Engine Protection by heaters might be useless

leadersail

leadersail

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I have just got an email from my mate who lives aboard his boat in a large marina (alright not allowed to live aboard , so he goes on holiday for 14 days a year), he had a freezing night last night, the main pontoon electric supply tripped out constantly.
He then walked down the pontoon and flicked the trip switch on all the big stinkers, problem sorted !

Might be an idea to reduce the amount of heaters on some boats or everyone looses out.
How often do you guys use your boats anyway, why not tip some antifreeze in until next August BH.

100 boats all wanting 3kw as soon as temp drops to zero will trip any supply, some marinas have diesel generators on standby to boost the supply.
 
I keep a small heater at the engine bay less then 1kw !
Its keeps it warm and dry, as well as anti freeze of course..

in the marina i use a 16amp socket which will allow anything up to 30 amp before it trips?

Tom
 
I assume this morning he walked down the pontoon and turned on all the switches he disconnected last night. I have a few tube heaters on my boat drawing about 200 watts and I'd be pretty p1ssed off if someone did that to me. Especially if he's not supposed to be there anyway.
Or maybe this is just a troll?
 
Yes, yes, yes its a troll /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

But it is a true story /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Last week wasn't a problem but everyone turned up at the weekend and added more heaters, the power supply couldn't handle it.
I was horrified when I read what he had done, but when you think about it, at least he was there to untrip the supply half a dozen times, if he had not tripped out the large mobos then no boats would be protected, at least this way some boats had power.
 
I thought the same. What happens if some of these boats that he has turned off suffer frost damage?

IMO he should have spoken to the marina about it. If they have provided x number of 16 amp sockets, the supply should be rated to deal with heaters coming on on a number of boats providing each boat keeps below their 16 amps. If they don't , then only they should trip which is down to them.

I accept that circuits are rated in such a way that they do not expect every outlet to be drawing 16 amps, in much the same way a home ring main is rated to assume that not every plug will be drawing 13 amps, but I doubt there was anything near 100% take up on shore power. Even with the cold weather and a full marina, I doubt it went beyond 50%. This is an installation problem and needs fixing.

BTW, how many amps was your friend drawing????
 
I have 2 heaters in the engine bay
1 in the cockpitt
1 in the saloon

yes my boat is like toast.

I also have a freezer on board and it has bait in it, if he turned my power off it would start a war. ok Im at a small marina and we do have power trips but its usually ok.
 
Exactly. Turning individual boats power off is a big no-no. We have no idea what that power is running or how critical it is. Someone turned my power off between Xmas and New Year and I am not happy. When running I only draw about 500 watts including 2 x tube heaters in the engine bay. The weather was below freezing so I am keeping my fingers crossed that no damage was done.
 
As I understand it, he didn't turn anyone's power off - the circuit had already tripped. What he did was leave some boats without power and restored power to his and, presumably, some others. So for some it was the status quo - i.e. no power - and for others they were better off.
An act of charitable kindness in my opinion!
 
Thats aways an issue though, the he got a big boat theory so it doesnt matter. The boat opposite me is 24ft and he has 2 fan heaters as well as a tube heater.
 
The big boats were off anyway, the whole pontoon had tripped.
No one will be the wiser, a war will not start, they will just think they tripped and hopefully reduce the amount they have on.

Mobo boats have big engine bays and need big heaters.
They have big engines that need big vent holes to let in the air to mix with the 50 gallons of diesel per hour, big vent holes means more heaters required.

Even a 50ft sailing boat has a smaller single engine that fits in a snug engine bay with few vent holes. A fraction of the heat is required to keep it from freezing.
 
But the point is they didn't trip. They could now be searching for a fault that doesn't exist. Yes all boats were off, but on what basis did he choose what boats should get their power back, and what boats shouldn't? He doesn't have that authority so I go back to my original statement that he should have got the marina to deal with it. They, at least could have contacted the owners of boats being left without power to advise them, although even then, I don't see how they could justify leaving certain boats without power when individually they are not exceeding 16 amps.

My thoughts are that your friend, who was living aboard against the rules, was probably using more power than any other individual boat. Maybe if he had left his boat without power the others may have been left connected! Maybe if he wasn't there at all, the power would not have gone off in the first place.
 
Are you seriously suggesting that big (for UK) boats have several kw of heating in the engine bay to stop the engines freezing? That's nonsense, a 50 foot flybridge may have a 500W tube heater, but doesn't need that anyway if he's in the water, cos the whole hull below the waterline is one big radiator operating at the temperature of the surrounding water.

If they are drawing a big current, it's space heaters in the living accomodation set on frost stat, and there's no big difference between the space inside a 50 foot sport cruiser or a 50 foot sailing yacht, so your dickhed friend should have unplugged all the sailing yachts as well, or as someone correctly said above, deal with the real problem by telling the marina that their electrical installation is sub-standard.
 
I don't know but I assume he didn't want to complain to the marina as he does not want to make waves and get thrown out ?
They are always complaining about washing left out and the amount of time he spends in the laundry.

Bit surprised at your comments about the amount of heat he is using, I would not begrudge anyone the right to heat.

The more live aboards the better as far as I am concerned, they stop all sorts of petty thieves and malicious damage.

I guess he also selected some of his mates boats to have power and some awkward pompous stinkers that never speak to him might have been the first to go ?
 
I have been dragged down to typical mobo arguments now.
I would like to end with

reduce the amount of power you draw or we all end up without any, and spare a thought for the residents that are staying aboard in this cold weather.

Adding antifreeze to raw water is an added safety precaution.

Over and out
 
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I guess he also selected some of his mates boats to have power and some awkward pompous stinkers that never speak to him might have been the first to go ?

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I am now inspired to go and throw rocks at the windows of the big house down the road. They never speak to me.
 
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I guess he also selected some of his mates boats to have power and some awkward pompous stinkers that never speak to him might have been the first to go ?

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I knew this was the direction it was going in, I just didn't want to be the one that brought it up. Just cos they don't talk to him doesn't really give him any rights to turn off their power.
 
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I guess he also selected some of his mates boats to have power and some awkward pompous stinkers that never speak to him might have been the first to go ?

[/ QUOTE ]

I knew this was the direction it was going in, I just didn't want to be the one that brought it up. Just cos they don't talk to him doesn't really give him any rights to turn off their power.

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Or maybe he doesn't talk to and/or ignores them? Works both ways.

I've got a reasonable sized boat and enjoy talking to anyone whether they be power or sail but some peeps are just not communicative. That's their choice. But doesn't make them bad people.
 
We had the same problem last summer, we were all asleep with the heater on low thermostat at 800 watt. The charger was on with the laptop and phones charging off 12 volt. The fridge and freezer was also running on 240 volt.

We woke up in the morning to find a half drained battery, a fridge that wasn't cold and a freezer that was defrosting. Oh an no hot water and a cold cabin.

I checked the trip switches in the cabin which were all on. I then checked the cable which was all fine. I then checked the bollard which had it's switches all on. The pontoon lights were on so there must have been power! Oh, having another quite glance it appeared a yacht had come into the marina sometime in the night. Couldn't locate an empty bollard so kindly unplugged ours for us and shoved the plug behind the bollard. I gave him a knock and asked if i could plug us back in. He was quite apologetic and thought there wasn't anybody onboard.

It is just principal that annoyed me though. For all he knew I could have been connected to an oxygen machine and could therefore not have woken up cos he had unplugged!!

I personally wouldn't unplug anyone without their permission. For all you know they could have had timers in the cabin which were controlling the heaters. These could have lost their memory if left off for a long period.

I think it is something that the marina should sort out. At least if anything happened to those boats then you are not liable.
 
For what it's worth i'm a mobo and draw a whopping 450w. OK it's only an S23 but just to give a realistic consumption figure. I don't bother with 240v dehumidifiers. I find the salt ones that you buy in Aldi/Lidl (I cleared the shelves of them when they were in stock) are as good and they don't draw any electricity!
 
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