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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Battery Chargers
Posted By: Vic Roy In Response To: Re: Battery Chargers (Mike Kennedy)
Date: Thursday, 21 October 2004, at 6:00 p.m.
Mikey, no not in one blueprint. The boat was rewired by a coonass shipyard that was owned by the Steward at the time down on Bayou Lafourche, Mr. Pitre. The wiring on these boats is actually very simple, so let's take the 12 volt system first.
Think of 12 VDC as a water hose. Current flows from the + side to the - side just like water. It flows from the + (red) side to the - (black) side. I'll put the engine starting wires aside for another day, again very straight forwards.
Let's look at the house 12 v system: First, you need to decide where your main breaker panel will be, many of us use the stb. hanging locker. Plan on running #2 battery cable + and - from a battery switch to the main panel. AJ has a plastic GE household panel with room for about 12 breakers. Coonass yes, compared to the fancy ones, but has worked flawlessly for many years. Many of the house functions have their own breaker there, cabin lights, head, docking lights, bilge pumps (there should always be one bilge pump wired straight to the batteries, no breaker, just a heavy in-line fuze), etc.
Then there is what is called in the trade a 'branch circuit' that goes thru a heavy amp breaker on the main panel to say your electronics box. Heavy wire, a clean + and - to another panel or fuze block, where your radios, ff, vhf, etc are controlled. I have a 30 amp breaker in the main panel in the cabin marked 'radio box' that has a pair of #6 wires that goes to a 6 gang fuze block with switches in the FB overhead electronics box, and all the gizmos have their own switch and fuze, altho some may feed two things, since you know how many gizmos AJ has.
You can have as many branch circuits as you need off the main panel, just use heavy wire. And always Ancor tinned marine wire.
When I put the Icom 802 SSB in a couple of years ago, it needed a 30 amp circuit, so ran a new wire to the FB from the main panel just for it, since I was concerned that the 'radio box' wire going upstairs might get overloaded. Had run out of breaker spaces in the main box in the cabin, so combined the two blowers that each had their own into one since I never use them (diesel boat). Did the same when upgraded the radar to the 48 mile, since it's a power hog when set on the longer ranges.
The basic principle is to take a very large amp capable pair of wires to the main breaker box and branch off to other ciruits from there, but keep the idea of water thru a hose and it's just a matter of how big a hose you need.
This has gotten long, so I'll do another on engine starting battery cable circuits and 120 vac stuff.
UV
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