I just watched your series of basic electrical and I have to say that after doing this for about 35 years that is the best seminar I have ever witnessed congratulations
How this series doesn’t have 100,000 views I have no idea. Just binge watched the whole series. I’ve been looking for this info for a year and this came along just in time. I will be in touch.
The visuals of what NOT to do were excellent... I learned plenty (too much for my brain to absorb LOL) but I took plenty of notes and will be rewatching. Thank you for sharing.
I have been a electric powered forklift mechanic for 35 years with heavy experience repairing, diagnosing, rewiring, component installs and wiring from scratch. I will never stop learning and I was aware that wiring on a boat would have some different elements that I would need to be aware of and was I right, after watching this introductory series I am even more convinced that I am not ready to take on the various tasks required to make my boats wiring dependable. I will continue to learn under your tutelage and others as information and knowledge is key. Thank you for this informative introduction series.
Jeff - I watched all six episodes and learned quite a bit from each one. I too have an engineering degree, but much of the information you covered was never touched on during my years in college. Your demonstrations of the placing the fuse at various points in the system were truly outstanding...... and taught me that I've got some rewiring to do on my boat this winter! Thanks again for sharing your course.
As a total beginner with a yacht rebuild looming I found this very informative and well presented. Thanks for putting this out and I'll be watching the rest !
Boat + owner = Bowner. Thanks for the lessons and the laughs. As a new boat owner with almost no experience with electrical, this was a fantastic starting point.
Fantastic introduction Jeff! Watched all six videos and learned a lot, esp. the differences with land electrical work and the new safety concerns that carries. I’ll look into the extended series. Thank you for putting this seminar together and opening it to the world via YT.
Just watched all 6 episodes, thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge. I've wired a few houses over the years but really appreciate the differences with DC systems and the safety pitfalls on boats now more than ever. It's good to be reminded the more we understand the more we realize we don't know. I look forward to more videos in the future.
You are an outstanding instructor. Very clear organized presentations that bring you through the material beautifully. I am incredibly grateful for your series! We are about to begin a complete overhaul of our Cape Dory 36- new instruments will be laid down on a new electrical system thanks to you. I think we have watched it 3-4 times learning and understanding things so much better each time.
When you aggregate multiple solar panels , and you have one controller per panel, I assume it’s good to have controllers as close to entry point below deck and then aggregate output from controllers into 1 feed to battery bank?
This Is very informative. Thanks so much for putting this out to the general public. As a beginner I have learned so much. Thanks again. You are awesome.
He's like Richard Rawlings, only knowledgeable! Awesome series, much appreciated. Boat owners' risk assessment is puzzling to me. If you are on a boat and something really bad happens in your wiring, you can't just coast on to the shoulder, put the hazards on and call a rescue service. You can't even be outside your vehicle while trying to put the fire out. You're in an egg shell, that is ALL that's between you and the abyss and this is where boat owners choose to SAVE MONEY on wiring? "Insane" doesn't even begin to cover it.
Thanks Jeff I just watched all six episodes and took lots of notes in my iPad including lots of to do’s, to find out, and to check. I realized today that I was told in the shop that I was buying AGM batteries, and set up the charger accordingly, they died. A friend told me last week that they look like standard flooded lead acid. I’ll adjust the charger today after you raised this, which I had forgotten. This is an excellent series, and has inspired me to read more and study my system. Thanks. Have you worked with Nigel Calder’s ‘Integral’ alternator/ smart generator which seems to be a game changer? Any view to share?
I'm in the research phase right now,, in boat buying(I'm very new to this) . I've watched several of your videos and the information is awesome. I don't know how much I'll retain, but I took many pages of notes. Keep the great info coming and I'll keep watching. P.S.. what's your take on Serial Hybrid Electric/Diesel engines for saving on fuel while motoring a 50+ foot boat ?
Thanks for the feedback Steven, glad we are helping you on your journey. Unfortunately don't have enough experience to comment on the hybrid electrical and diesel setups, sounds promising but unsure of the unknown implications.
In part 6, you mention that a boat battery (dc electric system) not grounded to water is ungrounded or a floating ground. How does this apply to a "plastic" (ie. fiberglass) boat with an outboard motor. Most of these have no grounding plate or direct ground to water. The motor is grounded to the battery and it appears the battery is ground. Thank you.
Watched all 6 hours - a ton if valuable info here. Jeff, you're a great presenter. I'll be going back to review segments when I begin to re-wire my Watkins 27. In the meantime, I'll check the expiration date on my fire extinguisher! lol Thanks so much!
Very informative thank you! Any chance of a talk about electrolysis protection and the importance of grounding? And just for fun, lightning “protection”, is there such a thing on a yacht?
I have just watched all six of the series; excellent work. One suggestions, and one request. The way around the 'viewer can't hear the question' problem is to summarise the question briefly as soon as you have heard it; I run workshops and we have to do this all the time (for the other participants). You can do the same, and it will help these YT videos immensely. My request is that you consider making a pay-to-watch instructional series, too: I would pay. In fact I have been looking for an intensive marine 12V course anywhere in the world and I can't fine one-so online, while not as good, is a decent substitute. I need to know how to do an electrical audit and how to fix the inevitable shortcomings. Happy to discuss (I have a Vimeo on Demand channel that does this kind of thing, but in my field). Thanks again.
Hi Kit, your absolutely right about the questions. Learning and trying to be a better presenter, definitely a journey. Thanks for the feedback. Currently launching a 33 part episode on marine electrical, hopefully this provides more in depth info for the some of us that want to know more about marine electrical.
@@PacificYachtSystems yes as I already knew most of the stuff but its nice to take a refresher course as the most important thing I learned from this that I did not already know is the new colour code standards with yellow being the new negative colour for dc. Makes sense and looking forward to watching the rest of your video's. Cheers!
I'm in Brazil and just watched all 6 episodes, the thing is that I bought a catamaran in Sain Lucie, Fl and I don't want to make those mistakes, do you know anybody in that area that would understand everything that you showed us and that he could do my boat? BTW great course, thank you very much.
Hi Maddio, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, being based in the Northwest, don't have opportunity to work and know marine electrical outfits in Florida.
The course is very useful. It gives an amount of technical elemnts to learn and many tips based on professional experience. If you miss a step because the matter is complicated, you can work it out on your own as the instructor have given all the necessary knowledge, even if sometimes it is implicit. It would be super great if you could upload some practical videos. How to do this, how to do that. For example how to check if the system of your boat is ok? supposing that you are chartering it. Thanks a lot!
Good question but don't know the answer. Battery capacity is measured in amp-hours at C20 rating. To stay consistent, we too talk about power consumption and capacity in amp-hours.
Wow I just watched all 6 parts and Now I know I have to rewire my 16ft alum fishing boat!! very helpful video. I want it done right and I should know better, Im a fork lift mechanic.
Good stuff. I'd say that when you inherit a boat or even an old house you should be suspicious of everything including wire colors. I've been electrocuted once or twice before the advent of the chicken stick due to questionable wiring practice. My favorite example when telling people to be sure is my mom's house which was built before they metered electricity. Someone failed to run all the power through the meter and so even with the meter pulled some of the very old (knob and tube) circuits were still hot. I also have a comment on the DC ground. The ground plane is relative to the battery positive. The body of water you are sitting in is relative to nothing. Adding some connection to the water will not provide a better scenario in terms of power or safety. The reason the engine is grounded is happenstance related to the automotive origins and the starter. Consider a car which has no connection to the ground underneath it or electronics which strive to not be connected to the chassis to keep the DC clean. AC power on land wants the ground and the system is regularly grounded to the earth which acts as a ground plane. Even so there are still isolated ground AC circuits where the ground, say on conduit, is kept separate from the ground wire. The issue is that there is generally noise from RF that generates a delta between the neutral's idea of ground and a bare wire ground in conduit and this can create issues. In such systems I have seen as much as 40 volts of delta. Once we get back to the panel everything is tied back together and run to ground via the same cable. On a boat that is not in a marina AC power is a self contained system where the hot/neutral/ground are relative to the source which is contained on the boat. When you get to the marina and use shore power then the ground is relative to the earth. I guess my other comment is land based electricians for sure care about voltage drop and distance. If you are going more than 50' you will up-size the cable. The difference is the distances are much further which is also why large buildings, e.g. a factory, run high voltage e.g. 480V v.s. 240 and also use 3-phase v.s. split phase.
I am learning a lot with these presentations, just disagree in two instances: Voltage should represent the speed of the electron across a conductor; W=VxA, volume = circumference (A) x distance(V). When a wire is feeding a load and its resistance is increased, the Voltage drops; the load will continue to demand the same Wattage for the work being executed, therefore the current demand will increase.
I watched all 6 and now I’m too scared to work on my boat. Lol. I’ve hired a proper marine electrician to come out and do a full audit, but find myself wondering if I’ll ever be comfortable doing anything on my own.
I just want to say that i am from europe and loved these 6 videos, especially the video of the burning up cable had my attention, never actually realised the amount of smoke. Actually what i missed is a lesson about shore power, i am on a boat which cannot connect to shore power due to tripping out of the residual current device on the shore and our electrician cannot find the cause on the ship, tried to disconnect several grounding cable from generator and main panel but to no avail. Thinking about mounting now a transformer between shore and main panel...
Careful with installing a transformer in order to isolate your boat. There is a reason the RCD trips and i know it's tedious and tiring to troubleshoot this but for your own safety the time is well spent. The RCD is supposed to protect us from getting electrocuted :)
Good point about colour standards between various countries. Before endeavouring to tackle an electrical project on your boat make sure you know the color code of where the vessel was built. For instance, in North America, we often work on boats built in Germany and France and we need to know the codes before working on foreign vessel.
That notwithstanding your series is excellent and the principals universal. I envy your depth of understanding and I am very grateful that you have taken the effort to share in this way. Thank you again.
I just watched your series of basic electrical and I have to say that after doing this for about 35 years that is the best seminar I have ever witnessed congratulations
Thanks Jim, really appreciate it.
Awesome , went back to my boat electrician got him to redo works at his expense after learning the content
Glad we could help.
How this series doesn’t have 100,000 views I have no idea. Just binge watched the whole series. I’ve been looking for this info for a year and this came along just in time. I will be in touch.
We are so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for commenting.
Thank you!
The visuals of what NOT to do were excellent...
I learned plenty (too much for my brain to absorb LOL) but I took plenty of notes and will be rewatching. Thank you for sharing.
I have been a electric powered forklift mechanic for 35 years with heavy experience repairing, diagnosing, rewiring, component installs and wiring from scratch. I will never stop learning and I was aware that wiring on a boat would have some different elements that I would need to be aware of and was I right, after watching this introductory series I am even more convinced that I am not ready to take on the various tasks required to make my boats wiring dependable. I will continue to learn under your tutelage and others as information and knowledge is key. Thank you for this informative introduction series.
Thanks for the input, life like boating is a journey, as cheesy as this sounds, there is always room to improve ourselves.
Jeff - I watched all six episodes and learned quite a bit from each one. I too have an engineering degree, but much of the information you covered was never touched on during my years in college. Your demonstrations of the placing the fuse at various points in the system were truly outstanding...... and taught me that I've got some rewiring to do on my boat this winter! Thanks again for sharing your course.
Thanks David, Appreciate the feedback and encourages me to keep sharing content to fellow boaters.
As a total beginner with a yacht rebuild looming I found this very informative and well presented. Thanks for putting this out and I'll be watching the rest !
Thanks Steve.
Sincerely one of the best series I have ever watched on electrical on boats. Thank you for sharing this.
Wow, thank you!
Super good 6 parts. It moved quick for 6 hours. I watched start to finish. Nice work!
Me too! My wife thinks I am nuts.
Boat + owner = Bowner. Thanks for the lessons and the laughs. As a new boat owner with almost no experience with electrical, this was a fantastic starting point.
Fantastic introduction Jeff! Watched all six videos and learned a lot, esp. the differences with land electrical work and the new safety concerns that carries. I’ll look into the extended series. Thank you for putting this seminar together and opening it to the world via YT.
Thanks threemr01.
I must say ,what a fountain of knowledge. Thanks.good stuff.
Glad it was helpful!
I never knew I knew so little about batteries. Many thanks for the lecture, very, very informative.
Wish you guys were on the east coast, US. Thanks for the classes!
We appreciate you watching, John. Thrilled to know the videos have been helpful to you!
Just watched all 6 episodes, thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge. I've wired a few houses over the years but really appreciate the differences with DC systems and the safety pitfalls on boats now more than ever. It's good to be reminded the more we understand the more we realize we don't know. I look forward to more videos in the future.
Many thanks for sharing this seminar.
Our pleasure!
You are an outstanding instructor. Very clear organized presentations that bring you through the material beautifully. I am incredibly grateful for your series! We are about to begin a complete overhaul of our Cape Dory 36- new instruments will be laid down on a new electrical system thanks to you. I think we have watched it 3-4 times learning and understanding things so much better each time.
Jeff. Rainy day here so I watched the whole series. Very well done. Thank you for sharing.
When you aggregate multiple solar panels , and you have one controller per panel, I assume it’s good to have controllers as close to entry point below deck and then aggregate output from controllers into 1 feed to battery bank?
Very interesting, informative and helpful. Thanks for posting!
My pleasure!
This Is very informative. Thanks so much for putting this out to the general public. As a beginner I have learned so much. Thanks again. You are awesome.
I’m Dying the quote if you “Good and Chinese don’t go together” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I watched all 6 and it very easy to get a grasp of all the info I can't wait for the next series.
Thank you for the feedback!
Really valuable info and explained clearly. Thanks very much for posting this and your other videos and on behalf of my boat...thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Very happy that I came across this series. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!
He's like Richard Rawlings, only knowledgeable! Awesome series, much appreciated. Boat owners' risk assessment is puzzling to me. If you are on a boat and something really bad happens in your wiring, you can't just coast on to the shoulder, put the hazards on and call a rescue service. You can't even be outside your vehicle while trying to put the fire out. You're in an egg shell, that is ALL that's between you and the abyss and this is where boat owners choose to SAVE MONEY on wiring? "Insane" doesn't even begin to cover it.
Hi Alf, you and I think alike on this. Why take a chance with marine electrical, it's so counter intuitive.
@@PacificYachtSystems I'm fixing some issues in an aluminium boat today. 2x 12V 100Ah, Two 2 meter, 50mm2 cable runs. No main fuses... Oh joy.
Thanks Jeff I just watched all six episodes and took lots of notes in my iPad including lots of to do’s, to find out, and to check. I realized today that I was told in the shop that I was buying AGM batteries, and set up the charger accordingly, they died. A friend told me last week that they look like standard flooded lead acid. I’ll adjust the charger today after you raised this, which I had forgotten.
This is an excellent series, and has inspired me to read more and study my system. Thanks.
Have you worked with Nigel Calder’s ‘Integral’ alternator/ smart generator which seems to be a game changer? Any view to share?
I'm in the research phase right now,, in boat buying(I'm very new to this) . I've watched several of your videos and the information is awesome. I don't know how much I'll retain, but I took many pages of notes. Keep the great info coming and I'll keep watching.
P.S.. what's your take on Serial Hybrid Electric/Diesel engines for saving on fuel while motoring a 50+ foot boat ?
Thanks for the feedback Steven, glad we are helping you on your journey.
Unfortunately don't have enough experience to comment on the hybrid electrical and diesel setups, sounds promising but unsure of the unknown implications.
In part 6, you mention that a boat battery (dc electric system) not grounded to water is ungrounded or a floating ground. How does this apply to a "plastic" (ie. fiberglass) boat with an outboard motor. Most of these have no grounding plate or direct ground to water. The motor is grounded to the battery and it appears the battery is ground. Thank you.
Watched all 6 hours - a ton if valuable info here. Jeff, you're a great presenter. I'll be going back to review segments when I begin to re-wire my Watkins 27. In the meantime, I'll check the expiration date on my fire extinguisher! lol Thanks so much!
Very informative thank you! Any chance of a talk about electrolysis protection and the importance of grounding? And just for fun, lightning “protection”, is there such a thing on a yacht?
Great idea. We will add it to our list.
Have your thoughts on lithium changed over the 6 years?
I have just watched all six of the series; excellent work. One suggestions, and one request. The way around the 'viewer can't hear the question' problem is to summarise the question briefly as soon as you have heard it; I run workshops and we have to do this all the time (for the other participants). You can do the same, and it will help these YT videos immensely.
My request is that you consider making a pay-to-watch instructional series, too: I would pay. In fact I have been looking for an intensive marine 12V course anywhere in the world and I can't fine one-so online, while not as good, is a decent substitute. I need to know how to do an electrical audit and how to fix the inevitable shortcomings. Happy to discuss (I have a Vimeo on Demand channel that does this kind of thing, but in my field). Thanks again.
Hi Kit, your absolutely right about the questions. Learning and trying to be a better presenter, definitely a journey. Thanks for the feedback. Currently launching a 33 part episode on marine electrical, hopefully this provides more in depth info for the some of us that want to know more about marine electrical.
@@PacificYachtSystems PLEASE let me know when this is available; I just subscribed to the PYS newsletter, too.
Great series made awesome with the trivia at the end. Great job. Just remember to have a microphone for the audience questions for next time.
Thank you for the recommendation.
thanks for your efforts and taking your time to record and post this info
You are very welcome.
Jeff, thank you so very much for your eye opening talks! Is there any way you can post a video - walk around through your boat?
Thanks for the suggestion we’ll try to include my own vessel into one of our video productions.
Great series. Thank you!
Well done presentations I'm one of the 15% that watched them all
Hi Jason, some of us do like to geek out on marine electrical systems.
@@PacificYachtSystems yes as I already knew most of the stuff but its nice to take a refresher course as the most important thing I learned from this that I did not already know is the new colour code standards with yellow being the new negative colour for dc. Makes sense and looking forward to watching the rest of your video's.
Cheers!
Such Great videos and advice.. Thank you very much! Cheers!
Glad you like them!
Do you have a recommended reading list something you can get out of the library
Read Nigel Calder's Electrical and Mechanical Handbook, its simply awesome.
I'm in Brazil and just watched all 6 episodes, the thing is that I bought a catamaran in Sain Lucie, Fl and I don't want to make those mistakes, do you know anybody in that area that would understand everything that you showed us and that he could do my boat?
BTW great course, thank you very much.
Hi Maddio, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, being based in the Northwest, don't have opportunity to work and know marine electrical outfits in Florida.
Just Catamarans in fort Lauderdale. Look it up online. Mention Lomo if you want little bit discounts. Good luck3
Made it the whole way through. Very informative! Thank you very much!
Excellent, thanks , we are buying a boat now and this has given me some good tips
The course is very useful. It gives an amount of technical elemnts to learn and many tips based on professional experience. If you miss a step because the matter is complicated, you can work it out on your own as the instructor have given all the necessary knowledge, even if sometimes it is implicit. It would be super great if you could upload some practical videos. How to do this, how to do that. For example how to check if the system of your boat is ok? supposing that you are chartering it. Thanks a lot!
Great recommendation - we will add it to our list of videos to shoot!
Thanks Jeff ,great series! What is the name of the book you are referring to throughout all episodes?
There is al lot of talk about amp hours. Are they 12v amp hours?
Why not use watt hour's?
Good question but don't know the answer. Battery capacity is measured in amp-hours at C20 rating. To stay consistent, we too talk about power consumption and capacity in amp-hours.
Jeff, amazing seminar, clar and didactic. Thanks so much.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback. Inspires me to keep posting new content.
excellent series - learnt so much !
oh sorry - just one request - for the sake of the videos please repeat the audience questions so we can hear them through the mike.
Thank you for the feedback.
Wow I just watched all 6 parts and Now I know I have to rewire my 16ft alum fishing boat!! very helpful video. I want it done right and I should know better, Im a fork lift mechanic.
amazing, super informative, thank you for sharing this 6 videos...
Jeff, you're an awesome teacher
Thank you!
thank you for the education Jeff
Very informative....
Glad you liked it
Great job. Thank you.
Flying boats! Yessss!
Finally.
Good stuff. I'd say that when you inherit a boat or even an old house you should be suspicious of everything including wire colors. I've been electrocuted once or twice before the advent of the chicken stick due to questionable wiring practice. My favorite example when telling people to be sure is my mom's house which was built before they metered electricity. Someone failed to run all the power through the meter and so even with the meter pulled some of the very old (knob and tube) circuits were still hot.
I also have a comment on the DC ground. The ground plane is relative to the battery positive. The body of water you are sitting in is relative to nothing. Adding some connection to the water will not provide a better scenario in terms of power or safety. The reason the engine is grounded is happenstance related to the automotive origins and the starter. Consider a car which has no connection to the ground underneath it or electronics which strive to not be connected to the chassis to keep the DC clean.
AC power on land wants the ground and the system is regularly grounded to the earth which acts as a ground plane. Even so there are still isolated ground AC circuits where the ground, say on conduit, is kept separate from the ground wire. The issue is that there is generally noise from RF that generates a delta between the neutral's idea of ground and a bare wire ground in conduit and this can create issues. In such systems I have seen as much as 40 volts of delta. Once we get back to the panel everything is tied back together and run to ground via the same cable.
On a boat that is not in a marina AC power is a self contained system where the hot/neutral/ground are relative to the source which is contained on the boat. When you get to the marina and use shore power then the ground is relative to the earth.
I guess my other comment is land based electricians for sure care about voltage drop and distance. If you are going more than 50' you will up-size the cable. The difference is the distances are much further which is also why large buildings, e.g. a factory, run high voltage e.g. 480V v.s. 240 and also use 3-phase v.s. split phase.
I am learning a lot with these presentations, just disagree in two instances:
Voltage should represent the speed of the electron across a conductor; W=VxA, volume = circumference (A) x distance(V).
When a wire is feeding a load and its resistance is increased, the Voltage drops; the load will continue to demand the same Wattage for the work being executed, therefore the current demand will increase.
I watched all 6 and now I’m too scared to work on my boat. Lol. I’ve hired a proper marine electrician to come out and do a full audit, but find myself wondering if I’ll ever be comfortable doing anything on my own.
I just want to say that i am from europe and loved these 6 videos, especially the video of the burning up cable had my attention, never actually realised the amount of smoke. Actually what i missed is a lesson about shore power, i am on a boat which cannot connect to shore power due to tripping out of the residual current device on the shore and our electrician cannot find the cause on the ship, tried to disconnect several grounding cable from generator and main panel but to no avail. Thinking about mounting now a transformer between shore and main panel...
Careful with installing a transformer in order to isolate your boat. There is a reason the RCD trips and i know it's tedious and tiring to troubleshoot this but for your own safety the time is well spent. The RCD is supposed to protect us from getting electrocuted :)
Flexible sake output 5 years I call majorly bullshit. Even with the highest quality flexible can't claim that
Still stuck rereading your post... can you please rephrase for me... not sure what is "bullshit"... thanks.
PS... Your wiring colours make no sense in England... 😄
Good point about colour standards between various countries. Before endeavouring to tackle an electrical project on your boat make sure you know the color code of where the vessel was built. For instance, in North America, we often work on boats built in Germany and France and we need to know the codes before working on foreign vessel.
That notwithstanding your series is excellent and the principals universal. I envy your depth of understanding and I am very grateful that you have taken the effort to share in this way. Thank you again.