220 V boats

[wailes]

What is the downside of a 220 V boat from Europe? If buying such a boat, is there a reason to convert to 110? Is life any more difficult cruising the Keys, Bahamas, Caribbean with a 220 boat than a 110. Are there issues with the Euro-inverter? Is there anything more you have to worry about other than not using your Home Depot power tools?

[skipmac]

Maybe a little more information. Does the boat have a generator on board or 220V 50 Hz inverter? Is the battery charger dual voltage or does is work only on 220? Is the boat loaded with 220V equipment?

[S/V Antares]

220 is easy, It is the frequency that might be a problem. Many euro products are 50 hertz and US and Bahamas supply 60 Hz. It will affect motor driven things like Airconditioning , clocks and perhaps your Inverter charger if fitted. Some chargers can be set for either 50 or 60 Hz. It is likely not as big a problem as one would think. It really depends on how much stuff is on the boat.

[MarkJ]

Its fine in the Caribbean as theres 220v in most marinas.

The only things you need to change if you wanted 110v (one would wonder why you would regress from propper eletricity into that of the USA...) is the batter charger and electric water heater element (not the whole heater) and 6 or so power outlets that you never use anyway


Disclaimer: The above wirtted by a layman.





Mark
PS Your home depot power tools are prolly fine as you recharge the batts off a mini inverter (NON-sine wave) from your 12 volts anyway.

[htraudes]

As a European (the Netherlands) engineer living in the US I should have an answer, but the question was asked very 'loosely'.
A lot of equipment does not care whether it is fed with 50 or 60Hz. A lot of PC- and other power supplies can even handle 100 to 240 Volts input. Pin configuration is of course different but that's easy to bridge.
Just be careful with transformers and converters to not use them over their power rating. E.g. do not run a 1,000 Watt hairdryer over a 100 Watt converter!!!!!
Power-eaters like hairdryers and ovens will be the biggest problem, but if you can afford a Euro boat, why not include some Euro equipment?

When dealing with all this it is handy to know what Volts, Amps, Watts and Hz mean so you can make good decisions before plugging something in........

[Joli]

We are wired for both 110/30 amp and 220/50 amp, it doesn't matter which outlet we plug into. If your gear is only usable with 50Hz then you will have to replace it when bringing the boat to the US.

[htraudes]

Beware that US 220 - 3 phase is a totally different power than Euro 220 - 2 phase!!!!!

[htraudes]

Oops, I meant Euro 220 - single phase. Runs over 2 wires + ground.
US 220 - 3 phase runs over 3 wires + ground. Internally US 220 equipment has three coils in motors and three heating coils. Three phase is meant to handle more power. Euro has 3 phase also, but their's is 380 Volts. My point is that US 220 washer, dryer, etc cannot be connected to Euro 220.

Another oops: I meant power bricks to laptop computers when I said that most PCs could handle 100 - 240 Volts. I forgot that many still have these big PCs. Sometimes their powersupply can be switched between 110/120 and 220/240. Again, they don't care if the power is 50 or 60 Hz.