Wiring Up Shore Power

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Ali_o

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Hi,

Recently my sister bought a motor boat and this has a mains inlet socket at the side of the board. This then has a plug at the end of it which plugs into a double socket. Plugged into this double socket are two 13 amp plugs which feed two double sockets and the immersion heater.

My sister is after burning out the plug and the mains intlet socket as she had on a 2KW cooker then switched on the immersion. I have doing some research on re-wiring her boat but I have a number of queries I am hoping someone may be able to answer.

1. The current wiring configuration on the boat is using the earth from the shore power which is from the Consumer unit with a 16 AMP RCD located on the marina. Is this safe or should it be fitted with a Galvanic Isolator as well as earthing it to the boat? I have found the following Galvanic Isolator which does not require it to be wired up. Should this also be earthed to the boat

Galvanic Isolator Boat | Plug In | 500A | Lifetime Guar' | AC Bypass Capacitor | eBay

2. I was thinking of doing away with the double socket the mains plugs into and installing a shed consumer unit. This would have a 10 AMP double pole switch and 3 x 16 AMP RCBO. The question I have here is does the consumer unit need to be earthed to the boat? I see that the recommendation is to install a Galvanic Isolator as well as earthing the consumer unit to the boat. I am right in saying I need to attach from the consumer unit an the earth wire to a bare piece of metal on the boat? This same earth wire would connect to a Galvanic Isolator. By attaching the AC earth to the boat, does this not cause an issue with the AC earthy as I assume this too is earthed to the boat?

Any comments would be much appreciated.


Thanks in advance.

Alan.
 
With the utmost respect, if you have to ask these sorts of questions, you aren't qualified to work with 230v AC. It kills. Add water and it kills quickly and potentially kills people around you (i.e. in the water).

Please please please use someone who knows what they are doing.

I do the vast majority of things on my boat, but aside from replacing the odd component in the AC system (extremely cautiously) I wouldn't dare mess with mains voltage.
 
Ali_o said:
Hi,

Recently my sister bought a motor boat and this has a mains inlet socket at the side of the board. This then has a plug at the end of it which plugs into a double socket. Plugged into this double socket are two 13 amp plugs which feed two double sockets and the immersion heater.
Click to expand...
In the description above, is this not all wrong?
When dealing with extensions, if it is plugged into the mains supply then the other end should be a sockets(female) otherwise you would have live pins, which would be potentially fatal as they can readily be touched. So the fixed mains supply on the pontoon is a socket, and the mains inlet fixed at the boat end is a plug.
Here you describe the inlet as a socket (meaning the loose mains supply cable would have a live plug) and that this has a plug at the end of it (meaning a live plug) in order to plug into a socket so it can share its supply with the two other plugs.

It may be the words or I may have got it wrong but ....

IMHO this is most definitely not an area for amateurs and even reasonably competent people can readily mess this area up. Unlike domestic wiring, mess ups are not readily apparent nor are humans protected in the same way. I was in Maldon in the early 90s when someone died from touching the propellor of a large old cutter - the mains supply was wrongly wired up and the mistake was realised only when the man was dead. I suspect that what happened was that the person who did it believed they knew the answer to your paragraph 2 and how to actually do it.
 
The OP may have all his terms for plug and sockets confused without realising how this can change the whole description of the setup, all sounds very wrong and dangerous from the way it reads though
 
Hi, firstly I like to say thanks to all who have posted to my questions.

I like to apologies for not replying sooner but Iwas having enrol issues and was not getting to the forgot password email link to reset my password. This evening after 3 attempts abs setting up a new email accountI was able to get back in.

with regard to some of the queries, the wiring and the fittings on the boat is European. The power inlet at the side of the power is also European. For safety The live and neutral on the connector are covered by two 10 amp fuses. The 2.5 cable coming from this inlet has a European plug attached to the end of the cable. It has the the two prongs, which are live and neutral with the earth built into the plug.

This plug then plugs into a double European socket. This socket then has a European to UK adapter plugged into it. Plugged into this adapter is a three pin pin running the water heater.

As y can clearly see this is a health and safety hazard and fire risk. This can also cause reverse polarity on the live abs neutral.

yes I agree with your comments that if you get it wrong it can have devastating consequences.

I just wanted to reach out and get other peoples opinion. I wanted to see if the was something other boaters may have tackled themselves or left to the professionals.

manny thanks again to all who contributed to my query

Again since at apologies for the very very response, it was not intentional.
 
Hi, firstly I like to say thanks to all who have posted to my questions.

I like to apologies for not replying sooner but I was having email issues and was not getting the "forgot password email link to reset my password". This evening after 3 attempts abs setting up a new email account I was able to get back in.

With regard to some of the queries, the wiring and the fittings on the boat is European. The power inlet at the side of the boat is also European. For safety The live and neutral on the connector are covered by two 10 amp fuses. The 2.5 cable coming from this inlet has a European plug attached to the end of the cable. It has the the two prongs, which are live and neutral with the earth built into the plug.

This plug then plugs into a double European socket. This socket then has a European to UK adapter plugged into it. Plugged into this adapter is a three pin pin running the water heater. Coming out of the double socket is another European plug which feeds two double sockets.

As you can clearly see this is a very dangerous setup not to mention a health and safety hazard and a fire risk. This wiring configuration could also cause reverse polarity on the live and neutral if you plug in the European plug incorrectly I cannot see any bonding from this arrangement to either the engine block or the negative terminal on the battery.

Yes I agree with your comments that if you get it wrong it can have devastating consequences.

I just wanted to reach out and get other peoples opinion. I wanted to see if the was something other boaters may have tackled themselves or left to the professionals.

Many thanks again to all who contributed to my query

Again since at apologies for the very late response, it was not intentional.
 
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