On this episode of Onboard Lifestyle we pick up where episode 14 left off and talk a bit about our electrical system then get some wires pulled in the nav st...

Closed Captions (CC):
[Music]

so back when we first started designing

this actually quite a bit of thought

went into our now station I mean this is

going to be the the central nervous

system of the boat I mean the brains of

the boat are right here everything kind

of leads through here we had to think

about places to put batteries wired

chases all behind the scenes and we

started with nothing we got it this all

out and just started over and building

it and designing it was was a lot of fun

I've had a had a blast doing it looking

at this now just a nice central hub for

me to do my thing it's straight below

here in this locker is the battery banks

these are trojan t105 six volt there's

three separate banks here in three

separate linked in three separate series

so we are generating 12 volts of

electricity with the total am powers of

675 amp hours and we're gonna start with

that and we'll see how it goes if we

need to add more I could always add more

but I'm trying to just replenish the

batteries fast enough that we don't have

to carry any more additional batteries

with all that additional weight so over

the years this whole area here was

originally designed to be an enclosed

queen-size berth that you access from

down here and you could almost feel it

still in here but it's all been carved

out previous owners had not just out and

put a desk in here we just excavated

everything out and started over I mean

this is obviously the place where you

need your nap station a forward-facing

nap station with nice visibility

that's what we did we just gutted it

yard it out every bit of wire actually

all the electrical was on this wall over

here when we purchased the boat and we

moved it to here so to get all that

wiring out a we pulled out two to

three hundred pounds of wiring out of

here just an amazing amount of wire then

we excavated everything out and just

rebuilt from the ground up it was a

quite the project tried to keep it as

light as we could actually we did use a

lot of foams and ultralight materials

and skinned everything with just a thin

layer of wet system epoxy and this is

what we came up with it's really

functional and it's a great place nice

central spot for us to run all of the

electronics room okay now that I've cut

a few items into the nav panels here

that'd be good idea to talk a little

about the electrical on board and we

started over actually we got it every

bit of wire off of this boat for a

couple of reasons one reason is that we

heard rumors that this boat was hit by

lightning in Florida I did find a lot of

damaged wire and corroded wire so wasn't

a bad idea to get rid of it but mostly

because we did such drastic changes to

the the boat over all that all the

wiring had to be removed to make the

modifications and why not upgrade at

that point and have a brand new wiring

system so let's take a look at a few

things here is our dog compass what are

you doing here is

our main panel and you can draw a line

straight down the center here this is

120 and this is 12-volt we have to shore

power leads running it shore power 1

which is tripped here handles this Bank

here which is just all of our normal 120

you know use we haven't hooked up the

refrigerator washer dryer battery

chargers hot water heater outlets etc

short power to handles all the heating

and air conditioning we have two 16,000

BTU Lobosco heating and air conditioning

systems in here look at this side 12

volt comes in through this main breaker

here and it is distributed throughout

the boat here now for every single one

of these switches all through here I

have these going to sub panels so let's

just pick one like here here's one

galley lights so let's go look let's

take a look at the gallery lights I have

them all tucked away in Nice hidden

spaces but here's here's the gallery

lights goes to a little blue sees fused

sub panel here so that one breaker comes

in power feeds power to this sub panel

and it's individually fused to every

single item in the Gowan and right now

we have five different light switches in

the galley and I still have room for one

more if we want to add one more from the

fuse it runs to a switch and I've made

all these switches but I can switch

these and turn on our LED lighting let's

go into the galley here

more switches here turn these on and

this runs a bank of LED lights above the

counters

I even tucked in some nice accent

lighting on shelves the LED is such low

amp draw it's kind of fun to play with

this and add is nice accent lighting

everywhere so for every switch there I

have another one of these blue C sub

panel somewhere on the boat I mean the

downside is we've got what 30 switches

so we probably have 30 these sub panels

and they're everywhere let's like look

at this Bank of bilge pumps here 6 bilge

pumps over it to a sub panel behind the

port this one is open for more

electronics and I'll be adding the

navigation and communication equipment

sub panels in there as well behind this

board it's getting there everything's

nice and organized and laid out and

functioning just like it's supposed to

believe it or not this is probably only

about half of the wiring that's going on

board but it's been a lot of fun laying

it out and I I enjoy this end of it so

here's how I do it looks like my dad's

coming back from the marine store again

he must be their favorite customer he

goes there like every single day let's

go see what he got

sweet there he is

[Music]

what did you get today just more stuff

actually I got some things that you're

gonna help me install right now Oh what

is it you'll see okay all right

so what'd you get just couple things we

need him he always need them the spool

of those we have 30 of them now and they

are necessary really

really hey I don't think I believe you

I think this is your OCD coming out and

maybe but you know what

I feel good about it I'm sure you do

well you I'll show you today today I get

to mount these sub panels in to the nav

station so first I have to open the nav

station up then I have to take the drill

yeah it looks pretty good

there you go yeah not bad at all okay

good job

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

now that I've mounted more sub panels

I'll tell you what there are about the

first one is communication equipment

which is that one the next one is Knapp

station instruments the next one is

bilge pumps that one right there is

salon lighting and then the one that we

already have installed is master head

lighting good job you get a wire him up

now yes just kidding

okay now that Emma have this all

prepared for me my goal today is to get

some wiring in okay so the first thing

I'm gonna do is I have this USB port I

just put in I have another USB port

right up here I will pick probably this

one right here I need to run a lead from

the nav station instruments run a power

lead to the sub panel then I'll be able

to branch off start branching off some

of these items in the nav station the

other thing I want to accomplish today

is start wiring these bilge pumps here

I've got these six bilges I've got two

mounted in and I'll take another panel

maybe I'll put the builders here they're

closer in proximity so I'll put the

builders here I don't put the nav

station equipment here it makes a little

more sense and from let's see where is

bilge pumps right here so I'll run a

power lead from here over to this sub

panel and branch off my bilge pumps from

there then I could wire them to the

individual bilge pumps on board

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

okay so calculating out the wire size

that I need for my new bilge pump panel

here it's pretty simple I'm adding six

of these bilge pumps they run eight amps

at 12 volt so let's say we are running

three simultaneously we had some

catastrophic event where one hole is

underwater numbering three so that means

a total of what are you doing I know

you're mad total of 24 amps of power so

I'm under six feet from here to here so

24 amps of power I would need a 12 gauge

lead pretty simple to calculate now from

the panel now to the bilge pump is

different I just calculate how far each

lead is going to be let's say this one

is 30 feet 30 feet and it's gonna be

between us 14 and a 16 gauge so I'll up

it to a 14 just to play it safe but

pretty simple to calculate okay the next

step is now that I've got it tied into

the sub panel is to bring the wire

around and tie the lead into the main

panel here

pretty simple just route it in cut to

the right length and attach

[Applause]

[Music]

okay now that I've got my leads in to

these sub panels I've started wiring

some items in I just wired in my USB

charging station which runs right off of

the switch here and I put a second USB

up here that's kind of an odd space for

it but I'll show you why now I could

plug in I can use this as a charging

station or plug in a USB nap light so

let's see

they have instruments I now have a light

and let's check to make sure that my

charging station works I have power

there as well

so there we go

looks like my dad's finishing up his

project and thinks my mom's home hi

playin it up yeah we're gonna have to

get this all cleaned up because I'm

making ramen outside today get one

cleaned up oh okay

so the USB works USB works I'm at a

battery good plug that sucker in truth

see doesn't work genius

Oh Charlie you gotta turn the switch on

you can tell me that well okay nav

station instrument third one up in the

bottom right there

leave that on and okay now we have

something that works okay good job

[Music]

thanks for watching this week's episode

of onboard lifestyle if you liked it

then don't forget to give us a thumbs up

and subscribe to our Channel come back

next week when my dad shifts gears and

start working on a brand new project

that I see listen see you then good job