Electrical appliances aboard

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You may have seen the very sad picture of a burned out yacht ashore up in Scotland. I've no idea as to the cause of the incident and one shouldn't speculate but an electrical appliance has to be a possibility and previous such fires have been attributed to heaters/dehumidifiers left unattended. One only need read posts on this forum to realise that people are leaving heaters and dehumidifiers on 24/7, maybe controlled by temperature or time switches. I am one of those, I leave a dehumidifier running.

What is best to do? Natural ventilation does not keep my boat mould free. My strategy (FWIW) is that I only buy good quality electrical equipment and I ensure that a professional job is done on system installation. All DC circuits are dead when I leave the boat. Beyond that I'm trusting to the gods and dread calls from the marina office.......

What do you do to mitigate the risks? Any top tips?

rob
 
Fire is caused by overheating.
Dehumidifiers can overheat if not positioned correctly and the air-intake gets blocked.
Heaters are the same - but I'd be cautious about leaving a high power one on!

http://dehumidifiersonline.info/dehumidifier-maintenance.php

Other things to check are the power connections - a dodgy powerconnection can overheat and melt/spark
Ensure the Gas is off - no gas = less risk
Don't turn on what you don't need!
 
Robih said:
Natural ventilation does not keep my boat mould free. My strategy (FWIW) is that I only buy good quality electrical equipment and I ensure that a professional job is done on system installation. rob
Click to expand...
Rob, why doesn't natural ventilation work for you? We don't have power on the jetty so it has to be natural ventilation with plenty of vents, bunk cushions stood on edge to air, bilges kept absolutely dry, food and valuables removed etc. We learnt the lesson the hardway with a previous boat when a leaking freshwater tank and a sealed boat meant mildew within 6 weeks and a lot of scrubbing to remove it. Now we rely on fresh air and regular trips down to the boat to air it (gives me an excuse to potter about onboard).

Pete
 
Natural ventilation

Pete

I don't know why it doesn't work for us; I can only assume there is insufficent air circulation. We've a passive vent aft and a solar powered hatch vent forward. We leave all hatches on the vent catch meaning a small gap of about 3mm in each. Using this strategy over the summer has been fine up until about three weeks ago when mildew appreared in those areas of the boat where one can imagine air might stagnate. I've thought of putting an office style fan in the middle of the boat to force circulation but that has the same electrical risks as leaving a dehumidifier running.

rob
 
Robih said:
You may have seen the very sad picture of a burned out yacht ashore up in Scotland. I've no idea as to the cause of the incident and one shouldn't speculate but an electrical appliance has to be a possibility and previous such fires have been attributed to heaters/dehumidifiers left unattended.

rob
Click to expand...

Yes it was very sad to see, I have taken some pictures of it, we heard the fire engines arrive.
The boats on either side also had quite a bit of damage.
Ive been wondering what might have caused this, the boat was not plug into mains supply at the time.
Has anyone posted images on here?
 
Robih said:
You may have seen the very sad picture of a burned out yacht ashore up in Scotland. I've no idea as to the cause of the incident and one shouldn't speculate but an electrical appliance has to be a possibility and previous such fires have been attributed to heaters/dehumidifiers left unattended. One only need read posts on this forum to realise that people are leaving heaters and dehumidifiers on 24/7, maybe controlled by temperature or time switches. I am one of those, I leave a dehumidifier running.

What is best to do? Natural ventilation does not keep my boat mould free. My strategy (FWIW) is that I only buy good quality electrical equipment and I ensure that a professional job is done on system installation. All DC circuits are dead when I leave the boat. Beyond that I'm trusting to the gods and dread calls from the marina office.......

What do you do to mitigate the risks? Any top tips?

rob
Click to expand...
Hi Rob, we use the dry humidifiers the small one with crystals in. They realy do work and if you shop around they are cheap. Not from the chandelry.
Peter
 
PC Fans

You could use a 12 volt PC fan .. Run forever .. Use very little in the way of power and it they stop not alot happens .. Try Maplins they come in all sorts of sizes ..
 
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