Marine AC cable

[wrr]

It may be worth noting that three-core armoured cable cores are often not brown/blue/yellow green but may be brown/black/grey and the answer is to sleeve the insulators appropriately (brown/blue/yellow green) when wiring terminals. Ancor multicore tinned marine cable insulation is rated 600v and the individual core insulators can be similarly sleeved or covered with heat-shrink.

 

[Tranona]

Interesting.
I will probably just import some from the US since that seems the easiest, if not most perverse, way to get hold of it.
Does everyone just use auto cable for DC also? The tinned DC stuff is widely available but if we, in the UK and EU don’t really have concerns about the use of standard cables why bother? Perhaps my history with wooden boats which often contain a saltier and damper environment than plastic ones has affected my opinion. I have removed battery cable that was severed right through at the lug due to vibration and corrosion. I stripped wires back 8 feet or more where the core was still corroded from moisture ingress. It just needs one fitting to cause a problem so I would rather do it right.

Tinned cable is commonly used for DC circuits because this is where damp is likely to get in because of the crimp fittings used and many like nav lights are external. Same with battery cables as they tend to be located in damp areas and use crimp terminals. However this does not seem to be an issue with 240v cables as unlikely they will ever get damp. My boat was built in 1979 and the lighting circuits are domestic 2 core which are as sound as the day they were installed. However most of the DC cables showed signs of damp and all the battery cables were corroded - although everything still worked perfectly. we only discovered how bad the battery cables were when the charity that reclaims copper stripped off the insulation. Naturally I have rewired the boat with Oceanflex, but the AC uses standard domestic cable - never seen anything else used.

Don't think you have anything to worry about if you install everything in a dry location.

 

[rogerthebodger]

The other difference between 12 Vdc and 240Vac is the any resistance of volt drop due to corrosion in the wire joint depends on the current flow in the joint. As the AC current would be much less that the DC current thus a smaller volt drop. The higher voltage across the corroded joint would tend to breakdown the resistance easer

 

[Aurai]

Absolutely not to be used for 240v AC

Hi Paul, as ever, you are right, I was only pointing out you could get tinned 2.5mm. Oceanflex only rate it for 12/24v not ac.