Electricity and boats

[Richard Savage]

Well, he's had the genny for yonks (courtesey eBay) and I have a choice of two UPSs that I suspect he could use for isolation and/or conditioning(?).

Richard

[Richard Savage]

Indeed I have and I'm glad you've enjoyed the read. Interestingly when I looked at the waterways group there were far fewer replies and suspect that there is a wider pool of knowledge here. Some of my previous posts have elicited answers that came from an impressively wide range of areas of expertise.

Rgds Richard

[brian]

Sounds like HE is in luck, If it was all bought new it would cost quite a bit. Enjoy yourself knowing that there will be a job well done.

[Pete C]

If you're on a shore line and want to use an electric kettle or heater a 6A MCB would keep tripping, so you might as well use the 16A one instead.

Maybe, a lot of boats have a 'house' battery so adding an £20 150W inverter would pretty cheap. It's a very good point though, as a UPS can make a great inverter and battery charger if you know what you're doing.

If using a floating earth and a damaged shore line shorted to the hull you would end up with a live hull which isn't too good! An RCD or isolation transformer would only protect you in this case if it's on the supply end of the shore line.

A galvanic isolator can be just a couple of bridge rectifiers bolted to a suitable piece of metalwork, the bigger ones have blade terminals which makes connecting them quite easy.

Funny how you notice these things 10 seconds after pressing the send button!

cheers, Pete.

[Lurch]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:01:16 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Pete C strung together this:

If you look at the product the OP mentioned the RCD is connected to two parallel connected MCB's, designed for use in garages so the 16A would be used for sockets and the 6A for lighting.

Or that, I suppose it depends what you've already got and what you've got laying around the place.

As I said, not a boat person but from looking at some other info on google groups and elsewhere on the web it seems that whatever you do there is always a risk of the installation becoming dangerous from other influences. I think a 100% safe and foolproof installation is nigh on impossible on a boat.

[Pete C]

I wasn't sure whether you meant as well as or instead of. Using the 6A for a separate lighting circuit is fine, it just means a bit more wiring.

It's not that impossible. Although you're less likely to get hurt if you're are aware of all the dangers, not everyone is so you make it as safe as possible for everybody.

cheers, Pete.

[Christian McArdle]

Out of interest, I've just bought exactly this unit for my shed. It looks pretty good, particularly on the sealing. TBH, I'm surprised its only IP55, it looks more IP66 to my eyes, with rubber seals anywhere that opens.

Christian.

[Owain]

"Pete C" wrote | >Why don't you want him to use the 6A mcb? | If you're on a shore line and want to use an electric kettle or | heater a 6A MCB would keep tripping, so you might as well use | the 16A one instead.

What would seem to be ideal would be some form of multi-pole interlocked load shedding / main switch such that:

UPS/inverter - connects only standby lighting and key navigation equip Genny - connect lighting and navigation equip and Little Sockets (telly etc) Mains - connects everything including Big Sockets (kettle and oven etc)

possibly with auto genny start on load sensing / battery charging status

Owain