Leakage Fault Isolation question.

[BAD ORCA]

My shaft zinc has started to rapidly dissapear. they started to deplete now about every three months. they used to last well over six. my strut zinc seems to be ok though. im guessing i have an AC leak aboard my boat rather than leakage from a neighbors boat otherwise i would expect my strut zinc to be depleting at a similar speed, although this is just a guess.

Im going to do some test this weekend to try and start to figure out which it is but a question came up that im wondering about.

If the water around my boat is hot from one of my neighbors and AC current is finding its way back to ground through my shaft, then to me, it makes logical sense that all i would need to do is switch off the circuit breaker aboard my boat (breaker between the shore inlet and the AC distribution panel) or flick off the circuit breaker at the dock electrical receptacle.

if my boat is physically plugged into the dock electrical and i switch off either of these breakers, would this 100% isolate my boat electrically from the shore ground eliminating any stray current corrosion from a neighbors boat?

it seems to me it obviously would but want to make sure im not mis-understanding anything.

i have only been switching off the circuit breaker on the AC distribution panel when im not at the boat but if i remember my wiring correctly, this would not be enough to prevent a leakage fault since my earth ground (and maybe the neutral?) bypass this circuit breaker. I forget exactly, i havn't looked at it in a while. i do have another circuit breaker between the AC distribution panel and the shore power inlet that 100% disconects the AC but its a pain to reach. It would be easier to switch it off at the dock pedestal.

[smac999]

Ac will flow through the green ac ground wire which does not have a breaker. Anywhere


Ac leak is not going to eat zincs. It will just pit The metal it enters.

Dc will.

Do you have a galvanic isolator?

[BAD ORCA]

Originally Posted by smac999

Ac will flow through the green ac ground wire which does not have a breaker. Anywhere


Ac leak is not going to eat zincs. It will just pit The metal it enters.

Dc will.

Do you have a galvanic isolator?

Ok thank you. I need to do more homework. No, no galvanic isolator. I was considering installing one though.

I did re-wire my DC charge system about six months ago. Im not sure how i would have introduced DC leakage. I didnt really change anything except consolidating the grounds. I did add an earth ground from the charger case to the DC- bus bar but that was per manufacturer spec. My old system didn't have this connection.