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Old 16-06-2012, 07:04   #1
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European power/US boat

I have a US boat with 240V/50A 60 cycle shore power requirements. All loads are 120V. But now in an area of 220V 50 cycle power. Transformers can solve the voltage problem, but not the frequency. I'm a little leery of running my refrigeration compressors on 50 cycles, so temporarily I rigged a universal input voltage 60A charger to the house batteries and use my inverter to supply the correct power. It works....but

1) Is there a proper way to ground this? Or at least a best way? So far, I've just kept it isolated except for the battery connections. Shore power cord goes direct to the battery charger.

2) Is there some other way to do this I'm missing.....
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Old 16-06-2012, 07:08   #2
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Re: European power/US boat

Is the charger a marine charger?

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Old 16-06-2012, 07:10   #3
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Old 16-06-2012, 07:16   #4
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Re: European power/US boat

OK, per the techman and the ABYC Standards, a case ground is required from the battery charger case to the vessel ground. It can be one size smaller than the B+ and B- conductors.

To your more general question, operating rotating machinery (e.g., compressors) that are designed for 60 Hz on 50 Hz power will shorten their life, sometimes dramatically. Your method for supplying 60 Hz power is an excellent solution.

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Old 16-06-2012, 07:28   #5
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I can do that, but now I have a neutral wire of my inverted ships power connected to the neutral wire of the marina power. Is this a good idea? Just seems wrong somehow.

Your suggestion follows the general rule to ground at the power source, but to be honest, I'm more concerned about stray galvanic currents being introduced.

Does ABYC have a section that deals with multiple AC power sources? I never even envisioned this till now.
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Old 16-06-2012, 07:50   #6
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Re: European power/US boat

OK, is the inverter a marine inverter? If so, does it have pass through capability?
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Old 16-06-2012, 08:07   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlieJ
OK, is the inverter a marine inverter? If so, does it have pass through capability?
Charlie
It is a marine inverter and has pass through. When it sees shore power, it unbinds the neutral. When inverting, it ties the neutral to ships ground. A magnum 2012.
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Old 16-06-2012, 14:43   #8
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Re: European power/US boat

OK-your concern about stray current is not applicable to the neutral...stray (and more importantly and common, galvanic) current comes and goes via your safety ground wire. This can be mitigated by a galvanic isolator and stopped completely by an isolation transformer.

So for your particular instance, having the inverter supplied by shore power is no different than supplying a stereo from shore power. You have no issues...really.

Hope this helps.
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Old 16-06-2012, 15:11   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlieJ
OK-your concern about stray current is not applicable to the neutral...stray (and more importantly and common, galvanic) current comes and goes via your safety ground wire. This can be mitigated by a galvanic isolator and stopped completely by an isolation transformer.

So for your particular instance, having the inverter supplied by shore power is no different than supplying a stereo from shore power. You have no issues...really.

Hope this helps.
Charlie
Charlie,

Thanks for your time. I wish I had an isolation transformer, but have not figured out where to put one. I do have an isolator.

The inverter is not supplied with shore power. It won't accept 240 VAC in, at least as its presently wired. If it would, it still would pass the 50 cycle AC to ships equipment. But everything requires 120 VAC which is not present.

The charger is separate from the inverter in this operational mode. I simply have a 16 amp 220V shore power cord running to the engine room directly powering the charger. It keeps the batteries up, and the inverter creates the 120 VAC at 60 cycles for most things. I still have to run the generator to cook...all electric boat and the stove is not wired to the inverter since the load would be too high for more than one heating element.

The right answer is one of those fancy systems megayachts use to take any power source and convert it to whatever the ships standard is. The issue is they are probably worth more than my boat! At most I figure I might have 6 weeks at docks like this over the next year before I get back to the US. Some will be 127V/50 cycle and again the charger will work. So something fancy is not in the cards.

The point is, if I ground the temporary charger, I have linked the safety ground from inverted power to the shore based ground system. I'm not sure that's very good either.

There may be no best way to do this....

Regards, Bob
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Old 17-06-2012, 06:26   #10
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"The point is, if I ground the temporary charger, I have linked the safety ground from inverted power to the shore based ground system. "

Bob-
I understand your "system" now. Since you have a galvanic isolator installed, bonding the case of the temporary charger to the vessel ground would create a bypass path around the GI. The simplest way around this dilemma is to run the case ground to the shore side of the GI. This will give you the fault current protection required and keep the shore ground and vessel ground isolated to galvanic currents by the GI.

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Old 17-06-2012, 06:37   #11
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Re: European power/US boat

Ho do you have an American boat with 240 Volts and 50 HZ. Thats Australian power,

USA is 110 volts and 60 HZ.

I am currently changing mine from 110 to 240. My boat was American and now lives in Australia,

I would not have changed it, except all my electrics got drowned, So I dont have any thing left thats 110volts,
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