Keep It Simple, Stoopid!

[lustyd]

They just need a switch.

I don't think they all do. I only really use a couple of the switches on our panel.

Also interesting that Jeanneau didn't fit any fuses or breakers to our boat in 1999, just "switches" which are really fancy latching circuits. I have added fuses, but would remove most of the switches if I could be arsed, along with the totally unnecessary LED array telling me that everything is still on 24x7 for no apparent reason. Imagine if houses required a light for every appliance to tell you things were on, lighting up your bedroom...

 

[thinwater]

It's funny, using breakers as switches. The breaker, in fact, is sized for the wire, not the device.

Now that we have LEDs, you could put everything on my F-24 on one fuse. The only significant users is the tiller pilot. But the wiring is spread over 8 breakers that we use as switches. If it were a house I would have three breakers in use; main, lighting and outlets, and tiller pilot, plus switches for the various nav lighting configurations. The cabin lighting, VHF, instruments, and fans already have switches. Solar has an in-line fuse. The battery has a fuse, different issue.

Back in the days of incandescent lighting the amps added up a lot faster.