450: 120V Power on a 220V Boat

[mdhanlon]

My new L450F is wired for European power and plugs. As the boat is based in St. Vincent, this makes a lot of sense, but eventually the plan is to sail her for 2+ years on our own, when she gets out of charter. I'll be putting in a lot of solar (2kw+) so should have ample electrical power.

So my question to the electrical geniuses:

I'd like to be able to run up to 1500W of 120V power in the galley for a few Canadian kitchen gadgets from a single outlet. What's my best option?

Possibilities that I've considered:
1) Buy European gadgets and not deal with the hassle. Difficult to obtain in Canada where I currently live.

2) Run the Canadian gadgets with a voltage transformer off of the 220V and hope that they like the 50 Hz power.

3) Install a second inverter off of the 12V battery bank with a single 120V outlet installed in the galley.

Any other options that I haven't thought of?

[Lepke]

Amazon in the UK should have your kitchen appliances. A little more in shipping, but far less than inverters, wiring, etc. The advantage to 220v is it draws about 1/2 the amps as 110. Smaller wiring, breakers, and so on.

[Bean Counter]

Ours is also 240V 50 Hz

You can buy European wired gear in the USA. We bought a clothes washer from these guys in Texas freight was $100 to Florida

http://www.world-import.com/

I think there is also another business closer to Canada.

In addition, we installed a 2000 Watt 110 V inverter to run US appliances (eg. sewing machine) . It is a Xantrex with two GFIC outlets with a remote wired on/off in panel cabinet . We installed the inverter under the TV cabinet and connected to positive and negative bus bar with appropriate Terminal fuse. We can run a heavy duty 15 amp 3 wire extension cable (outdoor type) under the floor to the galley area if required. You would need to cut a hole big enough for plug end and then attach a power board. You could get 4+ switched outlets that way. That way there is no need to do any wiring of outlets etc and there is ground fault protection inbuilt.

[Hobie_ind]

Originally Posted by mdhanlon

I'd like to be able to run up to 1500W of 120V power in the galley for a few Canadian kitchen gadgets from a single outlet. What's my best option?

Possibilities that I've considered:
1) Buy European gadgets and not deal with the hassle. Difficult to obtain in Canada where I currently live.

2) Run the Canadian gadgets with a voltage transformer off of the 220V and hope that they like the 50 Hz power.

3) Install a second inverter off of the 12V battery bank with a single 120V outlet installed in the galley.

Any other options that I haven't thought of?

Our Amel was 220V and we're Canadian so we had the same concerns initially. After 3 years of full time cruising in the Caribbean, Central America and the South Pacific, my preference for my next cruising boat is 220V, as it's MUCH more common in the rest of the world. To your questions though, here's my thoughts:

1) This makes the most sense, but unless you're planning on shipping a lot of stuff that you already have, you'll find that the Caribbean (particularly Martinique & St Martin) will have any gadget you probably want to buy. so I wouldn't worry too much about having to get them in Canada.

2) Wouldn't bother.

3) We had a single 120 V inverter that we used for various items that we brought from Canada (ie. power tools - drill/grinder/sander), a couple of small kitchen 'gadgets', laptop chargers, etc), and it worked great. A lot of them could have been charged with the 220 V system with plug adapters, but we had it so didn't bother. One thing to consider, if you bring 120 V power tools with you, ensure you bring a couple of extension cords as 120 V extension cords are tougher to find in the Caribbean other than places like Antigua and USVI where the grid was apparently put in by the Americans, so they're 120 V.

Have fun. We cruised on and off for about a year through Colombia, Panama, Galapagos and the South Pacific with a family on a L450 and they loved it.

Regards,
Mark

[akprb]

We had the exact same issue!

Order the Euro toaster and forget about all the 120v.

Your dock at home will be 220, your battery charger is 220 and today you can get on Amazon and get all the 220 you want for less than........220 :-)

Good luck! KISS principle

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by mdhanlon

My new L450F is wired for European power and plugs. As the boat is based in St. Vincent, this makes a lot of sense, but eventually the plan is to sail her for 2+ years on our own, when she gets out of charter. I'll be putting in a lot of solar (2kw+) so should have ample electrical power.

So my question to the electrical geniuses:

I'd like to be able to run up to 1500W of 120V power in the galley for a few Canadian kitchen gadgets from a single outlet. What's my best option?

Possibilities that I've considered:
1) Buy European gadgets and not deal with the hassle. Difficult to obtain in Canada where I currently live.

2) Run the Canadian gadgets with a voltage transformer off of the 220V and hope that they like the 50 Hz power.

3) Install a second inverter off of the 12V battery bank with a single 120V outlet installed in the galley.

Any other options that I haven't thought of?

Option three makes the most sense. You will get good clean 120V 60Hz power for your very sensible power demand.