Raw basics in marine electrical systems are covered nicely in Nigel Calder's book which is well worth the
price.
- - Big differences between marine/boat
wiring and any other wiring is be sure to use Marine Wire which has a different number of strands than other wire. Tinned stranded wire is the best.
- - All connections are made with "terminals" which are ring eye metal terminals that are attached to each items and panel by small machine screws. This is to prevent wires from being pulled loose during
boat movement.
- - All circuits (a wire going to a load/item) must be protected by a circuit breaker rated no larger than the carrying capacity of the size wire being used.
- - A new item is that each battery source (one or more batteries connected together) needs to have a "bus fuse" rated to the size of the battery
cables connected up close and personal to the actual batteries. From this "bus fuse" then your battery
cables go to the main power panel or the
engine starter.
- - Another new items is that major power items like inverters and chargers need to have a fuse at the charger/inverter end of the cables between the item and the main distribution panel.
- - All of this is based on protecting the pieces of wire connecting anything from being subjected to more amperes than the wire is rated to carry. If your shove 100 amperes down a 15 ampere rated wire it is very likely the wire will catch on fire. Which is a nasty thing to happen when you are sailing out of sight of land.