Need help wiring 30amp Shore Power system

rogerbum · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:23 pm Post subject:

Bob,

One more thing, I believe that if the neutral is attached to the ground on the boat side, you have serious potential for increasing galvanic corrosion - correct? E.g. the return current from the A/C hot can now leak into anything connected to the boat's battery ground (which will likely include the zincs and other metals on the boat). Am I wrong on this?

thataway · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 4:20 pm Post subject:

Roger, you are correct. This has another serious effect--and that is that anyone swimming who touches the metal gets a chance of a shock--or worse. Also even swimming close to the boat, may get a shock. Other boats in the vicinity can also have serious electrolysis issues.

There are a number of ways a boat can be miss wired, and this is only one of those, which has serious effects. Connecting hot to neutral is a common mistake, which gives the same effect as this error. In some ways more serious, since it will always be hot, not just when an appliance or light is turned on. The ground and neutral is also another common mis-wiring error.

Jazzmanic · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 5:04 pm Post subject:

Once again, thanks to Bob for hanging in there with this wiring novice. He was absolutely right, I closed the circuit to the AC neutral by grounding it, which is WRONG! You're right as well Roger.

After I saw Bob's diagram above, I realized the AC neutral loops back and saw I had a AC neutral terminal that hadn't been used and figured that it's purpose was to close the circuit. The problem is, the wiring schematic supplied by Blue Seas does not show where to terminate the AC neutral wire off the dual bus bar. Once I thought about it, it made common sense to connect it to that terminal. I ran up to the boat during lunch, disconnected the AC neutral wire from the negative bus bar and reconnected to the neutral terminal on the AC panel and voila, all is working and is now correctly wired.

Once again, thanks guys for hanging in there with me. Now I can accept your compliment Mark since it is now wired correctly and more importantly, safely. Below is the "correct" wiring diagram.

Peter

thataway · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 6:01 pm Post subject:

Peter,
Thanks for posting your corrected diagram. It is a puzzle to me why Blue Seas did not make it clearer on their diagram that you had to connect the AC neutral to the boat side of that main switch?

Good job, and we can now rest assured that the boat is safe!

Jake B · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:44 pm Post subject:

This thread will help me a lot for my install. I originally thought i would not need the bus bar to instal due to not having DC power I see now from this thread that I will in fact have to install the bus bar. also will the bus bar need to be tucked inside the box cover too or leaving it exposed ok to do? I got the blue sea back cover for this and not sure they will both fit behind it?

originally i looked at this diagram and figured it could be ran without a bus bar
http://amit.nightmarebeforechristmas.net/files/resources/panel_wiring_schematics/990343760.pdf

Jazzmanic · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:50 pm Post subject:

You're welcome Jake. No I didn't put the dual bar inside the back cover, too tight. You can buy clear plastic bus bar covers from Blue Seas.

Feel free to ask questions now that I finally got it figured it out.

Peter