Shore Power On or Off??

[Gludy]

I have a tube type conservatory heater on my boat. On leaving her for the first time in her home Marina, I have left the shore power on ( I noticed a fair fewq others did the same) and left the heater on.
Is this normal practice? Is it safe? Comments please.

Paul

 

[hlb]

Well I leave mine on all the time.
1 to charge the batteries in the summer and
2 to run the greenhouse heaters and dehumidifier in the winter.
Get a dehumidifier for the winter or your boat will go all mouldy.
Suppose its about as safe as doing it at home??

Haydn

 

[KevL]

Hi Gludy

Another little "feature" of my home marina is that they charge a fixed price per day of £3.50 for being plugged into the shore power. Now while that's fine if you want to boil kettles all day long it is a bit steep to run a green house heater. So no, it isn't normal practice where I am.

As far as safety goes assuming that you have a decent 240V system on your boat with the necessary RCD / MCB then I can't see why it is any more dangerous than leaving the electric turned on to your house or shed while you are not there.

One thing I would do is make sure that the shore power lead is tied up at both ends to relieve the stress on the plugs and the wire as it enters them. Wire will normally fail where it gets flexed the most so try to arrange the lead so there is a nice long "U" between the boat and the pontoon.

Hope this helps

Kev

 

[Guest]

Follow-on question: is it OK to leave the batteries on charge over winter?

 

[Gludy]

Swansea Marina charges about 66p per day for power but are changing over to a meter system. £3.50 per day i.e. £100 per month is very steep! You can moor an 18 foot boat for a year at Swansea for about that!


Paul

 

[markc]

I do the same, except that following an incident last year, I make sure that the fridges that switch between 240v &12v can only run on 240v - if the power fails you wont cane your batteries.

Also, don't rely on shore power to protect your engines - make sure that they can cope with a cold snap in the event of a power loss

Mark

 

[KevL]

Which is why I want to move from Conway, and that's just the elec. Now go look at http://www.crestnicholsonmarinas.co.uk/page/conwy_main for all the other reasons to move, they're at the bottom of the page!

Kev

 

[kimhollamby]

Regarding shorepower permanently on over winter, in itself not too much of a problem but be aware that if you have any earth leakage problems the cathodic protection may fizz away; if you wind up with a late summer lift for any reason it's not such a bad idea to change anodes if they are on the way, rather than wait for spring.

Be careful of any joints in the cable on the pontoon - plastic bags are a favourite trick but they hold condensation in as well as keep moisture out.

Regarding greenhouse tube (not open element) heaters, they are useful and safe things to place around the boat (I used three of them every winter on my boat, a long one in the engineroom and two short ones in the toilet compartments) but if you are relying on them for frost protection you are vulnerable if the shorepower supply on the pontoon trips (as it tends to do at about 0200 on the coldest mornings when all the thermostat driven heaters on other peoples' boats kick in). It's probably safer to use them if the boat is staying in commission on salt water but they would be no substitute for proper winetrisation if the boat is out or in fresh water prone to icing.

Having looked into a lot of advice on battery chargers, the policy I would suggest is not on all the time but top-up charge from time to time unless you have permanent load on the batteries. Despite the cleverness of battery chargers these days, you can lose the whole bank quite quickly if left unattended for great periods of time, either if the charger itself throws a wobbler or if one of the battery cells fails (which would have the effect of fooling the battery charger of thinking it needs to pump more power into already-full batteries).

Of course, it used to be the perceived wisdom that you took your batteries home for the winter but with the average bank being nothing less than hernia-inducing, even if you can get to them, this is often not realistic. Reminds me too of the chap that wrote into MBM a few years back who took his batteries home, only to have the gas from the cells react with something in his garage and burn half the house down just before Christmas.

On that final point, do be careful when near the battery compartment after they have been on charge for a long time. Seen more than one set of singed eyebrows and a friend of mine once had to do a very impressive striptease/war dance/hose down routine on the pontoons when he caught a spanner between earth and positive and found out the hard way that batteries blow their tops when aggravated.

 

[chrisc]

I would of thought it is better to winterise your engine and then keep everything
as cold as possible -preferably below freezing ,then you get no problem with mould
etc. OK this is easier in northern climes. but I would certainly attempt to keep the
boat cold and well ventilated rather than warm and sealed .
What is going to happen to your engine if it gets cold ? assuming you have taken correct
winter precautions.

 

[peterg]

we leave ours on all the time, except when out at sea of course as the cable isn't long enough!

we run a dehumidifier, small heater and battery charger (on a timer) all through the winter whether the boat is in or out of the water and the boat keeps dry, mildew free and comfortable.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Shore power - what's this shore power thing? You want to come down to good old Exmouth marina and see how the other half live. Not only is there no such thing as electricity here, if you want a shower you pick up the hose on the pontoon. If you need the loo then you have the choice between the public ones 400 metres away or your own heads (or bucket).

Non of this mamby pamby pampering of our boats, they have to look after themselves.

The best thing you can do is use it, keeps it aired and you can spot any potential problems as they arise.

 

[ArthurWood]

Longjohn - we took a look at Exmouth marina last year. (We have relatives in Starcross). It seems our impression was correct! But then again you have a lot more interesting places to visit close by than you do if you keep a boat in Brighton.

 

[jfm]

Re: Leave on

Yes definitely leave on. Our electricity is metered BTW. We leave 4x greenhouse heaters plus a dehumidifier on all winter. Also during the season we leave the fridges on. There is risk of cathodic damage if the lectrix are duff, as kim says, but personally I would rather take a tiny chance that sterngear is eroded to hell, as you can replace all that but you cannot ever get rid of bad dose of mildew/damp smell in your cabins. IMHO.

JFM

 

[longjohnsilver]

Look at thread on PBO forum headed up 240 volt shorepower. Makes interesting reading.

 

[Guest]

Re: if shorepower on...

then you are permanently charging the batteries. There should be some wastegate diode to limit the charge, but make sure you check battery levels regularly if cont. on charge. Sterilised water, cover the plates, you know the drill.

 

[peterg]

Re: if shorepower on...

'then you are constantly charging the batteries'?

not quite true is it Matt, our battery charger is on a separate CB to a 13amp socket into which it is plugged so it won't be charging if a) the CB is in the 'off' position b) it's not plugged into the 13amp socket or c) it's not switched on at the 13amp socket and for our boat at least d) the timer on the 13amp socket has not switched it on yet

we set the timer to charge for 2 hours once a week when the boat is unoccupied to top up any loss due to bilge pumps operating etc..

apologies for being a pedant, of course

 

[jfm]

Re: if shorepower on...

Yup. The charger should be regulated, but I dont know whether ours is so I always turn off the batt charger at the main 12v panel, so I know the batteries are not charging while the boat is left unattended. The 12v energy consumption requirements are tiny (only the bilge pumps for 10 seconds a week) so it's ok to leave the charger off, and then no risk of knackering the batteries

JFM

 

[Scubadoo]

At first I used to winterise my boat every year until I realised what I was missing winter boating and no crowds. For the first time last year I used an oil filled radiator in the engine bay with the shore power on all the time, thermostat set to around 8-10c.

The cabin area had only crystals which kept it dry and no mould. However this year I intend to also buy a oil filled rad for extra protection.

I also leave a temp guage which shows me how cold the engine and cabin was while absent.

Also my boat is in salt water which that in itself will insult the hull and keep the boat much warmer. To me having the boat on the hard really does drop the temp inside the boat.

However I do have the boat out for 6-8weeks to antifoul/clean around Feb time.

RM.