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Prevent electrical fires on your boat by watching this video and finding [music] out how. Whether you need a remote consultation design or perhaps inviting us aboard your boat, Pacific Yacht Systems is here to help. Check out the links in the description below. >> [music] >> Hi everyone, Jeff Cote here with Pacific Yacht Systems and we've got another installment of Tech Talk. So we've got a question from a fellow owner. Uh Lewis asks, "Jeff, I'm worried about electrical fires. How can I prevent them and what should I do to make sure it doesn't happen on my boat?" I think it's something that all of us should consider in the back of our mind. Not too fearful, but trying to mitigate. And the reality is that boats don't have a lot of exits and generally the exits don't make you land on land, no pun intended. You know, when you leave a a building that's on fire, a home that's on fire, uh you generally have multiple windows, multiple doors, and when you get out of the home, you're actually on land and you're pretty safe. But leaving a boat in the middle of the night because of an electrical fire and landing in the water is not really that great of an option. So prevention is even more important than on land. It doesn't happen all that often, but it certainly does happen and we certainly get to see it. We either are called on in an insurance claim or in a If it's a fire that wasn't too bad in the electrical refit from that fire. So how does electrical fires happen? Well, it all starts with actually inappropriate fusing. Fusing is this thing that can sometimes be sort of like laissez-faire and just done because it's like um it's one of these things you don't really ever need until you need it. So having the right type of fuse in the right location is essential. On land, there's just no way around it and it has to be done. And it has to be done the right way every time. On a boat, the challenge is that a lot of us will over time have different installers come on our boat. We'll have previous owners that have worked on the boat. And unbeknownst to them, they're making choices that they don't understand the implications of that choice. And so, it's essential as a boat owner to make sure that all the circuits on our boat are fused not just for the appliance, right? So, if you're installing a fan, it's not good enough to have a fuse just before the fan, but you want to have a fuse at the beginning of the circuit, right? So, from the breaker all the way to the fan. So, if it's powered directly from the batteries and there's no breaker, right? Because a breaker is not only an on-off, but it's also a device to actually trigger like over amperage, right? So, it could be a circuit breaker. If you're connecting any circuits that are going to the batteries directly or that you have on a circuit breaker, but you might have a fan on a circuit breaker and the circuit breaker is rated 5 amps, but the fan is only rated 2 amps, then you need to have a 5 amp breaker, then a 2 amp fuse, and then you need to have the fan at the end. So, making sure that you have the right fuse for the right appliance, and also, and this happens over time, is people end up changing the appliance, but not changing the wire. So, I've seen instances, for example, where someone is changing an inverter, and the inverter was 1,000 W, and they thought it wasn't sufficient, didn't run what they were looking for. They went to a store, a chandlery, they got a 2,000 W inverter, but they didn't change the wire. And the wire actually ended up melting. So, you want to make sure that the wire is appropriately sized for the load that you're going to ask. The next thing, too, is making sure that the wiring that you have on your boat, uh is rated for marine, and if ever it gets in in contact with oil or fuel, it's not going to disintegrate. Welding wire won't do that. Like, it's actually prone to the having the cabling itself, the jacket melt off. So, you definitely want to have make sure that the wiring is marine grade wiring on board your boat. But, fusing and wire size are essential. That's pretty much it. But, no exceptions. Other than one, your starter. So, every other circuit on your boat has to be properly fused, properly wired. And if you follow that rule, you won't get an electrical fire on your boat. And if you don't, which some of us unfortunately happen because of past installer or previous owner, some of us are going to get lucky and we're going to have an electrical fire on our boat. And I can tell you I've never lived it personally, but I've definitely heard first-hand stories. It's a traumatizing experience. Because generally it doesn't happen at the dock. So, prevention is the key. And that's why we're here at Pacific Yacht Systems to encourage all of us to do things properly, safely, without bravado, so that when we're out boating and we're boating recreationally, uh we just simply don't have those issues. If you're curious about how you keep your boat safe, in the description below we have a lots of links back to our website where we do a lot of articles and videos on this topic. And [music] uh geek out with me. Make sure your boat is safe for you and your family and for your guest. Thanks for watching and please don't forget to subscribe [music] and also like this video. Hey fellow boaters, we're going to be doing a lot more tech talk videos. If you've got any suggestions for future videos, leave them in the comments below. Once again, thank you for watching.