Tomkat17
Well-Known Member
I have recently bought a 150W invertor to power a PC. The invertor leaflet recommends earthing the invertor to the hull of the boat. Where on the hull is the best place to earth the unit?
Earthing 150w invertor
- Thread starter Tomkat17
- Start date
boatmike
Well-Known Member
Ideally you should have a seperate grounding plate. Failing that anything that connects directly to the sea but preferably not an anode. A toilet seacock perhaps?
A
Anonymous
Guest
If it's just feeding a laptop or similar, I would suggest that you let it float (don't connect to earth) but use an in-line earth leakage breaker - the sort that is integral with a plug. The elcb will stop you getting a fatal shock.
davidpbo
Well-Known Member
I did not earth my invertor or use an earth leakage circuit breaker when I used it on my boat although it may be a good precaution. My reasoning was that the laptop PSU was double insulated with a 2 core cable and only used in a dry
environment.
My boat is fibreglass, not connected to shore power and has no electrical connections to anything metal in the cabin.
You can get direct converters from 12 to 19V or whatever your laptop takes which eliminates the more dangerous higher voltage and is probably more efficient as you are not stepping the voltage up to step it back down again. Current draw up to about 5 Amps I found and a good connection to the battery needed. Try cpc.co.uk. or look in Halfords
David
environment.
My boat is fibreglass, not connected to shore power and has no electrical connections to anything metal in the cabin.
You can get direct converters from 12 to 19V or whatever your laptop takes which eliminates the more dangerous higher voltage and is probably more efficient as you are not stepping the voltage up to step it back down again. Current draw up to about 5 Amps I found and a good connection to the battery needed. Try cpc.co.uk. or look in Halfords
David
