Last year I rewired boat completely with all new wiring, DC Pannel, lights ect. I also added a Blue Sea 110AC 30A distrubtion panel, but did not wire it up. no power at dock last year and no time. So now I am in process and need help. First off I have Centaur 20 charger, AGM Group 27 battery(1) , outboard motor with altenator (9V?). The battery, motor and supply to 12VDC pannel, are wired to Pos and Neg Bus bars. Between Bus Bar and battery is a 50A breaker, bus bars are then connected to battery switch and pannel. So on the 110v side I am coming from shore inlet to 30A breaker on pannel, with 10 ga wire, The AC Pannels 15A breaker twill then be wired charger, with 12GA wire, then from charger to battery bus bar. This is my basic plan.
Now the questions,
1. supply 110 10 Ga wire, do I need Fuse or breaker in line before AC Pannel? What type/Make? Run lenght under 10Ft
2. Do I need a GFI any were in circuit. I am not planing on installing a 110v Outlet at this time, maybe next year. If so what type/make/model?
3. What wire size from charger to battery bus bar? Its a short run 2-3ft
4. Color code, Green=Ground, White= Line and Black=Neutral?
I think that is all I can think of right now. This is a very basic system and would like to keep it that way.
Thanks Ted
Charger and 110AC questions
Charger and 110AC questions
Ted Beyer
1977, PY26
"Moor Room"
1977, PY26
"Moor Room"
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dmairspotter
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No breaker between your inlet and panel, but you need to keep that run as short as possible.
You might consider installing a galvanic isolator between the shore inlet and the panel on the green (ground) wire. You want to connect the main green wire from the panel to your ground system and the isolator prevents stray corrosion when you do this. Nigel Caulder covers this topic extensivly.
Never use anything less than 12 AWG wire for the AC side. 10 AWG is preferred, but for a short 2-3 foot run, 12 AWG should work.
Best practice is to keep your AC and DC wiring runs separate. In those places where they may intersect, make sure it is properly labled to avoid confusion (i.e. AC black = hot, DC black is ground). You might also consider using yellow for your DC ground if you haven't already done so.
Use GFIs in your outlets... but since you don't have any, don't worry about it. GFIs only react to a short (i.e. any difference in the voltage on the hot and neutral side trips it). Since your charger will be hardwired and you won't be handling it on a regular basis it should be fine by itself. I don't have any experience with that charger, but a good marine charger will be internally fused. You may want to fuse the DC hots to the batteries.
One word of caution here. MAKE SURE ALL YOUR AC CONNECTIONS ARE TIGHT AND SECURE. I had an experience with arcing from a loose connection a while back that started a fire in my electrical outlet... the GFIs and the circuit breakers will not protect against this since there is not necessarily any overamperage in an arcing situation... just a fire.
The loose connection was actually caused by a faulty electrical outlet where I used ring terminals to connect the wires. These outlets generally have captive screws that use a backing plate that is inaccessible in the outlet itself. In order to install ring terminals, I had to remove the screws and it was very hard to get the screw set correctly. Best to use captive forked terminals to connect to these screws on an outlet or find an outlet that will let you remove the scews without loosing the "backingplate" for the screws inside the outlet.
You might consider installing a galvanic isolator between the shore inlet and the panel on the green (ground) wire. You want to connect the main green wire from the panel to your ground system and the isolator prevents stray corrosion when you do this. Nigel Caulder covers this topic extensivly.
Never use anything less than 12 AWG wire for the AC side. 10 AWG is preferred, but for a short 2-3 foot run, 12 AWG should work.
Best practice is to keep your AC and DC wiring runs separate. In those places where they may intersect, make sure it is properly labled to avoid confusion (i.e. AC black = hot, DC black is ground). You might also consider using yellow for your DC ground if you haven't already done so.
Use GFIs in your outlets... but since you don't have any, don't worry about it. GFIs only react to a short (i.e. any difference in the voltage on the hot and neutral side trips it). Since your charger will be hardwired and you won't be handling it on a regular basis it should be fine by itself. I don't have any experience with that charger, but a good marine charger will be internally fused. You may want to fuse the DC hots to the batteries.
One word of caution here. MAKE SURE ALL YOUR AC CONNECTIONS ARE TIGHT AND SECURE. I had an experience with arcing from a loose connection a while back that started a fire in my electrical outlet... the GFIs and the circuit breakers will not protect against this since there is not necessarily any overamperage in an arcing situation... just a fire.
The loose connection was actually caused by a faulty electrical outlet where I used ring terminals to connect the wires. These outlets generally have captive screws that use a backing plate that is inaccessible in the outlet itself. In order to install ring terminals, I had to remove the screws and it was very hard to get the screw set correctly. Best to use captive forked terminals to connect to these screws on an outlet or find an outlet that will let you remove the scews without loosing the "backingplate" for the screws inside the outlet.