Onboard electricity and Energy
You think you have too little knowledge in marine electricity? Don’t worry! We are proposing a practical training course for skippers, not for engineers !
Previous Knowledge is not required.
What you will learn ?
- To understand different charging systems and electrical distribution circuits on boats, including for diesel engine.
- To know how to choose and integrate charging and storing energy equipments to insure self-sufficiency onboard.
- To know how to read a boat electrical plan and to confront it with the reality of the installation on board.
- To know how to do your electric balance sheet and to actively control your energy installation.
- To master the fault detection logic and the adapted tools.
What you must bring:
- The electrical diagram of your boat if you have it.
- Pictures of your electric installation (electrical panel, different items)
- An A4 notebook and a black and red pen.
- A camera.
DAY 1 – 9 AM – 12.30 AM
- Welcome and coffee time. Presentation of the sailors projects.
- Understand the importance of energy storage, on which the proper functioning of energy producers and consumers depends.
- Choice, batteries behaviors and monitoring methods. Short theoretical reminder of the basic units (Voltage, amperage, power consumption; their use on board).
- Journey to the heart of electrical distribution. Wiring of the entire charging and distribution circuit of a boat, including the diesel engine.
DAY 1 – 2 PM -5.30 PM
- Use the multimeter and handle the soldering iron and the crimping tool. Learn how to make waterproof and durable terminations, repair the VHF or GPS coaxial cable.
- Different charging modes and their particularities: engine alternators, windcharger, solar panels, hydro-generators, power generators, fuel cells.
- How to integrate them in an existing installation or anticipate a new boat equipment?
- Comparison of the loading capacities of the different producers, wiring of a solar controller and observation of the panel's production.
- Control my installation in an active way. Real integration of an energy manager in the charging circuit of a boat.
DAY 2 – 9 AM – 12.30 AM
- Electricity of a diesel engine. Dissection of the following elements: Control panel, sensors, relays, starter, alternators, plan reading.
- The control gestures and troubleshooting of these components. Change an alternator regulator, solve an engine panel failure, repair a starter.
- Practical exercises on engine benches. At the end of the course, you will all have solved five different electrical breakdowns on a diesel engine and will be able to restart it with a 1 meter long cable.
- Understand the electrical diagram of an engine.
DAY 2 – 2 PM – 5.30 PM
- Calculation of cable sections. How to check the standards and size correctly the equipment protections. (circuit breakers, fuses)
- Understand the data sheet of an equipment. To find your way through the technical terms: Bipolar coupling relay, voltage drop free distributor, non-isolated from the ground alternator, MPPT regulator...
- Complete wiring of a windlass with its relay and its control.
- Restarting a diesel engine after an electrical failure.
- The energy balance of my boat.
