- Alright.
So today we are installing the batteries for our power bank.
We've got 400 amp hour lithium batteries from Renogy.
So I'd like to thank the team at Renogy
for really stepping up to support us
on our boat life adventure by sponsoring these videos.
They sent us charge controllers,
a massive inverter, a battery monitor, six solar panels,
and a ton of other incredible supplies
we're gonna be installing on our boat.
So it's gonna be a bit of a puzzle
figuring out all of these wires.
And it's a little more stressful than just like
working on an off grid system,
because you do need the boat engine to work
when it's supposed to work.
Ooh, So heavy.
(drill buzzing)
There we go.
- [Man] Nice work.
- All four fit.
- [Man] Sweet.
- That's cool.
So this is the on off switch I just bought.
And this is gonna go for the starter battery.
So we went from this, to this, to this.
So that's the general idea.
Almost.
Fifth times the charm.
Here we go, look at that.
Now you can turn the starter battery
on and off once I connect this.
So I'm just trying to figure out where to put this vent.
It's gotta go like, somewhere like that.
(drill buzzing)
Nice.
So much work to get up one cable from there to there.
So in order to install the batteries,
I wanna put them all one, two, three, and four.
All on that side and leave room over here
in case we ever wanna increase the battery bank
or install other electrical components
but because of the angle of the boat over there,
the back battery is like resting on the hull,
which I don't want.
So what I realized in my sleep last night
is I can just raise this entire section of batteries up.
So the batteries are gonna rest on these two wooden boards,
which are gonna get screwed.
(drill buzzing)
Get that through there
and this is gonna wrap around the battery.
Check this out.
So I think even if we capsize our batteries
aren't gonna go anywhere so that's good, at least.
All right.
So the inverter is all wired up.
We got the positive, the negative, the ground,
and it's just gonna go in here.
So it's gonna be a pretty tough installation,
which is why I connected all the wires already,
because it's gonna just barely fit.
But we have a vent in there
and it's gonna vent through the top
and it'll have like quite a bit of air through the bottom.
So it'll get good airflow.
It'll just be like very difficult to access.
Today is a very special part of the electronic boat build
because Dana is helping me.
- Hi!
- I have a helper finally, because my back has been hurting,
bending over this section for days on end.
- [Dana] Woo.
So, I'm gonna screw this input cable.
Is that what its called?
Back into the DC converter.
It's got the grease on it.
Now I just hope my greasy fingers don't drop the screw.
Oh, this is interesting.
- [Lou] This is why I have back problems.
- I can see it and trying to film it alone.
I'm here to help Lou.
- [Lou] This camera doesn't do justice
to how small the section is.
- Yeah.
I don't know how to get my arm in there.
- [Lou] Yeah.
- [Dana] Tadaa!
- [Lou] Thank you.
I'm gonna turn this guy on.
- [Dana] Okay
- And turn the key.
Woo!
(both laugh)
- [Dana] Aww, you did it.
- Wow, that's crazy, I didn't think it was gonna work.
- [Dana] I'm really proud of you.
You relieved?
- That was a big week of electrical work.
- [Dana] Woo hoo!
- [Dana] Ow! - Ooh!
Oh no.
- [Dana] That's never closed.
- It was dripping here, so that's why I closed this.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to you.
- [Dana] It's okay.
So, what's going on?
- We're gonna fix the wiring on the switch
because the DC to DC charger
is turning on when the battery's on,
but it should just turn on when you turn the key.
So,
(drill buzzing)
- [Dana] Wow!
So first one?
- So, here we go.
- [Dana] So still no green light.
- Which is good.
- [Dana] Yup.
Hey, we got a green light.
- Really? - [Dana] Yeah.
- Woo!
- [Dana] Great job.
- Thank you.
So I guess this is the ignition switch or yeah.
- [Dana] Yeah, it is.
- Must be.
(drill buzzing)
- [Lou] Look it's still gotten very chaotic in here again.
No matter how many times I cleaned this space,
this is kind of how it ends up every night.
Just because there's so many different components
that are needed to build this, all of these things.
And hopefully by tonight, I can clean this all up
and have a nice clean, organized boat.
(soft music)
♪ You have me now ♪
♪ My actions will be given ♪
♪ When we first met ♪
♪ A simple taste ♪
So difficult.
This compartment is killing me.
♪ Little by little you hear me now ♪
- [Dana] Yay!
- Woo!
(drill buzzing)
♪ Little by little you hear me now ♪
♪ Little by little you hear me ♪
- Check this out.
Boom, we got lights.
Look at that.
We got light.
Woo!
(laughs)
Oh man, I did not think it was gonna work
but it's all working which is really lucky
because I do now wanna go in there
and try and fix it right now.
But I've decided the second something breaks.
I'm just gonna remake the whole system
in a much more accessible place.
The whole 12 volt system on the boat doesn't work.
The bilge pump doesn't work.
The lights don't work.
I might just have to start from scratch
and build a whole new system in a better place.
The hope was to build it in this area
'cause it would take up the least amount of space.
But it means it's pretty much impossible to figure out
what's going wrong because everything has to be connected.
And once it's connected, you can't get in anymore.
(drill buzzing)
(soft music)
Yay!
Got this pipe in.
Go them hanging here.
♪ I've been down ♪
♪ I've been everywhere but I'm all right now ♪
♪ I'm all right ♪
♪ I nearly drowned in my own despair but I'm all right now ♪
♪ Yeah, baby you can turn the rain into gold. ♪
- Is that everything?
Let's do a check.
- [Dana] Okay.
- B to D, D, B, correct?
- [Dana] Yeah.
- A to B, A, B.
- [Dana] Yay, it worked.
- Woo, this is crazy.
One week of work later, second attempt on the system.
Things seem to be working.
We got lights, we got radio.
Now we just need solar.
(Dana laughs)
- [Dana] Oh my gosh.
- [Lou] They're lighting up?
- They all lining up.
That didn't happen last time, did it?
- [Lou] No.
- Woo!
That's amazing.
Should we plug in the panels?
- [Lou] Yeah.
It's working.
- [Dana] Woo hoo!
- Yeah.
I think it's working.
- [Dana] Really?
- [Lou] Yeah.
- [Dana] Woo hoo!
- [Lou] I think it's working.
- [Dana] So now let's just check some wires.
- Yeah, and then we can finish this boat project.
- [Dana] What?
Power station.
- So I thought I would give you a quick tour
of our electronic system now that it's up and running
and working beautifully.
Here we have our 12 volt panel.
This is where we have access to everything
that's 12 volt on the boat.
So this could be things like our running lights,
our starboard lights.
If we had a refrigerator,
this would be the spot that we would go on.
Next we have an inverter switch.
So it's really nice to have the inverter switch.
We didn't have that in the van,
but it allows us to turn on power to the inverter.
If we are using things like our computer,
but if we're not using it, we can turn it off,
which saves us a ton of power.
And then to the next, we have our energy battery monitor,
which is also brilliant because we can see
how much percentage wise we've used the batteries.
And so if it's getting really low,
we can stop working and wait for the sun to come back
and this way we don't hurt our batteries.
This beautiful cabinet, we actually made ourselves.
And when you open it here, viola!
Here you can see our charge controllers
and they have a lot of ventilation through these holes
and we have our on off switch and this is for what again?
- [Lou] You wanna work on the panels or anything.
- Oh yeah, this is our on off switch
for the energy solar panels and this way,
if you have to do any work on them,
you can easily turn it off so it's safer that way.
Welcome to the heart of our electrical system.
This is Lou's pride and joy.
He worked very, very hard on this.
We have four lithium batteries.
They're each a hundred amp hours.
So we have 400 amp hours total.
And then we have this led starter battery,
but overall we're really pleased
and I just want to take a second to thank our patrons.
You guys are making our life so much better
and we're really grateful for the support
and yeah, that's it.
Thanks for Renogy for all the stuff, we are loving it.
And if you actually wanna get any Renogy things,
we have an affiliate link in our description box below.
Until next week.
See you later.