View Transcript

Hide Transcript

Transcript is auto-generated.

   all right everyone um here's jeff cote   with boating tech talk we've got another   question from a fellow boater named   walter walter's got a water maker and   mentions jeff i see a spike on the panel   amp meter when i run the water maker and   then it settles down i've also noticed   that on my victron touch display screen   it also switches from bulk charging to   inverting it seems that it takes so much   power is this normal   well all right so this is a little bit   of a complicated question so the reality   is there's two types of ac loads on a   boat there's resistive loads and   inductive loads   and of interest here is the water maker   is an inductive load and why does this   matter it means that when especially any   loads that ac loads that are motorized   are going to often see a spike   a high amperage   draw   some point and generally at the   beginning to actually make the water   maker function properly   and that spike in   in current is going to have an effect on   your ability to deliver all that current   to the water maker so   all right so now we know that a water   maker's inductive we know it has as   walter mentioned we see a spike in the   amps being drawn when the water maker   runs   but what gets interesting is that maybe   for example the boat was running on   generator right and so you've got you're   running your generator you're charging   your batteries are bulk charging and   suddenly you turn on the water maker and   now the   inverter charger doesn't bulk charge   anymore it it inverts why would you   suddenly go from charging to inverting   well some inverter chargers have the   function of actually being able to   assist or boost   there's different words but basically   provide more current than is available   um on a boat so that means that it will   actually be let's say for example if you   had a  amp short power connection or a     amp short power connection   it's possible that your inverter could   actually go   into for a short period of time into a   boost mode   to actually provide more ac current to   your ac loads then you actually have   incoming either from a generator or   short power   and so that is normal very few of us are   going to have these sort of inverters   it's not your typical stock inverter   different manufacturers including   victron and even magnum and a bunch of   them actually have this feature it's   rarely   configured so most of us are not going   to have this benefit but it is possible   for an inverter charger   to actually swap out of charging mode   and become an inverter   to provide additional amperage   especially in these peaks   where the inductive loads are asking a   lot more current than would be usual now   here's an idea   what i recommend when you're starting   loading up a generator or shore power   is to turn on your inductive loads first   because those are the ones that are   going to actually take more amperage at   the beginning and once they're actually   running they're going to reduce their   amperage so as a way to offset these   spikes   what a boater can do is   actually start your inductive loads   first and then add your resistive loads   at the end   and that gives you a little bit more   sort of buffer to handle the peaks for   the beginning because there's no other   resistive loads they come in a steady   state   and then you add up your resistive loads   afterwards so that's sort of an idea of   how you would go about managing power   with a water maker while connected to   shore power or even a generator so a   great question from walter and thanks   for asking and thanks for all of you   tuning in much appreciated so if you're   curious again go on our website and find   out more answers and solutions with this   sort of setup and thanks for asking and   thanks for all of you for listening and   tuning in