OK, I think I see where you're coming from. However, as you say, I'm aiming to put a fuse close to the battery in the -ve lead and as far as I can see that protects against more failures than putting it anywhere else.
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:26:58 +0100 someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk wrote this:-
What happens in those circumstances is not a guess. If there is a fault the fuse will not reliably break the current. You might be lucky and it will manage to break the current without damage. You might be unlucky and it manages to break the current, though with damage ranging from overheating to destruction of the fuse and things around it. You might be more unlucky and the fuse fails to break the current at all, meaning damage to the rest of the installation.
Fuses are better than circuit breakers when abused. A fuse might break the current eventually, a circuit breaker with the contacts welded together will probably not break the current.
That's just a switch, it's not difficult to buy battery isolation switches to do the same and they don't cost more than £200 like the one above! I can see good reasons for using something like the one above in motorsport and similar applications but it really isn't that necessary on a boat as long as you have a readily accessible mechanical switch.
True, I was just meaning that it isn't an overload protection device.
It's not actually clear whether the device in question is intended to
*switch* the current or not. Given that it's a solid state device it might actually be able to switch while on load without much distress.
Yes. The race car rules say you have to have a master wotsit that will isolate the battery whatever load is being drawn. In a crash the marshalls MUST be able to render the car safe in every sense electrically.
Those solid state isolators WILL switch full current.
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