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[Music]  you  [Music]  okay all right so we're gonna go next  into inverters and I'm gonna for the  purpose of this section I'm gonna focus  a lot on just inverters only but it  would apply in some watts to inverter  charges as well there are distinctions  and it does make things a little bit  more complicated but we're going to  focus on inverters okay so inverter what  does an inverter do the inverter is  right here and you'll see what I'm  trying to distinguish is an AC panel  with non-inverter loads and an AC panel  with inverter loads there's a little bit  difference there's many ways of wiring  an inverter this is probably the most  popular weight most common way another  thing to that I want to emphasize is  notice how there's an inverter service  disconnect 90% of you that have an  inverter on your boat do not have that  switch why because no one read the  manual and because it will work without  it like your car does not need a seat  belt to bring you from A to B so  anything that is safety on a boat  generally that is done by a  do-it-yourself or previous owner is done  to the very least amount of effort  possible okay hence the code absolutely  stipulates that an inverter have a  service disconnect switch which is  different than the on and off button on  your inverter charger okay completely  different you need a battery switch you  need a device that can actually  disconnect your inverter from a power  and the reason is is because if you ever  go and actually touch your AC system and  change an AC outlet there's this  incredibly what was thought to be  beneficial feature that can be life  threatening your inverter has this mode  called load sense what is load sense  load sense is something that says if I  don't have a load let me shut myself off  you can on most inverters set what load  sense will be five Watts 50 Watts  whatever it is now you think you're  smarter you've got this  I will check if my inverters on you come  in with a little magic wand that you  bought at Home Depot you look around the  AC outlet No  'we see you're like the i knew it was  off i just confirmed it i'm gonna do  second thing I'm gonna put in a small  little plug the GFCI plug and I'm gonna  see if I've got power there the lights  don't light up done two methods  practically genius I got this right take  out the outlet now you're thinking my  inverter is off I told it to be off it  is off I'm good I checked  now you touch the hot in the neutral  your fingers is definitely more than  five watt load here goes Oh someone  wants us to invert suddenly the inverter  comes on and you get electrocuted now if  it was just being burnt honestly cuz  I've actually put my hand on a stovetop  when I was young  more than once it's okay you'll live you  know I mean like honestly you'll  probably live it's gonna hurt a lot but  you'll live but with AC it's more than  pain right it's the fact that it's  alternating currents right you could  literally die that's why you need a  inverter service disconnect okay so  absolutely essential honestly ninety  percent of you don't have one you just  don't because you don't need one you  don't need a seat belt to drive your car  and the owner that put the inverter on  board simply didn't read the manual  because an inverter manual no joke is  about 80 pages deep and anybody who  looks at an 80 page manual that's a book  it's a book takes time like it's a  commitment to read an inverter manual  and no one's gonna do that when they're  tasked with doing a project so make sure  that you have that alright so we're  gonna go in so what is yeah go ahead  yeah and and you know what and that's a  good point let me bring that let me  actually because this is  life-threatening right safety right like  I'm kind of crazy that way like I'm  always worried about safety I asked this  question I'm gonna ask the room if  you're going to play with your you're  gonna touch AC on your boat what would  be show of hands or tell me anybody in  the room what they would do before they  chained and out a change an outlet an AC  outlet on their boat anybody want to  take a guess of what you should do  before you change an AC outlet on your  boat  go ahead how do you disconnect what what  do you do to disconnect short power what  you would you do so you would actually  physically disconnect the cable anybody  have any other suggestion on how you  would do that  yeah would anyone be here satisfied with  just turning a breaker off on their boat  the AC panel breaker No No thank God yes  sometimes about 1% of people say that's  enough you're talking about your life  here like look like I mean things if you  go to boat things are pretty good like  let's be honest you want to keep it that  way  right like life ain't that bad like you  know it's not like you want to get out  like things are good so when you have  you're playing with AC you no one should  ever go oh I'm gonna trust an AC breaker  on my boat and I'm gonna disconnect it  and I'm gonna assume that a my AC  breaker that costs about ten dollars is  functioning properly because I'm willing  to risk my life for ten dollars no  you're gonna be like physically  disconnect first of all don't even leave  it at the pedestal coil it back put it  because someone could be walking beside  your bow of thinking oh look the cord  got disconnected let me be a good  neighbor reconnected again right no like  in the real world they have like service  disconnect they put lockouts there's a  tag like they go crazy because you can  die right we're talking about your life  so you disconnect the boat your problem  with your inverter is if you press that  little button off that little button  goes over a telephone wire to another  device that has to interpret that data  and say oh the owner told me to turn it  off now this is not like a nuclear  launch code left and right where there's  an authentication going back to the  remote are you sure yes did you confirm  yes it's off you're trusting a little  stupid little switch it's probably worth  5 cents with your life over a telephone  wire over a communications port that is  gonna basically listen to your cat man  it's almost like whispering inverter off  please like no that's not good enough  you need to disconnect your inverter  from DC power because when you  disconnect your inverter from DC power  the inverter can't make AC and it's not  my opinion it's in the bull  it's in a byc and here's the reason why  so you want to have an inverter service  disconnect okay all right so what does  an AC do on your boat an inverter you  know common things that you're gonna do  our microwave you're gonna do AC outlets  run a TV I've could be a vacuum it could  be anything right now there's no limit  to what you can do with inverters I have  a boater that has an inverter the size  of their runs the whole boat I'm talking  washing machine water maker I mean the  inverters like 16 kW I mean no problem  his inverter is literally off-grid it's  it's like a camp it's like our work camp  it's it's a full industrial inverter  most voters are not gonna do that those  borders have a reasonable size inverter  2,000 watts maybe a 4000 watt inverter  3000 watt a thousand watts and they're  gonna say what are the essential things  that I want to run off my inverter and  I'm gonna choose those things and  generally they're convenience items  though they're gonna run because  remember if you have a large inverter  you need a large battery bank right it's  easy to have a large low that's like  having a black Amex it's one thing to  have a black Amex you've got to pay the  bill that comes with it so I had another  owner Boehner he said to me says I want  a a kilowatt inverter I'm like okay all  right what are you gonna run with it had  no idea he's like I just want a big  inverter I'm like okay let's do that  sure if that's what you want doesn't  make any sense what about your battery  bank and the battery bank was literally  gonna be for golf cart batteries I'm  like no no you can't have literally an  inverter that needs twenty golf carts  and have only for like it they work  together so most people are choosing  reasonable loads to run off an inverter  reasonable loans so what does that look  like  right so you could have some boaters  have AC fridges only it's possible some  have dual purpose fridges they'll have a  fridge that's DC and AC but some  builders have AC fridges only household  French basically  big fridge but it does not power off  direct current it only works off  alternating current so they'll have a  fridge they'll have outlets a microwave  could be recharging power tools it could  be whatever and then off there  non-inverted load they're gonna have a  hot water tank a charger you would never  want a charger powered off an inverter  but I've seen it where the owner leer Li  would take power from the batteries to  create inverting power inverting power  would go to run a charger to recharge  the batteries and it was a vicious loop  that and the batteries not  coincidentally would die it within two  hours because you can't there's no such  thing as a da Vinci energy machine right  there's no endless energy source if you  take something and you convert it you  lose power there's a conversion power a  factor and everything all right so what  do you want to do when you're looking  for an inverter you definitely like a  charger marine model only absolutely  essential you have two black and white  no exceptions  I have not installed a modified sine  wave inverter on a boat in 12 years so  if you have one or you choose one ask  yourself why would I do that  they were great before a lot of us have  them on our boats they were affordable  but nowadays considering that most AC  loads that you are now running on a boat  are what are called inductive loads  there's really two types of AC loads  there's AC loads that are inductive and  resistive resistive loads a heater a  light bulb a toaster now how many of us  are gonna run heat off an inverter no  one a toaster sure but let's talk about  inductive loads a microwave power tools  a computer a TV and the espresso machine  coffee machine all those are inductive  loads so when you are buying an inverter  for your boat which inverter is most  likely one you need you need a true sine  wave inverter inductive loads need true  sine wave not that it won't work on a  modified sine wave it's just not going  to work well and the other big the huge  aspect is that old inverters  modify sine wave inverter are about 35%  inefficient so it's like going to the  bank and saying I want you as dollars in  exchange rate is let's say 1.3 the bank  adds 2 points on the conversion 3 points  this inverter at 35% so that's pretty  significant 35 percent to convert from  AC to DC or from DC to AC and so I have  tons of voters that come to us and say  Jeff for no reason alone I have an a/c  fridge on my boat to change that fridge  I have to literally disassemble the  fridge the boat was built around it it's  a massive deal and right now it's  running off an inverter that's  inefficient modified sine-wave it's less  money for me to buy a true sine wave  inverter than to change the fridge  because the fridge is sort of built or  the boats built around the fridge and so  I've changed inverters for no other  reason than going through sine wave and  for efficiency gain because remember  what I talked about with batteries  batteries are like money it's a very  rare thing for someone to ever say I  have too much batteries or I have too  much money they're very rare it happens  but very rarely and it's a limited thing  that it takes a lot meaning if you have  a lot of batteries then it's a lot to  recharge them away from shore power so  since it's a rare commodity you want to  be frugal and how you spend that energy  and you do that by having a  high-efficiency inverter okay the  ability to control it remotely to turn  it on and off is essential I've done a  whole another video on YouTube about  that about how do you use your inverter  charger but that's having the ability to  turn it on and off is really important  and you don't want to go in the engine  room or wherever it is analyzer at and  toggle a switch so most of them don't  come with the remote panel but it's I  always install an inverter with a remote  panel what are things by the way now  remember what I talked about a little  bit earlier and I said an inverter  charger or an inverter manual is around  80 pages a hundred pages guess how many  people read that manual practically none  nobody it's crazy  who would do that the inverter to your  question in the back comes with just an  inverter it's like a night  keya table that only comes with a table  no legs no chairs no nothing like it's  not even the whole table it's just the  tabletop and people then look at this  they look at the manual but the manual  side away and then they're going let me  prove to myself that I am capable of  doing something without instruction and  they install the inverter and they put  no fuse no inverter disconnect no  chassis ground small wire and generally  also they don't read the manuals so they  put the inverter which is non ignition  protected in a gasoline engine room I  mean the strike rate on inverters the  number of inverters I've ever seen  properly installed it's probably less  than one or two percent it is the most  epic failure of all time on any boat is  an inverter because the manual is just  simply too intimidating and everyone  simply wants to get it done so 98% of  you have inverters that it's at least  missing one of these things and all of  those things are not my opinion they're  in the manual and the manuals never  haven't probably been open so absolutely  essential that you have a fuse on the  inverter that you have a DC service  disconnect that you have a chassis  ground and then the wire size is made to  handle the inverter a lot of times what  happens is they have an inverted a  thousand Watts and they're like oh great  I'm gonna change the 2000 and they just  change the inverter they don't look at  the wiring because it's just simply  gonna work you can't do that  unfortunately remember another rule at  the beginning nothing's ever easy that's  rule number one  nothing is ever easy all the time  there's always implications of a  decision I want to reiterate an inverter  unlike a charger chargers many of them  are ignition protected and can be  installed in a gasoline engine room  inverters there is no such thing I  cannot tell you how many inverters I've  seen in a power boat gasoline engines in  the engine room they replace the charger  assume that a charger and an inverter  charger are the same they are not and  now they have a non ignition protected  device in an engine room and I I want to  emphasize builders of boats go to great  lengths to make an engine room  ignition protected on a gasoline boat  like I'm talking not a couple dollars  stupid to make sure that whole engine  room is vapor proof in case of a  gasoline leak the moment you put in a  automotive alternator in there that's  not initially protected or a inverter  charger that is non ignition protected  you defeated tens of thousands dollars  of effort to make that engine room vapor  proof okay so recap this is basically  what you're looking at it's very  essential to be conscientious about  what's going to run on your inverter  right it's not about bigger it's about  what am I trying to do with my inverter  and doing the inverter loads that are  going to be running off the inverter so  opening the floor to some questions  about inverters anybody have any  questions yeah go ahead absolutely the  question is when you buy an inverter  charger and for instance it's 2 K 2 K  means 2,000 watts inverter and the  charger what is going to be the charger  the charger on a 2000 watt inverter is  generally going to be pretty much 80  amps or on someone's a hundred your  inverter can draw a lot more than 100  amps on a 2000 watt inverter the fuse  are actually on a 2000 watt inverter is  a 300 amp use so it can actually pull up  to 300 amps and it can only give up to  100 so the question is no problem the  charger will be able to charge on the  same wires that was pulling 300 no  problem whatsoever that is actually a  common thing that we end up doing with  other boaters is saying people might not  care so much about a large inverter on  their boat certainly I was one of them  don't really care about it it's nice to  have but not necessary I wanted a large  charter so my inverter on my boat is  2,000 watts and it comes with a hundred  amp charger and I really bought it for  the hundred amp charger because it's an  affordable way of buying a hundred amp  charger to buy just a charger 100 amps  is the same amount of money to buy an  inverter charger 400 amps  and the reason is there's simply more  inverter chargers that are sold it's a  more commonly used item than a hundred  amp charger 109 Chargers are expensive  and about the same price as a 2000 watt  inverter charger that comes with a  hundred amp charger so a lot of times  we'll put in a large inverter not  because the motor wants a large inverter  but because they want a large charger  any other questions on inverters  yeah go ahead no the smaller ones don't  you want to you want to have the breaker  feeding like the switch small inverters  like 300 watt 800 watt let's say don't  have remote panels remote panels only go  minimum a thousand and above yeah it's a  proportion the larger the inverter the  larger the idle draw is and so a small  inverter like on my boat I have two  inverters I have a large one that I  never really use and I have a 300 watt  that I use all the time my 300 watt  inverter on my boat is left 24/7 when  I'm cruising I just have it there  anybody want to plug in a phone charger  laptop whatever it is this kind of like  small little appliance just plugs into a  you know I have an outlet just for that  and it's 24/7 my large inverter is a  manual process like if we need to run  the large inverter I'm actually gonna on  the remote panel for the inverter  charger turning on and off yeah you  probably ideally yes yeah ideally yes  but it's those inverters yeah ideally  yes but it's not so big a deal because  if it's a small inverter proportionally  the idle draw is not as big if you have  a 3000 watt inverter that's just on in  the background that's bigger of an issue  yes question in the back yeah the the  big issue is actually well there's a  couple of things marine inverters for  one are gonna automatically especially  inverter chargers and this is a big  issue inverter Chargers marine inverted  Chargers are going to be disconnecting  the  and the neutral and connecting it  depending if it's on inverter or non  inverter mode it's I could do a whole  two-hour thing on this but there is a  real difference and the problem is when  you ground if their ground is  permanently tied to your neutral and  it's not a source of power the  implications for galvanic Straker and  corrosion are significantly higher and  that's why you don't want that because a  marine inverter will actually you'll  hear a click and it actually when you  enable the inverter it's actually  grounding the neutral and the ground  together because it now becomes a source  of power and as soon as you disable it  it actually opens the circuit just trust  me on it I mean I don't want to get too  crazy but just by marine there's a  reason it's not a get it's not a gimmick  yes yeah five huge I mean think about  like I I didn't when we grew up our  family was very frugal my mother acted  like she didn't live the Great  Depression but she acted like we did so  it was crazy like it was money was  always something she worried about and I  when I think about boating I actually  kind of live by her way on the water  because you just simply don't have  enough power on a boat you need to  constantly be making decisions about  turning things on and off being moderate  with your usage because it even though  you might have a large battery bank it's  just so hard to make energy to restore  that in a battery unless you have a boat  that has generators then it makes sums a  little easier right I mean you've got  generators but for boaters that don't  have a generator and you only have an  alternator recharge your batteries it  can be a challenge to get everything so  that mindset of being frugal and  thinking about efficiency matters when  you have not a lot of money it really  does and that's mindset I use on my own  boat as all the time any other questions  on inverters yes  yeah that's different yeah because  you're not integrating with anything  else yeah yeah their little plug in 12  volt cigarette but also remember it  sounds silly but that 12 volt cigarette  lighter can be wired with 14 gauge wire  I've seen it 16 18 gauge wire 18 gauge  wires probably like a hair strand like I  mean it is tiny it is not even spaghetti  it's like yeah I mean it's nothing I  mean if you didn't have a shield on it  like you may is it there like you would  even see it i see 12 volt cigarette  lighters literally wired because an  owner a lot of us are energy efficient  trying to save money anyway well why  would I buy a big wire that's 14 cents a  foot when I can buy one for eight cents  a foot it's a four foot run I'm gonna  save six cents for four feet that's  twenty four that's almost a quarter I'm  gonna go with an 18 gauge wire I cannot  tell you how many 12 volts cigarette  lighters I've seen wired under wired and  then people come in literally with a  large 300 watt can you entire and they  plug it in assuming that I someone that  is always wearing is wiring everything  for all permutations the person who put  that 12 volt cigarette lighter didn't  worry about anything they're just kind  of lace links to this whole you know lay  well whatever it happens I'm only  charging my phone but then the next  person comes in and they're charging  they're using an inverter not unlike an  iPad but literally a 300 watt inverter  so that's the thing assumptions get you  in trouble on a boat I've seen wires  melt it's so deep so crazy like they're  charcoal that's like like I'm like oh my  god you almost lost your boat they're  like oh my god I like ya because people  take shortcuts yes  that is an inverter  yeah that that's anything that converts  DC to AC is an inverter there's tiny  ones there's nothing wrong with that  it's you buy an inverter for the loads  right give you the exact example I had  another boater changed three Nespresso  machines three on a modified sine-wave  one Nespresso makes a terrible product  how frustrating and it's a huge  inconvenience right the owner thinks  next brings it back blows again this is  ridiculous like this is crap like what  the hell third time oh I'm not that  unlucky we get an electrical audit sure  enough running modified sine wave  inverter on a Nespresso machine which is  an inductive load can't do it change the  true sine wave no problem right so a lot  of times looking inward right why would  that happen  am i unlucky or is it something on my  boat it's easy to blame others but it  doesn't solve your problem right it's  always looking inward yes yeah it's good  if it's true sine wave it's gonna say on  top of it guaranteed and if it's  anything not well not you could always  take a picture if you're wondering send  me an email  I'll tell you right away or look up the  model but most of them will brag about  being true sine wave it's like there's  no such thing as an AGM battery doesn't  say AGM on it like you know it's not  Mercedes doesn't build cars without  their sign on the car like you know it's  a Mercedes they're like the logos huge I  want everyone to know the quality  thereby nobody builds an AGM and says oh  let's hide it from people in charge  twice the price and anybody who's buy as  a battery that has caps on it but has  the sticker a GM that weighs half the  battery  I had another voter bought a battery  deal from the trunk of a car great  smoking deal half the weight  it's an AGM battery with vent caps and  it's an eight D and it was like crazy  price well you buy it this guy's got a  car it looks just right out of the car  he's got no overhead just goes right  it out is like direct from the  manufacturer amazing oh my no you no no  no sorry sorry buddy there's no such  thing as a let app AGM battery that has  actually maintenance caps and if it has  to wait it's half the battery like  there's no such thing as a miracle  half weight lead acid battery like  you're buying lead if it's half the  weight you got half the battery I don't  care it's in a big case it just doesn't  work like that so there's no such thing  again is too good to be true  like I mean that's a good adage right on  a boat too good to be true it probably  is  okay other questions before we dive in  under something else  you