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Old 01-04-2013, 06:47   #1
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Wiring Bilge Blower

Guys I gave googled my tail off and cannot find a logical answer, so I am presenting this to the forum.


The PO of boat did some interesting things to the wiring. My present problem is that the blower can only be controlled by the breaker below decks. I assumed that the solution was just running a wire to and from the switch on the engine panel at the helm. When I got into the project I found that the panel switch was already wired to the ignition. So I now have two hot leads.

Lead #1 from panel to blower controlled by the blower breaker.

Lead #2 from the hot leg on the ignition switch, through in-line fuse to switch on panel, from switch to the blower. This line was snipped and left next to the blower.

Everything I found on the Internet called for a standard 3-way switch, but there is no sign of that was ever done here. The Tartan wiring diagram does not show this connection. My DC wiring skills are rusty, but everything I know about AC screams that tying these two hot lead together and feeding the blower with them is a bad thing....

So the $25,000 question is.... How should the blower be wired such that it can be controlled from either the helm/engine panel or the breaker panel.


Thanks

Bill
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Old 01-04-2013, 08:16   #2
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Re: Wiring Bilge Blower

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snore View Post
Guys I gave googled my tail off and cannot find a logical answer, so I am presenting this to the forum.


The PO of boat did some interesting things to the wiring. My present problem is that the blower can only be controlled by the breaker below decks. I assumed that the solution was just running a wire to and from the switch on the engine panel at the helm. When I got into the project I found that the panel switch was already wired to the ignition. So I now have two hot leads.

Lead #1 from panel to blower controlled by the blower breaker.

Lead #2 from the hot leg on the ignition switch, through in-line fuse to switch on panel, from switch to the blower. This line was snipped and left next to the blower.

Everything I found on the Internet called for a standard 3-way switch, but there is no sign of that was ever done here. The Tartan wiring diagram does not show this connection. My DC wiring skills are rusty, but everything I know about AC screams that tying these two hot lead together and feeding the blower with them is a bad thing....

So the $25,000 question is.... How should the blower be wired such that it can be controlled from either the helm/engine panel or the breaker panel.


Thanks

Bill
I suspect your PO clipped the wire from the blower to the engine panel because when the secondary hot feed is enabled, to activate the blower without the engine running, which is nice to blow hot air out of the engine compartment for awhile after the engine's been shut down, the secondary lead would energize the low pressure alarm on the engine panel when the engine was not operating. A more simple/useful solution would have been to add a diode in the line between the panel and the blower to prevent "feed back" power to the panel from the blower when the secondary switch is enabled. We have such an arrangement on our boat as I do like to blow the hot air out of the engine compartment for 20 or 30 minutes after we've shut down the engine although the blower does pull a good bit of power so one does not want to run it for an unduely long period.

FWIW...
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Old 01-04-2013, 10:34   #3
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s/v HyLyte


Thanks..Since the ignition lead comes off the "Hot" leg and not the "Run" leg of the ignition switch- the blower is isolated from the alarm as the alarm is on the "Run" terminal of the switch.

That while the DC back-feed thing is probably more of a mental than engineering issue, I'll work out the specs on the diode.....

Cheers

Bill
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