Wiring of american to european shore power plug

[bentimby]

Originally Posted by Rocketpip

Hey everyone, I'm about to wire in my EUE boat the same way as the OP. His diagram is pretty simple to follow. Was there ever any news if he had left it that way or did he in fact burn it down?
Maybe theres now a better and less expensive way to do this conversion properly?
Thanks Guys!
Rod.

I just wired it this way myself after reading through the post and can confirm that it works just fine. Just follow the wiring diagram on the original post.

[PhillipPalacios]

Old Thread revival (again)
I figure it is better to review this one than start a new thread.
I have an EU wired boat from 2003, The only AC electronics on board are the galvanic isolator, charger (both are universal voltage/hertz compatible,) and the water heater - which we would keep "off."
There is also one eu plug in each cabin that we can avoid using as most of our electronics are usb powered from house batteries or we can use the inverter to produce EU power.

Everything else is run off the house batteries - refrigeration, freezer, lighting etc.
So for a semi-temporary solution (I don't plan on staying in 110 land very long) - could I add a breaker before the Galvanic isolator with a separate 110v input that would then feed through to the charger - leave all the other breakers off? run 110 through the wiring and so avoid running new wiring all the way to the charger? I'd stick to 15amp input as the charger is rated for that, no need for high power aboard. This seems like a potentially clean solution.

Or- should I just wire a heavy duty extension cord directly to the charger for the little while we need shore power?
Thanks!
Phillip

[JArcherM]

Originally Posted by PhillipPalacios

Old Thread revival (again)
I figure it is better to review this one than start a new thread.
I have an EU wired boat from 2003, The only AC electronics on board are the galvanic isolator, charger (both are universal voltage/hertz compatible,) and the water heater - which we would keep "off."
There is also one eu plug in each cabin that we can avoid using as most of our electronics are usb powered from house batteries or we can use the inverter to produce EU power.

Everything else is run off the house batteries - refrigeration, freezer, lighting etc.
So for a semi-temporary solution (I don't plan on staying in 110 land very long) - could I add a breaker before the Galvanic isolator with a separate 110v input that would then feed through to the charger - leave all the other breakers off? run 110 through the wiring and so avoid running new wiring all the way to the charger? I'd stick to 15amp input as the charger is rated for that, no need for high power aboard. This seems like a potentially clean solution.

Or- should I just wire a heavy duty extension cord directly to the charger for the little while we need shore power?
Thanks!
Phillip

Id say if you dont know the answer dont do it.

Also, understand you are running lower voltage through circuits that were originally wired for higher voltage. Your wiring on the battery charger circuit could be too small depending on run length. Also, the breakers on the panel which are sized according to wire are no longer correct when you lower voltage. You are also putting a lot of faith in breakers and wiring. Get a bad breaker or someone wiring something incorrectly in the past and you may find yourself with an issue.

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by JArcherM

Id say if you dont know the answer dont do it.

This is the ONLY advice safe to give about AC wiring. There is so much that can go dangerously bad, and there is no way anybody sitting at a keyboard can know all of the issues involved on an individual boat, which might be totally messed up in ways you can't imagine.

Trust me, boat owners can screw up wiring in ways you can't ever believe possible. If you give someone advice on how to do something with the implicit assumption that the existing system is to normal standard, you can unintentionally lead them down a very dangerous path.

[JArcherM]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

This is the ONLY advice safe to give about AC wiring. There is so much that can go dangerously bad, and there is no way anybody sitting at a keyboard can know all of the issues involved on an individual boat, which might be totally messed up in ways you can't imagine.

Trust me, boat owners can screw up wiring in ways you can't ever believe possible. If you give someone advice on how to do something with the implicit assumption that the existing system is to normal standard, you can unintentionally lead them down a very dangerous path.

Exactly. I have been working on a schematic for this very same issue. Customer in a new to him 230/50 boat wanted to plug into a USA dock. I happened to be there when they were contemplating making an adapter.

I got involved.. First saying no...bad...stop.

I recently heard of someone melting out a factory installed Neutral Ground Resistor on a Leopard Cat and making a bit of a mess.

After much going back and forth about wiring in 240 split using an auto transformer to get into the existing wiring I found the existing system to have one old AC unit and one with the wrong HZ. So the unit in better shape will need to be replaced for HZ. And the other was rotten. This led to the decision to install 12v AC units and powering with inverters, generator, and solar. Adding two chargers and one additional inverter/charger to the existing multiplus, will allow a second 110 panel and the boat will be able to plug in anywhere and utilize any new fancy kitchen appliance anywhere. AC units can run off either shorepower supplied charger, or off the genset/solar on anchor. This is obviously a very expensive way to handle it, isolation transformers are a decent fix if the AC units are multi phase compatible, converters are heavy and expensive...this option fits for the boat and its future use.

The point of saying all that is that after starting the work, when I happened to talk to the previous owner of the Cat, he only then stated that the wiring on the AC side was split and disconnected in several "hidden" spots. Once at the AC unit to keep it from going on (WTF) and once somewhere else.. One leg to this one to that, and others lines just disconnected. I havent gotten into the boat yet to see the actual situation... but it shows you, If i would have just wired things the way some suggest in the forums, there is a pretty good chance someone(me) is going to get hurt or there will be a Kaboom. I dont like Kabooms. $100.00 says the wire disconnected at the AC Unit will be bare and close to metal.

If you aren't familiar...before working on a system, make sure you understand whats up. If you are changing the engineering of a system, whether a breaker, switch or a simple power plug, its a pretty good idea to check the integrity of the circuits, safety devices, and figure out all affected systems etc. If you dont know what could be affected or how to check things... thats ok, get some help. There are plenty of electricians and consulting guys out there to give you a hand. Or "audit" the boat before hooking up power.

DC systems too! The lithium related things I've seen this week on boats...omg, just scary.