Rewiring a UK boat to USA specs

[Lowcountry]

Boom23, I think I may be leaning more towards that route, as it may be the path of least resistance (bad pun, but yeah). I really just need to sit down with my electrician and hash it all out.

[nickvh]

Im going through the same process for our Jeanneau, we will use a mastervolt isolation transformer to take the two hot leads on a 50A shore power and send that into the boat as 250 using the same wiring. To me the expense of that vs rewiring and redoing AC panels etc was worth it. We also have a regular transformer to provide a few 110 outlets.

[rbrake]

Stay with 220. Pick up a double 110 to 220 Y converter. You may have to check the marina to make sure that even on their 110 docks they start with 240 and alternate the sides or stations to use different legs so your 110 legs are always L1 to Common and L2 to Common instead of 2 x L1 or 2 times L2. If you land on a 240VAC/50 Amp dock all the better. Make sure the compressor on your system is rated 208 - 240VAC 50-60 Hz. Most are, but occasionally they are not labeled as such depending on the market.

There are only a handful of small A/C compressor manufacturers so nearly everyone will be using the same compressors albeit with differing inputs and ratings.

[gultekin]

Originally Posted by Lowcountry

Greetings, all. I've just put a Hans Christian 33 under contract. She was wired for the UK, so she's set up for 220VAC. I live in the US and will be bringing the boat over once I've closed on her. Instead of switching out the UK wiring, I was pondering the feasibility of keeping that system intact (in case I ever bring the boat back across to the Med), and adding in a separate US 30amp 110VAC shorepower service. My electrical requirements wouldnt be that great. Maybe four outlets, a water heater and a small reverse-cycle AC unit (8000BTU). This would require adding a new charger/inverter and disconnecting the existing charger/inverter from the battery bank and ship's electrical panel. All of the new service would require adding US spec AC wiring, of course, as the gauge of the UK wiring is insufficient. So basically install the 30-amp inlet, install the US-spec AC wiring, US-spec charger/inverter, water heater (or simply swapping the heating element), wiring and outlets. It doesn't appear to be too complicated to do this, but I'm absolutely not an electrician. I spoke briefly on the phone about it with a professional certified marine electrician who didn't think it would be too problematic to achieve. Do any of you here have experience with anything like this? Thoughts? What am I missing?

I have a UK speck boat. If you have 50amp shore power available you don’t have to change anything except rewire the power cord. It’s no different than the wiring of home dryers - they run on 220-240V. Check to make sure that your AC unit runs at 60hertz. If 30amp is the only option you need two shore outlets to combine them to get 220-240V.

[mikecambrai]

I would and have added a 110v to 230v transformer, the sort that you get on building sites. Mine from ebay was £50. I then added a 110v socket alongside the 230v socket on deck so that if I had 230v or 110v AC I would have all the existing systems running.
You must avoid plugging into both shore support plugs at the same time for safety reasons. What I did was to take the inputs of both shore powers to 2 separate single AC sockets. Then the boat's supply was connected to either socket with a simple plug such that I could now have either the 110v upgraded to 230 via the transformer OR the 230v AC going straight into the boat. I only required 13 amps for the boat usage so a simple fused plug was sufficient.
To run AC you either need a generator or you must run the shore supply as the current taken with AC far exceeds anything that your onboard inverter can provide continuously via batteries.
Incidentally, if you are running an inverter make sure that the AC to the battery charger does not come from the inverter circuit but can only come from either shore support lines. I achieve this by again having 2 separate sockets each fed by either shore source, then plugging in the battery charger to the live socket.
Keep it simple! You can get all singing and dancing inverter-chargers but they are just something else to go wrong! And they do, leaving you scratching your head!

[EngNate]

Your biggest issue here is 60 vs 50Hz power. All your AC powered equipment with motors or transformers have to be made for 50/60Hz. Also, most marinas that do have [220-240V] power actually are 208V because they are on 3 phase systems. As mentioned, many marinas in the US southeast only have 120V.


The really best solution if there is possibly space and budget for it is a shore power converter from Atlas, Asea Systems, or possibly other makers. It's expensive but a lot less than rewiring the boat and replacing the 50Hz equipment. It is a complete solution and would allow you to run on whatever power is available anywhere in the world.

[Lowcountry]

Originally Posted by EngNate

Your biggest issue here is 60 vs 50Hz power. All your AC powered equipment with motors or transformers have to be made for 50/60Hz. Also, most marinas that do have [220-240V] power actually are 208V because they are on 3 phase systems. As mentioned, many marinas in the US southeast only have 120V.


The really best solution if there is possibly space and budget for it is a shore power converter from Atlas, Asea Systems, or possibly other makers. It's expensive but a lot less than rewiring the boat and replacing the 50Hz equipment. It is a complete solution and would allow you to run on whatever power is available anywhere in the world.

Thanks. The only 50HZ equipment on the boat is the water heater, so it isn't really an issue.

[mjscottinnc]

A transformer can be wired to step up or step down. Transformers are normally thought of as lowering voltage as in 240 VAC to 120VAC, like a 2:1 step down transformer. But most will have a HV (high voltage) and LV (low voltage) winding, so if you wired 120 V into the LV winding, you will get 240 V out at the HV winding on a 2:1 transformer.


The Hz (cycles per second) really only effects things inductive which were specifically designed for a certain frequency. Most of the newer devices: chargers, many appliances, newer inverter operated air conditioners convert the line voltage to DC first and then use it by converting it back to AC or stepping down the DC to a usable value. Check out the specs on the devices you are running, if they state universal input (which is typically 85 - 250 VAC, 47 - 63 Hz) its being converted to DC first. Many newer devices also have PFC (Power Factor Corrector) which is used in conjunction with taking the AC and making DC, the PFC will step up any low voltage to a constant value to the power electronics.

This is a transformer that can be wired either way. https://www.ebay.com/itm/173862945827

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by gultekin

I have a UK speck boat. If you have 50amp shore power available you don’t have to change anything except rewire the power cord. It’s no different than the wiring of home dryers - they run on 220-240V. Check to make sure that your AC unit runs at 60hertz. If 30amp is the only option you need two shore outlets to combine them to get 220-240V.

Be careful about using U.S. 220 volt washers and driers from British, Australian, NZ, Spanish etc 240 volt sockets, these include 1 live, 1 neutral and 1 earth wires.

The U.S. 240 V appliances often have 110 V motors and timers in them which will react violently to being plugged into 240 V. The 240 V is only used for the heaters in them. The 3 point plug includes 2 live and one neutral terminals with the 110 V components wired from one of the lives to neutral and the 240 V components wired between the 2 lives. You can rewire them to run on the live, neutral, earth scheme by putting a 240 to 110 transformer in them to run the 110 V components and wire the heating coils across the 240 live and neutral.

[tDot]

I only read part of the thread, and didnt notice this mentioned previously.

Wire sizing can change between 240 and 120. On our Hanse, the wiring was sized sufficiently to allow its' use when we converted some of it to 120. On several Beneteu's that I have looked at, the wiring was not sufficient and would have had to be upsized.

[jspla1]

Bonus for you or your next purchaser: when you travel with the boat to a 220/240V country you only need to change the jumpers to 240V input and everything will carry on working perfectly, and continue to be protected.[/QUOTE]

How easy is it to change the jumpers setting of a Victron Isolation transformer. I ask given that my boat is currently in the Caribbean where the need to change setting between 110 & 220 countries could happen quite often

I also found this unit below at a marine parts store. Seems it would answer most of the concerns voiced in the various posts. If anyone is familiar with this company, any input would be welcomed

Jose

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by jspla1

Bonus for you or your next purchaser: when you travel with the boat to a 220/240V country you only need to change the jumpers to 240V input and everything will carry on working perfectly, and continue to be protected.

How easy is it to change the jumpers setting of a Victron Isolation transformer. I ask given that my boat is currently in the Caribbean where the need to change setting between 110 & 220 countries could happen quite often

I also found this unit below at a marine parts store. Seems it would answer most of the concerns voiced in the various posts. If anyone is familiar with this company, any input would be welcomed

JoseAttachment 196347[/QUOTE]

The Victron has two 120V input windings that you jumper in parallel for 110/120V or in series for 220/240V. Very easy.

Note that the Victron is 3.6kW which matches the standard US 30A shore power feeds. That South African one on the picture is only 3kW.

[gultekin]

I have UK wired boat. I connect to 110V 50amp shore power in the states and in the Bahamas. I jury rigged power cord with 2 110 V hot lines and a return (no ground). I didn’t have to change any of the onboard controllers etc. AC will run @ 60 hertz without a problem. Pumps are almost all rated @ 50/60 hertz. Water heaters don’t care about it anyway. If the A/C wires are designed for 220 or higher I would not recommend running 110 through them. 110 will require ticker quake on wires.

[boom23]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

How easy is it to change the jumpers setting of a Victron Isolation transformer. I ask given that my boat is currently in the Caribbean where the need to change setting between 110 & 220 countries could happen quite often.

Victron has an Auto isolation transformer and a Manual one. I had the Manual one. By moving a couple of jumpers I could change the output voltage. It is easy depending on how reachable is the transformer.

The PDF manual is available at the Victron website.