Boat Electrical Systems, First Steps - Episode 194 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat
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- Опубликовано: 30 дек 2021
- Gratitude to Bluetti for sending along this unit and solar panels for us to test in the shop. See details for the AC200 Max: bit.ly/3pr9XK0
THERE'S A VIDEO EVERY DAY THIS WEEKEND. SUBSCRIBE! DON'T MISS THEM.
Prepare to nerd out about some of the specifics of our impending electrical system! Carolyn's drawing, printed in an enlarged version, serves as Steve's handy mapping tool for what will be the power system for the Arabella. Our two biggest power draws, as of now, will be the refrigerator, the watermaker, and any video-making equipment we have on board.
We're testing out a complete, enclosed battery system for use on and off the boat. Steve (and all of us here, in fact) have relied on some kind of enclosed reliable power supply, some equipped with an inverter and some with attached solar panels, to have the adventures we've had on land and water. Since the get-go, Steve has been wondering if there's something out there that could take the place of a pieced-together system of batteries, inverter, solar controller, solar panels, etc. powerful enough to take care of, say, guests' phones, power tools at the bench, or even the entire house needs of Arabella. We started to test one that was made for off-grid self-reliance.
We're going with conduit and bus bars in junction boxes for the tinned wire we'll be running throughout Arabella for the 12V electrical system, and Steve gets to demonstrating what he's gotten so far for equipment and what that will mean as far as the installation goes. As with everything else, we're trying to make repairs easily done and future upgrades easy to install.
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Acorn to Arabella is a boat building project taking place in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve and Alix started as amateur boat builders building a 38' wooden boat in Steve's backyard: designer William Atkin's Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel's gaff rig. These videos follow the journey from tree felling, to lumber milling, to lofting, to the lead keel pour and beyond-sharing details of the woodworking, carpentry, metal smithing, tool building, and tool maintenance that wooden boats command. This ultimate DIY project will continue well past launch, when they will travel and learn to cruise aboard the boat that they've built. Just kidding about all that, this channel is about a Siberian Laika named Akiva.
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Two bonus videos this weekend! Going live at 7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, tune in for a visit aboard Calypso, a look at the refrigeration system, anchoring gear, and a neat tool demo. See ya then!
I don't think you can ever put too many outlets. Within reason of course. I'd get the outlets with USB chargers built in with little night lights you can tap off. That's 3 things handled right then and there And they don't take up anymore space or anything. That battery is nice. Perfect for y'all filming. Little heavy to carry around though. You can also get warm yellow LEDs that wont hurt your night sight quite as bad. But yeah, I'd get an awesome red LED light for normal use. Those strip lights are cool, I use them around the house.
Of course we’ll watch during the weekend as well 👍
You can get an adapter for your Makita batteries that will let you charge up your phone or anything with a USB cord ...Makita batteries are great for charging laptops .phones ect! The makita adapter is like $20 -$30 ...Its the best investment i have made for what it does.....It can also tun 12 volt lighting if you have a usb jack !
Steve.
A little thought. Once when I went sailing we had a rope with a propeller on the end, it was thrown overboard and span while we were under sail. The end attached to the boat was connected to a counter that told us our speed and how far we've traveled.
What I was wondering is if you could have a propeller on a rope that's connected to a dynamo you could generate some power while under sail.
I don't know what the machine was called but it worked and Provident was a little bit bigger than Arabella so it could be something to look at.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE 🥳👍
@@graham6229
Thanks, why I couldn't remember 'ships log' is a mystery. It's a shame it couldn't be adapted to make power but that's that.
But maybe in the future someone will make sails that told up but can generate power. 😀
I will make one recommendation when using conduit... leave a length of nylon string between each junction box inside the conduit. This will make it much easier to pull more wires if you need to replace or upgrade later. Just remember to pull a new length of string with the new wires.
Agreed . Large gauge nylon monofilament is great for this
That's a great idea whether you use conduits or not.
I was going to say the same, or even two!
Great vid Stephen ! Some electrical advices:
1) Remember most countries uses 220v (not 110)
2) Don't use glue for conduit crimps please, there are connectors with threads in both sides so you can do a really nice job fitting that connector to the box with plastic nuts
3) Conduits should have gentle curvatures, 3 or 4 radius at least, remember this: new cables are fresh flexible but over time they get more rigid, and if you need to replace someone you don't want to get them stuck in curvatures
4) Leave at least 30% of free space inside plastic conduits, cables emmits heat, unnoticeable, but if something isn't working properly is better to have fresh disipation air inside.
Tip: to pull the wires, make a aluminum foil ball that is 3/4 the size of the tube and attach a string. Put that in one end of the tube and use a vacuum to suck it through 😉 and use the string to pull the wire AND a new string. Leave one string in at all time to easily pull extra wires at a later point 😉
Happy Friday!
They also make a special lube for wires being pulled through conduit so you don't just rub the insulation off (or tear the wire with the force of long pulls of thin wire, or getting stuck with crap like double-aught wire)
We called the lube elephant jizz .. Or elephant snot, if customers were around.
A wad of plastic bag also works and you can suck or blow from either end as needed.
Or just use a fish tape..
Always leave a mouse behind.
@@davidmessersmith786 true, but tends to get caught on anything sharp (bad sawn/cut tube connections)
Haven't seen Alex in a while. Hope all is well. I have enjoyed your build videos from day one. Thanks for sharing it with us all👍
@@ExploringCabinsandMines rude. Please watch the older videos if you really must know.
@@ExploringCabinsandMines Alex is a co-creator and employee of Steven. This was covered in videos before. Alex has his own thing going on right now. I'm sure there is a link somewhere for his channel or socials.
A good practice when running conduit is to pull a string in for each of your runs. This will allow you to pull in additional new or replacement wires and cables. You can buy pull string that has foot markings to calculate pull lengths.
Stephen, using conduit to protect your wiring harnesses is one of the best investments you could make. I've worked in aviation for decades and I can tell you that chaffing is an insidious system killer, and can be potentially fatal. I'd also recommend that you wrap your harnesses for each section in a Teflon or plastic spiral wrap for easy identification and additional chaffing protection within your major conduits. You've got a good plan and I look forward to seeing Arabella fully lit up in the future!
BTW you may decide to add shrink-tubes onto of special areas of cables where friction is expected. This is to improve the insulation (usual commercial appliance are really crappy insulation quality, I am always questioning why the electrical safety agencies to not ask hair-drier/air-fan(for rooms) to have double insulation instead of 'almost' single.
So many times as I was young I saw cables to TV-set or Fans in horrible state (any kink or running the cable 'though' door that almost closes onto the cable will inevitably [plus sun, temperature cycles] render the cable brittle or create a short circuit along the cable)
I remember how strict our DERs were when I was doing EWIS on the G-650 when it came to chafe protection. We wound up snake-skinning more than we actually needed, lol.
Avoiding chafing is a key priority for any moving vehicle. As is avoiding corrosion (especially in a salt water environmen), and easy repair/modification, instal cost limitations, and physical size constraints, as well as many other considerations.
I would avoid using any sealed conduit. Yes that tends to be very safe with chaffing issues, but has down sides aswell. One being moisture ingress. The reason is that no matter how well you try and seal them up, they tend to allow moisture in, but prevent it from getting out. Effectively trapping moisture inside any conduiting.
In a boat, I honestly think that a quick, cheap, and easy to repair/replace instal is more beneficial than trying to build something that is built over the top with expensive materials and over complicated instals. (Unless money and time is no issue.) The reason is that no matter how well you try and build something, the key challenge on a boat will be corrosion. Using exotic cable/insulation types can help with things like corrosion, and chaffing, and even physical size constraints, but brings its own challenges with cost, availability and working techniques.
Just my 2c, as an auto electrician with over 15yrs experience
Doing small things like using electrical grease (avl300) / denso tape / spraying with electrasheild onany terminations or connections to prevent corrosion on exposed conductors.
Making sure wiring always enters any enclosures / cabinets / fixtures etc from below or the side, so that water can not flow down from above and ingress.
Avoiding having any joints or terminations in random places. Eg, only at distribution places or end points.
Keep things simple. Don't try and make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Always leave a surplas length at each end of any cable run, so that as things corrode, you can cut the cable back a bit and re-terminate. Meaning you can extend the life of the cable, even as the various components/terminations corrode.
I have often wished my boat (smol 27' full time cruiser) had some conduit. Chafe protection, ease of running or replacing lines, and wire support. But I often find that flexible stuff (hose) is frustrating when it doesn't need to flex - straight runs. I will probably install a hybrid flex/rigid conduit system as my boat matures. I think the best advice I can give you with my short cruising experience is to have spare wires run if it's a difficult run. Building extra capacity of 10-20% is considered good practice in my past life of robotics. Being able to tap into a spare line quickly for a repair or addition is very nice.
Stephen, instead of glueing your conduit adapters to the junction box, look at using cord grips. They're industry standard for control boxes. You won't have to worry about the glue failing over time and it will be much easier to install.
24V DC supply would deliver more power to the high load devices like an anchor winch or refrigerator. Seems a popular choice nowadays with inexpensive DC to DC converters for 12V and USB charging points.
Excellent progress being made. Exciting to see the electrical aspects and demands of Arabella . Happy New Year
My brother and I wired a log cabin with a 12 volt dc system initially. It was simple and reliable. Turned out to be more reliable than the 120 ac system I installed later.
Wishing you a healthy, safe and productive year ahead 🎉🎉🎉 Always looking forward to your updates and enjoy it very much. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and thoughts.
Twenty two years in the US Navy taught me the necessity of night vision. In addition to having red lighting available in the cabin, I would get goggles with red lenses (we had them in the Navy). If you're on deck at night and need to go below deck where someone has a white light on, the red goggles will preserve your night vision. Just a thought.
What a wonderful way to close out 2021. Watching y'all on a 3 video weekend! I hope you are all well. Another great video. Thanks!
From personal experience, I would use larger diameter conduit, and as many below have mentioned, run the "fishing" string or tape through the conduit now before you attach all the ends. Also, threaded cable terminations are a much better choice than gluing the terminations into the junction boxes. On sizing, figure out the cables that will be going through the conduit, and sum up the diameters of those cables. Then about double the cross-section area required to handle the packing losses, and choose the next size up from there for the conduit. Your future wiring headaches will be greatly reduced with sufficient conduit area. Trying to fish a cable through a too-tight conduit is an exercise in futility. Finally, before I'd commit to using a portable battery system like Bluetti for your electrical needs, I'd check out whether that system can withstand a maritime environment long term. There is a reason that house banks of batteries, whether lead acid, AGM, or lithium are the predominant (almost exclusive!) method of storing power on ocean-going vessels. They will withstand the environment for a long time. I believe that systems like the Bluetti are prone to salt air corrosion much more quickly, and will not be good long-term solutions for a cruising boat.
Every video has been and is so informative and also artistic (Good sound, lighting, video, content, pace, thought-out topics presented well.)
Yes, good tips in these comments. As mentioned in some other's comments here, leave 3" - 4" bend radius in conduit whatever suitable safe material is used. Leave 1, 2, even 3 nylon strings in the conduit to be able to more easily later pull through some replacement or additional writing or fiber-optical cables. If additional numerous new runs are needed attach more strings to one string, and pull through. Then pull, and do always leave one or several nylon strings in each conduct for any further future actions.
You may even add an additional future use tube, or several, along each side for future hose(s) , wiring, or fiber.
Add well placed flip out or fixed rings or attachment points for affixing and securing the portable solar panels and tsnks and wake boards to either side of the house or hull.
Consider the light-weight and high strength of dynema lines for lines, rigging, even for brackets, rings, loops.Luka, Odd-life-sailing, and others have implemented dynema.
Such an interesting channel, project, and mission, - tremendous vision. Watching since the lead pour for Arabella's keel.
Thanks so much, Don!
You will love the LiFePO4 batteries in the Bluetti system. They've been available for several years for radio controlled modeling where the transmitter and receiver batteries are the lifeblood of the model. RC airplanes can be worth a few hundred or many thousands of dollars and modelers have flocked to them for their reliability. They don't self discharge like previous battery chemistries do and unused, can remain fully charged for many months.
You can get a small diesel alternator at very reasonable prices, put in your engine room, this works as a standby power source very well
Happy new year to Arabella and crew! Hopeful to see new content.
Enjoyed the video and looking forward to the others this weekend. Happy New Year!!
Appreciate the clear explanation of the thought process and basis for decisions--looks great
Happy New Year Steve. I like putting wiring in a conduit which makes for a clean and safe installation. Thanks for the update.
Never would I have predicted Arabella Gamer Lights but here we are lol. Love to see the progress! This is very cool.
Great video! Bluetti is really gonna love you guys!
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Have a great New Year.
Hi, I'm a retired EE that designed electrical control systems for offshore mobile equipment. Here a few points to consider in your build because vibration and corrosion will be your top 2 long term problems.
First: Using terminal blocks and sealed connectors (don't forget your silicon dielectric grease) at connection points and anchoring your wires together in the boxes best mitigates vibration breakage. I strongly suggest revisiting the boxes about once a week (After deployment) and do a tightness check on every terminal screw until you find none loose. (Takes about 7 times on average). Do not assume that your connections will remain firm on first tightening. Also perform a "3 lb pull test" on every connection made and terminated.
Second: Sealed or unsealed? The advantage of sealed is longer lifespan versus the salt water environment. If you are not sealing your conduit (because you are using marine wire and cables) I suggest a sealing adapter to keep the boxes sealed and isolated. I recommend you plan for condensation to collect at the bottom of the boxes and installing a petcock, but do not vent the boxes.
One last concern:
Conduit size and component plugs. Most modern electronics packages (radar, sat, etc) will have pre-molded plugs installed on the end of the cables (particularly from the mast components). In sizing your conduit, make sure you are going to be able to pass all of those plug ends through as well. (with the other cables in the way).
I'm willing to talk to you directly if you wish.
Great to here your thoughts first hand. Top class.
BTW, for the "final" device, bear in mind that in other nations there is a different voltage for the electrical grid (and frequency) so a device like all PC/laptop power supplies, which auto detect the grid frequency and voltage, can be really useful if you dock where there is possibly a charging station.
The nice thing with that color controller with the LED’s is if you’re docked in an area with lots of bugs you can turn it to yellow. Yellow doesn’t “repel” bugs so much as they’re not as attracted to it as much as white light.
Plus this is a great review on the Bluetti. I have something similar (at least in principle) for my Jeep when camping. It’s called the ArkPak. It pretty much a glorified battery box with a controller and digital charging system, but uses a separate battery instead of being built in. I have a 100ah deep cycle battery for it, but that’s all I need. I run an LED strip and a speaker and charge my phone off it at night when camping. But it is crazy, like you said, how in the past few years how much this technology has developed.
And while I’m not a boat guy, I couldn’t imagine the build, the expense, and the maintenance of an entire battery bank to run some minimal electrical needs, like you said a while ago. The convenience of a few panels and a single pack that’s portable makes things a little easier
Happy new year guys. That power box is a trippy thing thanks for sharing it
Hey Stephen! Some advice for you on color-changing LED strip lights: they usually have really low CRI (Color Rendition Index).. IE the color on the things they illuminate doesn't look right and they hurt your eyes after a while. I'd strongly suggest buying a 95+ CRI light (Check out Waveform lighting's shop lights, not that bad and you get a shop light in the end) and comparing the color-changing strip you have to a high CRI source in a really dark room... I suspect you'll change your mind and kit Arabella with a mix of good high CRI white LEDs and dedicated red light sources instead of using a RGBW/color-changing strip
Have a wonderful New Year. Thank you for the videos through the year. It will be a sad time when you're finished. Take care
We’ll be making sailing videos then, hope you come along with us.
I have split system in my cabin .What I found is with DC you absolutely must size the wires correctly as compared to AC! Something to think about when you have to pull multiple wires that are larger than what you’d need if it was AC wired throughout. You probably already know this! Thanks for the video sir!
I have worked in Architecture (not Marine unfortunately) for over 20 years. It never ceases to amaze me how close designing and building a boat is to designing and building a structure. There are many parallel concerns that the two share and some unique challenges that go into a Marine Structure (Boat) like Arabella. I love to hear the thought process that goes into the choices you make, I find myself thinking back on my own experiences and agreeing with many of them, even if I have ZERO experience with boats. It goes to show that ANYTHING is possible with the right amount of determination and motivation, thank you again for a GREAT video and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Happy new year!
Great system ! And having Aaron around, asking questions, testing stuff, is refreshing. A great kid !
And you, Steven, you are the best road model and life teacher for this cute boy ! Thank for that ! You’re a decent human being. Be proud, young man ! You’ re doing good ! 😊 Have a happy new year, son. You deserve it . Happy and safe !
I plug my electronics into a line conditioner to get the pure sine wave. Especially good on noisy house current. Adds to the life of your equipment considerably.
Again, another great video, thanks to the team, and I am so very happy that you are taking the extra care (when haven't you folks taken extravagant care on this project?) to ensure the electrics are not going to be an issue into the future. Too many people just do not seem to care about electrical work, when it is so very important in this day and age. As my Dad used to say, electricity is a good servant, but a bad master. Well done!
What a coincidence....Had to fix antique wall light in kitchen(I promised to do all year,) and since we're the 31st....Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide this morning....Happy New Year to you all....rr Normandy, France
You probably know this but, once the conduit is in place you can use your shop vac to pull a string through to ease the wire installation. Also, when you pull a bundle of wires into conduit, include a string to allow you to add more wires later.
Happy New Year to the Crew!!!
Nice tip, Robert!
@@AcornToArabella you need to attach a tissue to the line for the vac to suck it through !… and use a very light line to start with. Happy New Year everyone !
They make foam cylinders for pulling string through conduit with a vacuum. They are called power fishing pistons, or a "mouse" if you ask the guys in the field.
@@AcornToArabella Just remembered, no more than 360° between junction boxes. Such as 4) 90° or 8) 45°
I've been watching since the beginning of your channel. I am a general contractor in Miami, FL and we use a lot of flexible conduit, we call it smurf. Just a suggestion, we use standard electrical gray pvc male connectors, glued with pvc glue directly to the end of the flexible conduit, to connect to boxes. You can use a plastic bushing, sold at HD or Lowes in the electrical department, on the inside of the boxes to hold the connector into the box. Makes a much stronger connection. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the tips!
Plastic bushings cannot be used for attaching conduit to a junction box. A lock nut is required. But adding a plastic bushings on top is required when 4awg or larger wire is pulled through the conduit.
As an Aviation Electrician and lifelong Sailor, I like what you're doing with the electrical system. 🍻😁
Looking forward to another year 2022 of watching the boat coming together piece by piece . Thanks for sharing your boat building project Happy New Year from San Diego , ca
Thanks Claude! Happy new year!
Red LED's have another advantage that many people don't realize. The red light does not attract gnats and other nighttime insects like white light does.
I've noticed this with headlamps(lights I wear on my head). Red light, even relatively bright red light, allows me to do closeup work in the summertime without having a huge cloud of gnats right in my face.
Wow, neat! Didn’t think about that… bonus benefit.
I did not realize that gnats were attracted to light.
As a sailor, I appreciate the red lights more and more.
Consider getting rgbw strips, they have a white led next to each RGB led. The wiring would then also be easier, you could just have a 3-way switch between white off and red, and a single potentiometer.
To me, solving the issue of filming while away from the boat is the most challenging aspect of your plans.
But for boat electrical design there's lots of info out there. As far as future-proofing, sections of conduit or some other kind of wireway is useful for areas that will be hard to access once fit out is complete, but point-to-point conduit for small DC loads and low voltage circuits just adds to inaccessibility and inflexibility. If you want to protect wiring in lockers from chafe, wireways with a removable cover are handy. See Panduit or Wiremold.
AC is an exception; small wires that can deliver lots of energy (think shock and overheating/short circuit failure) and serve general purpose outlets lend themselves to a fully enclosed pipe and box solution. If the outlets and boxes are strategically placed, you won't ever have to rewire.
Some of the best tips from when I re-wired my boat. Get a lable printer machine that has flat heat shrink options. Then label every terminal and at various places along a long run. Due to friction, conduit fills quickly, Always leave a mousing line in there as well.
I was watching Attitcus and they did a few episodes with Nigel Caulder. His company had a nice spreadsheet for figuring out electrical needs on a boat. I would recommend reaching out and checking out his spreadsheet.
Very informative video. I’m involved in learning about solar power for my home. I learned from this. Thank you.
Glad you found it helpful!
Good morning team Arabella! Yesterday was my birthday and it was a fantastic day with my daughter and granddaughter. We took the kraken to watch Sing 2 and she did relatively well considering she isn't three yet. I lost the battle for the tv and it's a Blippi kind of day. It will be interesting to see all the lighting and electric running in the boat. It seems like production is accelerated since the interior work started. She will be ready to sail in no time. Have a happy and safe new year!!
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday, Kathy!
A belated Happy Birthday Kathy.
Thank you Larrimo! I had a great day!
Thanks for the birthday greetings.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to automate or have presets for the Red lighting at night rather than tuning it in with the RGB controller. Really enjoy hearing your reasoning, planning & execution of ideas 👍
They make rgbw lights with a separate white channel. Also I'm fairly sure you can find a just red and white led strip
Zooz makes a handy RGB/RGBW controller for those strip lights which will allow you to control them via a ZWave controller compatible with many home automation systems like Samsung's Smartthings. I use this for indirect lighting throughout my house
Agree on RGBWW (RGB + warm white + cool white) strips. I use Gledopto's Pro RGBWW zigbee controllers to drive a load of strips in my apartment. Over the past five years I've built a ton of "fixtures" with two lengths of RGBWW strip down the flat side of some flat (one t-channel, one side flat) 1010 aluminum T-extrusion (for heat dissipation + mounting). This is 100% of the lighting in my home office, because my apartment has no ceiling fixtures, and it works out great! I run Home Assistant on a raspberry pi for coordinating everything and bridging z-wave / zigbee devices. That may be more than you want to worry about taking care of, but it's a neat little low-maintenance solution.
Using a warm (2200-2700 CCT) colored LED would be sufficient. There is certainly truth in the reasoning however, not everyone has issues with cooler/bluer white light. 'White light ruining your night vision' is an incorrect statement.
@@graham6229 Yeah, you do if you want to.preserve you night vision.
You know. To see at night. So you don't step on or trip over anything on deck.
Also helps a lot when star-gazing.
At night.
I've used the stick on LED strip in several projects, it needs to be secured to the strip in some way, the adhesive will let go in a matter of weeks and is only good for ease of installation.
Running cables in trunking is a must, but I hate that flex stuff as its impossible to seal in and out of a box and very lays straight.
Love the videos l, keep them comming...
Best wishes for 2022 guys.
And thanks again for sharing your passion.
It’s both a pleasure and an education to see your continued progress.🙂
Heh, I was going to recommend a couple solar generators maybe adding a couple extra battery banks as your needs change, instead of a traditional marine rig. This Bluetti system looks like a solid starting point. 👍
That reefer is going to be amazing… Ice cream at sunset on the deck is a must. 🙃
Another Friday night highlite Happy New Year Team
Good morning Akiva and Crew , Happy , Healthy New Year to you all :-)
Happy New Year and Happy Friday! 🎉
Many years ago, a friend of mine ran a bunch of that Carlon corrugated flex conduit in his house for data, during a remodel. It was not tied down in the ceiling, pulling the wires later was a PITA as the conduit tended to flex instead of the wires moving through the conduit. Since you can, I would suggest clamping the conduit to the hull/bulkheads firmly wherever you have a bend, and every 3-4 feet on straight sections.
Happy new year for all of you , Kiva included
That system does look interesting. One thing - I think having some panels set up in a permanent location would be a good idea, so you'll always have a baseline of power. Also if you're planning to do long sailing legs, it would be a bit annoying to have lots of sunlight but having to run a generator for electric power if the going is too rough to just hang up folding panels.
Totally agree a permanently mounted system would be a must for me. And personally I feel that there are better solutions for the power system on a boat than that one. Personally I like the victron energy products but each to their own
Hi Steve, Anne and Aaron,
Great to see how you all are involved with the building of Arabella. BTW you seem to have something with names starting with the letter A 😀. The by you shown Bluetti power unit with foldable sun panels are nowadays very popular over hear with people who own a small boat or who are on camping sides where no power is available.
We wish you all as well as your beloved family a very happy new year in prosperity but above all in a good health and send you love from the Netherlands.
Regards,
Willeke and Dick
Happy new year, friends. So glad you’re watching.
I don't have the Max model but my Bluetti AC 2000 has worked like a champ for the last year. Assuming you can mount an adequate number of solar panels on the boat, to charge them, think about getting the two extension batteries. Good luck with your project.
As a viewer who looks forward to watching your future adventures, I'm happy to see you'll have plenty of power to feed the cameras and computers.
Can’t wait to tell those sorts of stories! Thanks for watching, Tracy!
100% on the conduit-from ireland and a lot of timber frame houses here use it in a "service cavity" created between plasterboard and air-tightness membrane/stud work. pro tip leave an extra pull string (builders line or plumb bob line) with every run and leave in place for retro fitting. also you may be able to use a shop vac to suck line out the run to began. love the clear junction box covers
From experience, you shouldn't rely on RGB LED for your "everyday" white light. I would suggest either getting strips (and controller) with a fourth (white) channel facilitating white light with the color temperature of your choosing. Alternatively, you can install red LED strips along with dedicated white lights ... The "experience" of mixed white using LEDs fucks your head (at least with my personal).
You aren't wrong about that. The lack of full spectrum color is a problem long term.
Yup RGBW is what you want. 3000k for the white color would look very nice on wood
Happy new year 🥳
I recommend jet line, lightweight line designed to be vacuumed through conduit. Also strong enough to use as the pull line. Comes in a box of a few hundred feet. No ball or flag required just keep feeding it in until it balls up and the vac will pull it through
That driver for the strip led is MASSIVE. In the UK you get 2 inch small remote controls to change the colour so you can mount that near your hatch and press it before entering the boat from the outside... just an idea
You should have a chat with Dan (Sailing Uma), he has a ton of experience of sailing world wide with a battery powered boat and troubles with different electrical standards (charging your batteries when connected to land grid).
Nice informercial for Bluetti
Hey Steve, I’m a former Army helo pilot. In aviation we got rid of red light in the cock pit years ago in favor of a green/blue. The reason is because red has a longer wave length and is harder on the eyes. Just a thought. Happy new year!!
Neat, David! Thanks for sharing that!
Same here Steve. I’m a retired submariner and we switched to dim white lights years ago. Eliminating the color mixer in favor of a dimmer would make things easier to operate and maintain. Best of luck and happy New Year,
Red light was fine when lights were incandescent. It was nearly impossible to dim incadescent enough to achieve blue light without lighting up the sky. Red light could be produces at low intensity and allowed the eye to process reading paper charts/tables etc whereas blue light did not. Now blue light is easy to produce at low intensity with LEDs and most 'data' pilots read is from a backlit screen, not paper. Backlight is processed differently in the eye. At sea, the use of red or blue depends upon whether you prefer paper or navitronics. +-
Also, the human eye is most sensitive to green wavelengths. I've read that most maps and charts are easier to discern under green/blueish light as well, but can't say first hand.
And just to add more confusion most computer or phone OS's have ways to reduce blue light at night to reduce eye strain. What's a poor human to do. :(
Steve you can buy those Photo connectors for solar. You can crimp your own end on then slide connector together. So you can make your own cables. Use stranded copper decent guage but yeah dont buy bluetti's cables you can get those outdoor spec connectors.-Solar installer
Make sure to add extra capacity to your conduit. It will make any future additions a bit easier as you grow into your boat and technology changes. Excellent work on Arabella so far, I hope 2022 brings even more success!
Thanks, happy new year!
The main thing I have to recommend about electrical systems is carry plenty of spare parts. Trying to figure out which bit is high risk or near failure is hard. Also fridges can be converted to universal electric motors (in fact some are manufactured that way anyhow, same as most power tools, but the manuals are rarely written by people who think it's worth mentioning). That means you can run them on AC or DC without converter losses. (But you have to provide 110v DC, which is its own special need - transformer losses are not a win over converter losses).
Good choice with the conduit, that will not be regretted 👍
Great Ad!
I've worked with LED lighting on different projects over the years and in my experience, several have failed because the electronics burn-out (especially with low cost online brands). It's easy to read the box that says the LEDs last 50k hours etc. only to find out they really only last a few years. LEDs are great to use but I suggest buying a few backup lights, transformers, and controls when you get your parts, so you aren't blind in the middle of nowhere. Also, I find that complex battery systems can stop working for weird error code reasons, so it might also be good to have a small low-tech solar system for emergencies. Just a thought, that others may have already noted.
When running your wiers through the conduit, add an extra "pull wire", incase you need to add addtional wiring in the future.
I've used several reels of the LED strip lights, both white and RGB, for garage, shop and camp lighting. If you look close you will find the long reel strips are actually just shorter strips soldered together at the same place you would cut them into shorter lengths. I have had some of these factory solder joints unsolder themselves under normal loads, even when cut down to 4' lengths. The powered side will still work, but downstream from the factory solder goes out and needs to be repaired (resoldered or bridged). If it were me I'd also have a more permanent house battery; the Bluetti will be great for your adventuring, but... I'd also suggest a battery isolator to charge your Bluetti and house battery from the diesel engine when it's on, and a way to charge the batteries from shore power when at the dock.
I've seen several reviews on Bluetti's materials, and they are quite intriguing. The one deficit I see for your application though, is potentially a mis-match in power types and output capability. You have a predominantly 12VDC system in the boat it seems, but the Bluetti and most other systems like it are predominantly designed to make 120VAC. This is one of the reasons most boats i've seen have mostly "roll your own" battery storage systems. The other charging consideration, that you didn't touch on but I suspect is in the back of your mind, is an alternator off the diesel engine. Depending on your usage of it it could be a significant source of charging power at various times.
Hopefully you're already doing it, but creating a power budget chart for each of the 2 types of power (AC and DC, detailing the current draw of each individual or type of device) can help you get a better picture as to what types of loading you'll have and how to help plan the system to handle it.
I thought of the diesel alternator too. Surprised he didn't mention it in the video. Great source of power/charging while under power.
Even if a alternator can't directly charge it he can run it through a inverter first and use the charger I think he should also get the extra bbatteries some situations it's better to have more than what you need even if he never uses them.
Mismatch? They have electronic devices (laptops, cameras, mobile) . Throw in more people quadruples the devices. Plug and play gives them the flexibility that brackets, clips, tie-downs and a 100 meters of wiring can’t. Sounds like a perfect match.
He said it will do 30A on the 12V though, is that not enough especially given LED lighting?
And yeah, an ability to charge the battery using the diesel would be wise... I'm wondering if the rectifed 12V from the alternator would be acceptable to feed in via the solar input of this battery or if that would be bad, I'm not good enough with electrics to know if you could get a 110V single phase tap off an alternator to charge it using the 110VAC input.
Hi, Gang! Happy New Year!! Electrical toys! Now, you're talking my language. One word of caution using conduit; they WILL fill with water...especially the horizontal runs. Be sure you have adequate ventilation and drainage holes. High humidity and changing temperatures will cause condensation and you need a way to purge it from the conduit. Thanks for another great show!
Happy new year, Charles!
Happy New Year to the A.A.family!⛵️🎉👍
And to you, Mel! 🥳🎉
happy new year everyone!
Have A very Safe Happy New Year to the best sailing family on the high seas.
Looking good! You may already be past that, but I would skip the gray fittings and just connect the threaded box fittings into the junction boxes. Just use a lock ring to secure them.
A nice compact modular system - great management system and expandability. You probably need 2 or 3 of these rigs plus a dedicated cell for your engine that is independent from the house load. You may consider having an arch added to the back of Arabella dedicated to a fixed solar array as a compliment to the portable Bluetti portables. From what I have seen on the many sailing channels I have watched is don't underestimate the amount of power you think you need. A few overcast days and storms and you find yourself running the engine too much to keep the house bank charged. Off grid means limited resources especially the sun and diesel fuel particularly in the high latitudes. One of your key power considerations is an auto pilot - will it be a mechanical run on power or a mechanical plus passive such as a wind vane or only a wind vane. This is a key element for all long distance cruisers. Also manual windlass suck big time - electric is the way to go and that needs some serious power. Oh yeah FANS - these are REALLY useful if you sail in the tropics!!! Thanks for sharing! Cheers!
Excellent.
Happy New Year, all of you, working with the Arabella!
Happy new year! 🎉🎉🎉
Hi Stephen, was watching shortly after making a sandwich to take to work tomorrow ( New Years Day ) and you mentioned red light filters... in my sandwich prep, my roast beef was in a container with clear RED rectangular lids ! Look in your local supermarket's pre sliced deli meats section, usually near the bacon and refrigerated of course ! The lids have a rolled lip and are recessed so it should easily fit over that bright led light you showed. Velcro or a screw or magnet to hold lid if you don't like velcro...
Hope this is not too late in your build vs real time sequence, but try and pull ALL your wires ( put in some extras too ) in ONE slightly twisted bundle at one time OUTSIDE the boat with the conduits straight and where a few extra hands can help you.... MUCH easier than pulling inside the boat and making multiple pulls in something bent and flexible with ridges TOO ! Twisting the wires adds to overall bundle size only slightly, but organizes it better, allows smoother bends, and gives some extra wire length in case you need it later ! ( I used to build High Vacuum Industrial Equipment with custom harnesses for robots etc )
Sounds like you should look at creating some kind of over the railing solar panel holder so you can charge while on the move. And maybe a setup for the house top or something.
And the “RV plug” is a standard 220 vac outlet.
As an electrician..... a smart choice protecting your wiring, guests, boat, and crew!!
Wise choices !
One could envision many small-medium bluetti as a kind of a modular on-demand power system instead of the traditional house bank fixed to one spot (usually below the waterline) with all the additional hardware that a bank requires. Would fit nicely with your intrepid lifestyle. Something to consider.
Happy New Year! 🎉💥
How is Alex doing? Would be nice to see him at year's end. Joyous holidays to the both of you. Thanks for sharing a years worth of boat building activities with your fans. Setting a great example for others.
Episode 183 is still current. He’s building the shop he wanted to build at his new house. Thank you very much for watching and for the kind words. All the best to you in the new year!
I miss seeing Caroline. She was a wonderful teacher and carpenter.
Hi Stephen, love your channel, watched every episode from the very first. I build timber surfboards hence my interest in boat building.
I’m an old electrical contractor for 50 years in Queensland Australia. I haven’t a lot of experience on wiring boats, however saying that my brother and brother in law both have yachts which I’ve done work on the electrics which was a nightmare.
I have a few suggestions you may or may not take on board. Firstly the way I would do it I would run a low voltage distribution buss in a heavy cable from your power supply protected by fuse or circuit breaker rated at the current carrying capacity of the cable keeping in mind voltage drop is an issue with low voltage. Then I would install low voltage distribution sub boards strategically around the boat such as engine room, workshop, galley etc this will allow you to add whatever will be required in the future without having to run a new cable back to your main power supply.
The conduits are a great idea but be careful drawing additional cables through the conduit containing cables as the friction may damage the insulation of the existing cables.
High voltage distribution around the boat should be segregated from the low voltage keeping in mind that low voltage cables and high voltage cables require different insulation ratings.
Anyway I’ve rambled on enough. Looking forward to seeing Arabella finished, I only hope I’m still alive to see her in the water.
Kindest Regards
Paul Kirk-Lauritsen
Thank you so much for watching! Glad you’re on the journey with us. There will definitely be a breaker box. We’re going by a US standard set by ABYC (American boat and yacht council), which charter yachts and professionally built systems typically use for compliance. This is a home-built boat, but these standards will work great for us.
Electric fires at sea are so dangerous so I like your thinking 👍
Happy new year for your all my 2022 become a good year for your all.
BLUETTI got there moneys worth with this one
Yep, infomercial……..
Yes, I skipped most of the commercial. Became a very short episode.
You should see how happy oak trees are with all the hype we’ve created. 😉 Happy New Year, thanks for watching!
@@AcornToArabella 🤣🤣
This looks like a very sound system. Thanks for the thorough explanation as well. I don't think I heard a single instance of confusing power with energy, which may be a first. If you get the panels perpendicular to the Sun's rays, the low angle of the Sun won't be an issue (short day still will be of course).
good stuff