Rewiring a 110v boat or ADD 220v

[bbilly]

Hi,
I was pondering over this. If my boat is 110v and I want to import to Europe permanently what should I do? Rewire and change appliances and god knows what else or add 220v for appliances and transform 220 to 110 for the rest, don't know where to start or cost/benefits???? I'm OK on mechanics but electrics not yet.

Any recommendations.

TIA Billy

 

[Heckler]

110 volts requires thicker wires than 240v systems so the existing wiring should be man enough for the job, i would be tempted to put in a 3 connection consumer unit, use one mini breaker for the ring main, one for the battery charger and one for the calorifier, same system as on my old bene. Would then change the sockets for uk ones.
stu

 

[Paragon]

As someone who is in the middle of doing just this, I would agree with Skipper_Stu, use existing cabling as required and change fittings, the 110v wiring is substantially beefier than normal UK stuff!

 

[Elessar]

Most american boats have 2 line inputs.
Move the breakers so your sockets on input 2. Change the sockets to UK ones.
Move all the other breaker to input 1.
Wire a builders transformer before the breakers on input 1. This is now 110V, and all the american gadgets work.
Job done, very simple, cost about 100 quid.
If you've aircon you probably can't put it on at the same time as the cooker and the calorifier. If you do overload line 1 the breaker will pop on the transformer and no harm is done, just pop it back in when it cools.

 

[William_H]

It depends a lot on what appliances you have 110V that y7ou wan to use inn UK on240V. The boat's battery charger may well work on 240V ie dual voltage and it may well be cheaper and more efficient to buy a new element for the hot water system because a transformer for for several kilowatts will be huge and expensive.
So I reckonb you will end up with 240V kettle hair dryer etc so don't try to go down the transformer path. just change the sockets.
You might need to check on and standardise the earthing of the power system to suit UK standards. good luck olewill

 

[Elessar]

Fair point - on mine the cooker is electric so I needed a big transformer anyway - and they are still only £100 or so.

 

[bbilly]

That's good news, I imagined something more complicated. Thanks for the tips and tricks.

Billy