AC/DC

Now that all our equipment is rolling in we now have enough stuff to get going on some major projects on the boat. It has worked out that Marks parents are visiting for a couple of weeks and he has taken the time off so with many hands and free time work will finally be getting started on Sweets.

A game of 'Life' hit pretty close to home, live in a log cabin and buy a sailboat, pay $30,000. Of course we are about $10,000 over that amount now but still pretty close.

More goodies. Our solar panels and obviously a new anchor.

While we prep for work on the boat the kids are preparing for Halloween. Some years we go trick or treating, other years we haven't, we aren't too hung up about it one way or the other. Many of our fellow believers are against Halloween and that's fine but we haven't had any person convictions about it, we keep it a cultural, social event, keep their costumes wholesome; we all enjoy the kids dressing up and walking around our neighbourhood. But that is not what this blog is about so back to the boat talk.

Thankfully Marks Dad has a lot of experience with electrical, he's always done our work for us in our previous apartments and our house so we feel confident deferring to his expertise on this. It's amazing how complicated electrical is. Up until tonight while we were sitting around the fireplace talking about it, I figured we had a good handle on how it all worked, I was way off.

Firstly, I don't have a brain for this kind of thing. I have a really hard time wrapping my head around 

anything electrical or mechanical and being a visual learner I really need to be shown physically how it all works. 

The first thing I have discovered is the difference between AC and DC (not just a band anymore), well actually, I discovered that there even was a difference, to me electricity is electricity, I don't understand amps or volts or watts and still don't actually have any conception of what any of them mean other than they are ways to measure electrical current. But I don't especially need to know all the nuances of how it all works I just need to know how it all pertains to me and my situation.

 So I have been informed that the boat is wired for 12 volt DC. That's what the batteries are, that's what the solar panels are, that's what the lights are, what the bilge pumps are, okay, good... great! But then they tell me that 12 volt DC doesn't have outlets. No plugs. So how do you plug in your toaster, or your electric tooth brush, or more importantly your iPad charger? All these things are AC powered. Well you'd need an inverter, that changes the DC into AC. Okay, so this expensive little box will somehow be wired into our battery bank and when turned on I will have two outlets that are in this little inverter box? So two outlets? That's it?

As I am wrapping my brain around this I find out it gets worse. This scenario, with the 12 volt everything working off of batteries and two outlets from an inverter is only for when we are away from a marina. Marina power is a whole new set of problems.

Marinas usually offer 30 amp, AC power. So that's great, right? But how does my entirely 12 volt DC boat work off of AC power? It can't. You now need an AC to DC converter. 

So, so far we have an inverter to change DC to AC and now a converter to change AC back to DC. I'm confused again. It seems that for every situation the boat could possibly be in, there is a completely different power set up.

If we're away from the marina we are completely DC, battery dependant. But in the marina we are AC shore power reliant and thus need to change the current to suit the wiring in our boat.

Is all this a scam to get more money somehow? It has to be. I don't understand why there are two different kinds of electricity. Regardless, I accept that this is the way it is, but why does everything for a boat need to be DC when the entire world runs on AC? It's not compatible and thus the companies can sell us more gadgets to make it all work together. 

They tell me DC is more efficient, consumes less energy, yada, yada, yada, but I don't see how more efficient it actually is in day to day living if you need so many other things just to plug in a regular toaster.

Tomorrow, we make another pilgrimage to West Marine to pick up the last things we need to start the electrical on the boat, AC power panel and circuit breakers, AC/DC converter, shore power connections, automatic transfer switch... I assume I will eventually discover how all this works, I have to if I want to feel confident in being able to run the boat and possibly fix any situations that may arise since so much of our necessities run on electrical (chart plotter, radar, depth sounder, bilge pumps, fridge...) but as of right now it is making my brain hurt.