Crownline

[Crownline]

Hi everyone,

I have purchased a Crownline 250CR and I am in Australia and I want to run shore power 240v into the 115v system that is currently wired in, as it is an American build boat.

Can anyone tell me what needs replaceing? I believe all wiring will be fine and I thiink it is just the power board that will have to be changed over?

Thanks heaps Crownline.

[ranger58sb]

Here in the U.S., we could probably just use a 50-amp (250v) to 30-amp (125v) splitter... and then run only one of the 30-amp lines to the boat.

It's actually quite common to use splitters here, especially with the many boats that need twin 30-amp input, when at marinas with only 50-amp shorepower pedestals available. In fact, many of the 50-amp boats here don't actually have any 220v systems onboard, but instead have two banks of 115v appliances, each bank powered by one leg of the 50-amp input.

-Chris

[CharlieJ]

The 240VAC/50Hz mains in Australia is not compatible with 120VAC/60Hz systems on your boat without some manipulation of the incoming power.

The 240VAC can be stepped down to a nominal 120VAC with a transformer. The frequency mismatch is a separate issue altogether. If the equipment onboard is truly universal with nameplates that state 100VAC/120VAC, 50Hz/60Hz then you only need to ensure that you have sufficient taps on the transformer to drop the voltage out of the transformer down to 100VAC and your "universal" equipment will run happily.

If that scheme won't work, then you can look at using a universal voltage battery charger to charge your house bank and run all of your US, 120VAC/60Hz equipment off of a properly sized inverter.

DO NOT, under any circumstances, simply provide the 240VAC/50Hz shore power to your vessel's AC system as every 120VAC piece of equipment subjected to this over voltage condition will dramatically fail.

[ranger58sb]

Good point about the cycle speed. OTOH, when we've lived outside the U.S., I've found mostly everything (although this wasn't boat related) works except for timekeeping devices... which also do work, but lose time. Not sure if that would apply to AC boat stuff or not.

Most appliances/devices that actually run on DC, whether supplied by a boat-wide or appliance/device-specific converter probably wouldn't care about clock speed.

The 50 to 30-amp (1x250 to 2x125v) splitters in common use here don't need a transformer, and each outcoming 30-amp 125v (60 Hz) line operates independently.

-Chris

[CharlieJ]

Chris-
You are correct...in the USA...NOT in Australia. Their mains are a hot and neutral with a safety ground. In Australia, the voltage between hot and neutral is 240VAC. Plug that into a 120VAC based vessel and all of the 'magic smoke' will escape from the 120VAC equipment. And we all know what happens when the 'magic smoke' escapes!

I've found mostly everything (although this wasn't boat related) works

And the fact that your experience with this operation was not boat related is germane since you probably were using fractional (1/10, 1/5) hp devices. The rotating equipment on a vessel are generally much larger than this and unless the equipment is dual voltage/dual frequency and those specs are adhered to, most equipment will operate very, very inefficiently and inefficiency equates to excessive heat which leads to premature failure.

[ranger58sb]

Ah, not 4-wire, 2-leg like we have here. Too bad, Charlie, maybe would have been a simple solution

Trying to think what AC equipment might be on what I think is a 25' express boat. Small fridge, which might even run on a DC compressor with it's own built-in AC-to-DC converter? Microwave? Reverse cycle air con, maybe (with water pump)? Range top (stove)?

-Chris