kadey Krogen 120V boat

[Dauntlessny]

I have a Kadey Krogen 42, it's a 110v boat with two 110 circuits for my two A/C units. I have an inverter/charger on one circuit and a charger for the house bank on the other circuit. This second charger I generally don't use.

we're coming to Europe this summer and the boat will be in 220v land for the foreseeable future.

My questions:

1. Can I just get one isolation transformer and connect it to either the inverter/charger or just the charger?
2. Can I use a non isolation transformer (they're much cheaper)?
3. I don't want to pay $3,000 for a big isolation transformer,
4. I could live without the ACs, at least for the first year and am willing to bet small 240v appliances, therefore the idea to get one transformer for the charger. Good? bad, ugly?

Also the water heater is 110v, everything else is 12v, including fridge/freezer, tv is both.

THe more I look at this the more is seems that I can get by relatively cost effectively by just adding one 5000 watt transformer that would power my circuit 1, which has on it the one charger (actually two, connected to the engine start, the house bank and the gen strat),
the water heater and One AC unit.

By doing that, I should be able to even run the ac unit.


Richard
m/v Dauntless

[djmarchand]

Richard:

US 220V has two hots, a neutral and a ground. Hot to hot produces 220V and hot to neutral produces 110V. Boats are usually wired with two 110V busses each fed from one of the hots. If you have 220V appliances (and many boats have none) they are fed from the two hots.

European 220V has a hot a neutral and a ground. There is no way to get 110V. So you need a transformer if you want 110V.

The simplest way is to get a transformer with a 220V primary coil and a 220V secondary coil with a center tap. That then gives you the two hots, neutral and ground that you need to tie into your US boat system. It will be seamless and it will act just like you are in the US. How much power you can draw depends on the size of the transformer. Be sure to put a breaker sized for the transformer rating on the input.

David

[Dauntlessny]

Thanks David,

Nice to see you here too.

[Colin A]

You also need to check what frequencies your charger etc can accept. As Europe runs on 50hz here in the us it's 60 hz.

[Snore]

Hmmmm

I have spent some time in Europe and was in Rome in Feb. There are simple wall adapters for household appliances. You may want to research some more. We had no problems running electronics, etc in Rome or other countries we have visited over the years

[yardie]

We have a magic bullet food processor and a hand blender from the US. We're in France. After a drunken dare I found this to be interesting.

AC motors run 2x as fast if going US -> EU/UK
Hair dryers run 2x as hot if going US ->EU/UK

Our magic bullet takes half the time to shred food, it also sounds like a dying cat. The hair dryer shoots a flame out the nozzle, so don't do that.

Get a transformer. Get 2, it will eventually break if you spend any amount of time in the Med.

[Colin A]

It depends on the equipment your trying to run, many laptop power supplies and USB chargers (cell chargers Ipad etc) will run on a wide range of voltages at 50-60hz. So for these not a real issue. It's the installed equipment and small appliances that can cause trouble.

[Snore]

Originally Posted by Colin A

It depends on the equipment your trying to run, many laptop power supplies and USB chargers (cell chargers Ipad etc) will run on a wide range of voltages at 50-60hz. So for these not a real issue. It's the installed equipment and small appliances that can cause trouble.

Great post! That explains why the stuff worked.

Thanks

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Dauntlessny

I have a Kadey Krogen 42, it's a 110v boat with two 110 circuits for my two A/C units. I have an inverter/charger on one circuit and a charger for the house bank on the other circuit. This second charger I generally don't use.

we're coming to Europe this summer and the boat will be in 220v land for the foreseeable future.

My questions:

1. Can I just get one isolation transformer and connect it to either the inverter/charger or just the charger?
2. Can I use a non isolation transformer (they're much cheaper)?
3. I don't want to pay $3,000 for a big isolation transformer,
4. I could live without the ACs, at least for the first year and am willing to bet small 240v appliances, therefore the idea to get one transformer for the charger. Good? bad, ugly?

Also the water heater is 110v, everything else is 12v, including fridge/freezer, tv is both.

THe more I look at this the more is seems that I can get by relatively cost effectively by just adding one 5000 watt transformer that would power my circuit 1, which has on it the one charger (actually two, connected to the engine start, the house bank and the gen strat),
the water heater and One AC unit.

By doing that, I should be able to even run the ac unit.


Richard
m/v Dauntless

ans
1. Yes
2. yes an Auto transformer will work just as well.
3. Buy a toroidal traffo and a box lol. ( or see 2)
4. ymmv

Dave


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