you can't buy this  breaker in 7 amps and 9 amps or these  are really to protect the line what  you'll end up having is a fuse and that  fuse is going to be very specific for  the manufacturer it might say I want a  10 amp fuse I wanted 8 AGC I want a fast  blow too so what you end up having is a  breaker for the line to turn the  appliance on and off and protect the  line and then you'll have a fuse right  before the appliance that's going to  protect the appliance and that's going  to be extremely specific and it's  actually going to be specified by the  manufacturer of the product and those  excuses today can I use those automotive  space yeah absolutely I love those  absolutely the waterproof well depends  where it is you don't have to have  waterproof inside the boat I don't think  so there's no need but yes those ATO ATC  automotive fuses blow fuses are great  probably the glass fuse why is sometimes  they shatter but also reading the label  of what is the size of the glass fuse in  itself is a life challenge I mean it's  extremely hard even for my guys are in  their 30s I'm I'm only 44  one and I have I'm squinting and  depending on the light it's really hard  what's great about the ATO ATC's is  they're color-coordinated some of them  come with built-in LED so if they burn  out they actually are showing that the  light the fuse is actually going to have  a small LED telling you that it got  burned out and it's pretty obvious what  is a 2 a 3 a 5 AB a 10 amp it's all  color coordinated and they're easy to  take in and out so I certainly give it a  choice not that every time you want to  use an ATO ATC but given a choice I  would probably most of the time I would  end up choosing an ATO a TTP  you