Should I Keep the Inverter/Charger Turned On While My Boat Is Unattended?

[@MikeS29]

Your information is so important. I can't tell you how much I've learned from you, and how much I appreciate your channel and your commitment to doing the right thing.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thanks Michael, much appreciated!

[@KeithCunningham-hj7nd]

Great content, will visit your store.

[@alcibiadesmarcialneto922]

New inverters have ways to turn itself off in order to protect the batteries. Thera are some with remote control via wifi.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Yes, inverters certainly do. But the inverter on/off switch on the DC side is like a fuel shut-off, it's the ultimate cut-off.

[@johnbee1107]

Hi Jeff! How should I float my LiFePO4 battery when I am on or not on the boat? Unfortunately I cannot set my charger to maintain a specific SOC. Only voltage can be set. But those batteries should not be left at 100% SOC for a longer time.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Hmmm, good question. Generally the BMS controls the charging. Not sure how a non-integrated charger should be set to properly recharge a lithium battery. Any body else have advice on this?

[@Zetsucat]

@@PacificYachtSystems This page responds to it (scroll down) www.power-sonic.com/blog/how-to-charge-lithium-iron-phosphate-lifepo4-batteries/#:~:text=Float%20charging%20is%20only%20required,any%20battery%20without%20causing%20damage. Basically set the float voltage to the same voltage or close to or just a tad below the battery in its full resting state.

[@joseescabi]

Hi Jeff! Thanks for the great content. Question for you, I recently purchased a Catalina 25, and after watching your videos I'm thinking of re-doing the electrical, and wanted to ask you, would you recommend I go with a 24 V system instead of the standard 12 V. In my case I will rely 100% on solar, as my marina doesn't have shore power, and my outboard doesn't have an alternator. I would get 24 V LED lights, a 24 V inverter, I don't have a windlass, don't have radar or nav, and I'm planning on getting a handheld VHF. I can't think of any other significant loads my boat will have, that a DC to DC converter wouldn't take care of. I would be able to safely use smaller cables as the higher voltage means a lower voltage drop and less current loss. My only concern is that if one of my 2 batteries fail I would loose my inverter. At the same time, I'm a daysailor in a smallish lake, so it's not a very big deal. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance, Jose

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Hi Jose, for your boat size of 25 foot, stick with 12 volts, since your alternator and starter are 12 vdc, and also your existing appliances are 12 VDC. Also, based on your boat size, the voltage drop issue isn't as important as a 50 foot boat with wat longer cable runs.

[@danedwards_ee]

Wow, I'm currently designing a electrical system for a yacht I plan to buy and retrofit in the near future, im doing the design and ground work right now. Your content has been amazing and have binged through your material and talks for the last 6hours. And happy you put up a new video so I can ask a question! What do you think about relay boards in place of actual switches for the DC and AC panel? I plan on creating a home automation based yacht, having the ability to use Micro controllers to actuate a relay board and low voltage buttons on the actual panel. This allows me to remotely control everything that I would normally control on a DC/AC panel. What do you think? If you're interested more in the project Id be happy to tell more.

[@rudivandoornegat2371]

I don't know about Jeff, but I'm interested. Will you make a video on KZbin?

[@brianbuchanan5170]

Rewiring for distributed electrical distribution, such as CZone, is a massive undertaking, and one discussed by Neigil Calder. There are benefits of generally having lower voltage drop, less weight, and no mass of wire going to a single location resulting in a cleaner install. The work needs extremely high levels of detail, and you still the ability to access the remote breakers for maintenance or in case of failures. Yes, you still need breakers/fuses. In fact you need more fuses because you will fuse to each sub-panel and again leaving the sub-panel on individual branch circuits. That is two sets of wires that you need to properly size for. Depending on the model there might be usage notifications and warnings. Many units have dimming options, and each button is field programmable, including multi-function depending on the type of press (short, long, double). Brian - independent boater.

[@danedwards_ee]

@@brianbuchanan5170 Thanks for the reply! Okay so there is a commercial version already avaliable, cool. I'd be creating a DIY version of this along the same lines of CZone but using Home Assistant instead, allowing for more automation and control, but again, in a more DIY, but cheaper, way.

[@brianbuchanan5170]

@@danedwards_ee doing a DIY is possible and cheaper if you have the skills and design/fabricate your own boards. Here are some of the commercial offerings I found in my search last year. reviewing their documentation you might get some ideas on how to design/setup your system, along with inter-unit communication... possibly over a CANBus. Of these YachtDevices might be the closest to what I expect you are attempting to develop yourself. As these are new, and especially if home built, do check with your insurance company before proceeding. Never take on projects above your ability. 1) ETA - PowerPlex 2) Raymarine - EmpireBus 3) YachtDevices - CircuitControl 4) masterVolt - CZone 5) Maretron - MPower Brian - independent sailor.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Daniel, glad our content is resonating with you. keep us posted with your project.

[@rudivandoornegat2371]

Great content as always. Love this channel.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Much appreciated!

[@rbaillie99]

Thanks for another great video Jeff. Just a thought regarding larger DC loads such as refrigerators. I am assuming that it would be a good idea to turn off these loads when leaving the boat for long periods as they would likely drain the batteries excessively if shore power was lost.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Good point! Well said, i do exactly that.

[@mechanic2465]

Hello mr Cote, My boat is originally equipped with two group 27 flooded lead acid batteries I am going to upgrade to two group 31 AGM batteries because they will physically fit in the battery boxes and increase my capacity. Do you see a problem with taking up the space in the battery boxes that was originally there for boil over/ leakage? Thanks Charlie

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Do it. Many battery box are sized for both Group 27 and Group 31. No harm in putting a group 31 in that battery box.

[@williambunting803]

Have you done a session on protecting a lithium battery system from lightning strikes?

[@milkoberben2963]

Keep them at home under your bed 😉

[@williambunting803]

@@milkoberben2963 Thanks Milko, but hiding under the bed is not what we do. We had a good discussion on this at kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqbVfnptgK2XjZY and looked at it from a few different directions. My take away from it is to keep the lightning out of the boat altogether and there are ways to do that, but surge arrestor knowledge as applied to Lithium Systems would be useful.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Interesting topic. No practical experience on this yet. Anybody else have something to share on this topic?

[@williambunting803]

@@PacificYachtSystems This is a subject worthy of a conference because the problems of lightning strikes is only going to intensify with accelerating climate change (despite what the psychotic Republican fantasy position on the subject is). From a boat wiring point of view I think we are going to have to start installing a separate electrical power supply for the vital instrument systems on boats, an uninterrupted style power line shielded and heavily protected with surge suppression. The batteries for this might need to be inductively charged to give electrical separation, instruments might need an optic fiber data bus, and vital instrument nodes also might need inductive power isolation. We are going to have to do a study on Lithium battery management electronics to determine where the risks are for these. For those of us with existing older wiring looms we may need to add shielding (I have found retrofit wire mesh screens for this purpose) to looms where they pass near internal rigging anchor points and other structures where lightning might flow through the boat. It sounds like a lot but I suggest that a switched electronics business should be able to produce a module with an inductive power transfer and a section of electrically isolating optic fiber for data transmission (both digital and analogue) to be added into existing instrument lines such as sonar depth and bottom scanning nodes, wind instruments, radar, perhaps vhf aerials, and navigation instruments. Obviously we need some marine electronics manufacturer participation to solve this growing threat. I am certainly going to ask RayMarine for their advice before connecting up my new Instruments.

[@romeowhiskey1146]

Do you know of any device that would MONITOR SHORE POWER for interruptions and NOTIFY you (via WIFI).?

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Good question, don't think so. Anybody else can share on this?

[@robmitchell9513]

Late to the game here, but I use a cheap (50-60 dollars) power loss monitor from amazon. It works similar to an auto dialer and call out or email on power loss event, but requires WiFi. I couldn’t get it to work with my marinas WiFi so I put a small battery back up on my router and connected it to that. I’m sure there is even an easier way, but that’s what I came up with and it works for me

[@brianbuchanan5170]

Awesome.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Thanks!

[@javierbetancourt9388]

U don’t do work in Miami fl

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Short answer is no. PYS is based in Vancouver, BC.

[@donpetrey8007]

Ha ha check your boat daily. Cause guess what there expensive when the sink. When it snows and then rains it’s worse.

[@PacificYachtSystems]

Yep, lots of rain and snow as caused some boats to sink.