How Many Circuit Breakers in Your Panel?

[mikefossl]

We have 20 but I have a smaller fuse panel with 12 separate circuits for electronics: instruments, chart plotter, AIS receiver, VHF, sat phone dock, radar, NMEA 2000 network, HF radio receiver, GPS and second chart plotter. Hey I have one spare...what to buy, what to buy...

[Badsanta]

There is a nice large Blue sea panel on Ebay now. I have one like it on my 31foot

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by serah

So, how many circuits breakers do you have? Is 32 circuit breakers ridiculous?

I've got 26 on a panel I desiged myself. Wish I had planned in a few more spares so 32 isn't out of the question.

[serah]

We hashed it out (again) last night. We decided to go simple in the end: a Blue Sea panel with 24 traditional toggle switches for DC, plus a separate panel with 8 for AC, plus a fuse block. We chose the traditional toggles instead of the 360 system as there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to have a toggle guard option on the 360 system. Going down to the 24 positions opened up a fair bit of room on our limited total navigation table space. We currently fill all 24 positions. If we do decide we need a few more, we can build a separate panel for the navigation lights, as suggested and free up two or three more breakers. We ended up saving about $1000 from going with a custom Blue Sea 360 panel, as we can now buy their standard pieces.

Lighting will be all LED, though we have a few halogen lights currently while we liveaboard and upgrade her. We decided to go with the idea of Port and Starboard for interior lighting. We will be adding a small switch panel near the engine controls for our exterior lights, and a small switch panel just inside the companionway for cockpit lights and saloon lights (this way we can move to either and have the lights on ahead of us.)

Final list:
Tricolour Light
Navigation lights (deck level)
Steaming Light
Anchor Light
Port Lights
Starboard Lights
Exterior lights (to switches)
Engine Room Lights

Instruments (GPS, depth sounder, & compass light, as the way we have our Nav. lights, the compass light doesn't really work on that breaker)
Radar
Autopilot
Computer
Network
Stereo
SSB
Heater

Freshwater Pump
Shower Sump
Washdown Pump
Watermaker
Refrigerator/Freezer
Fans
12V Inside Outlets
12V Outside Outlet

Thanks for all the input!

[belizesailor]

Since you are re-doing the electrical anyway, it would be a good time to include some security related circuits for motion sensors, lights, alarms, etc. Having a switch securely and close-by down below where you can flood the decks of your boat with light and sound a loud alarm is very effective.

[Hudson Force]

I have 12 breakers on my 12VDC distribution panel and 10 breakers on my AC distribution panel. I don't feel any pressure or limitation with this number. As others have said, they can be clustered by type and further dsitributed among fused circuits.

[goboatingnow]

48 breakers on dc 24 on AC

Dave

[Badsanta]

I used one of these. Freed up some breakers and made my nav lights real convenient. Navigation Lights Control Panel by Borel Manufacturing Inc.

[lookoutnw]

I ended up building my own. Used the blue sea breakers 1 panel has the 2 shore power selectors, custom made for my boat's electrical config. 1 for boat ops - 21ea 12VDC, 1 panel for House 14 ea 110VAC and 14ea 12VDC 1 panel with 3 ea Rule bilge pump control switches/fuses
Yep, couldn't afford the Off teh shelf panels, so I used a portable drill press, made a jig, made it happen. Piece of cake

[JayCall]

I was just reading a white paper on distributed electrical systems in boats. Several different panels and controls rather than a single panel iwth everything run through it. Looked pretty interesting, big savings in the amount of wire run as well as more control and diagnostics over the electrical systems. Might wwant to at least take a look if you haven't invested much yet. The two companies mentioned were www.capi2.com and www. e-plex.com. If I were rewiring from scratch, I certainly would at least look at the option.

[David M]

I made my own circuit breaker panel out of glossy black plastic. It looks professional, I got exactly the shape I needed and there are a few spares for future circuits. You do have to have the time and patience and be decent working with cutting tools and plastics.

[Microship]

Just saw this thread while a-googlin' for something related... I'm in the process of re-doing my power distribution panel now. I went with Blue Sea traditional breakers, and made the substrate out of half-inch King Starboard...

I'm in the process of prewiring it, hoping to make the transfer into the boat in the next few days. There's a list of what's on the panel on my console devices page (section #2).

Cheers from Nomadness,
Steve

[vonley]

We are about to start our electrical overhaul. It's a 1976 32', and starting from a relatively barebone system. The old DC fuse panel is beyond repair, and for a variety of reasons, we've decided to go with a circuit breaker system primarily. We will have a small fuse block available as well for items that are better to be fused. Also, all loads that require it will be fused at the load as well. For some of the loads, the circuit breaker will also be used as the switch.

Despite being a small boat, we are adding a lot of systems to her, including computer based chartplotter, refrigeration, watermaker etc. As we make a list of all the items, I'm blown away at the number of breakers we'll need. So, how many circuit breaker replacement installs did you do? Is 32 circuit breakers ridiculous? It seems that if we try really hard, we can get the number down to 24 breakers, with absolutely no room for extras. 28 is comfortable.

Due to the way our electrical panel can be sized it seems that we either get 24 breakers, or 32. We're leaning on a custom Blue Sea Systems 360 panel, set up as 2 high by 5 wide: 2 high by 4 wide for 32 rocker circuit breakers for DC, and the remaining 2 high by 1 wide for 8 breakers for our AC panel with switch for shore/inverter, plus AC loads. This feels like a lot to me, but every time we work through it, it seems the best option for all loads, plus leaving a little extra for unexpected projects.

(I searched the archives, but didn't find this topic addressed)

I ended up doing a count of 23 and it just so happened that two of them had tripped. I had to get two new replacements and ended up getting cutler hammer breakers.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, vonley.

[rcmpegasus]

I just installed a new system on my boat using the Blue Sea 360 modules. They are real nice, look good and are easy to tell their status. I have never counted how many I used as my system is not a standard approach. I have a main panel in salon, run large conductors to each compartment and then a small panel in the compartment. Ended up with five blue sea panels. I recommend them, expensive but worth it.

Here is my main panel AC and DC and my engine room /galley panel.