Electrical Panel replacement

[Jim Jones]

Not sure if this is the right section of the forum for this or not, but there was nowhere obvious that an electrical question for a boat goes...even though it is not about batteries or solar.

I am going to undergo a refit and am looking at the electrical systems onboard.

The electrical panel is quite old. The boat was made in 1987 and it looks like the electrical panel is what it left the yard with. I would look to modernise the boat electrical system and this would (potentially) include rewiring the boat with a digital switching system.

Reasons for wanting to replace wiring is to be sure there is no wiring on the boat that may be in a dangerous condition and to be sure the wiring is in tip top shape and not a hotch potch of wiring jobs/repairs/additions done one upon the other over the years. Electrical wiring looms are complicated enough without having to figure out some ones addition or back yard fix that may have occurred in 1998 or 2006 etc. It represents a brilliant chance to bring the electrical system into the 2020's. Things like the Maretron Mpower system,

https://www.maretron.com/products/mpower.php

Sim Marine lighting control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmI-7z4_vUM

The panel itself looks quite old and dated - what is the life of the switches/circuit breakers/fuses on an old panel ?



I want to redo the whole Nav Station/electrical panel area as it looks quite dated and a bit of a mess at present.



So considering all of the above and from reading done so far it appears as though if one were to install one of the Maretron TSM810C 8" vessel monitoring and control touchscreens then all the monitoring and switching could be done from the monitor and/or a PC.

Is there any need for a traditional electrical panel with a digital switching system?