The plan ….
Since we bought Deux Poissons we have constantly been working through and adding to the long “To Do List”. Patrick had a vision of what he wanted for the boat and years of research to back it up. The electrics came pretty high up on the list of jobs for a number of reasons - Fire being one of them! This week we were able to say for the first time “THAT jobs done”. And it was a job !!
The wiring was mostly old household wire, from the 60s and definitely not suitable for a boat. It was a (dangerous) mess. Over the years the whole electrical system had to been added and added to and any wires that were not longer needed, or no longer functional were just left where they were (and not always wrapped in insulation tape or with any way of protection). Just a nest of melted and cracked cables and exposed wires!
We managed to persuade a patient and very experienced electrician, with a wonderful sense of humour, to come and have a look at the electrics, offer some advice and hopefully agree to the job. Which he did, and we will forever be grateful to him ! His advice was to rip it out, replace everything and he would do it in between his day job and on weekends (my hero)!
We presented him with a plan - which he approved, and he got to it. Patrick was on hand to assist.
Many months and a pandemic later, we now have a new distribution board for both our AC 230v and DC 12v circuits and a complete new working electrical system.
The 230v system receives input from shore, generator and inverter and connects to the domestic battery bank (separate from the engine start battery bank). This system powers all our sockets, water heater, battery charger, ice machine and appliances; dishwasher, induction hob and airfryer (oven). All the wiring is new, correct graded, flexible cable. All sockets are now on the correct circuits and feed back to breakers on the distribution board, with correct RCD switch.
The 12v system receives input from two battery banks. This system powers LED lights, navigation equipment, VHF radio, the pumps; water, fuel and bilges. It also powers the day fridge and fridge-freezer.
The battery set up comprises; two banks; for starting and domestic use. A third bank is dedicated to powering the (day) fridge and fridge-freezer and that is powered by solar. The fridge and fridge-freezer do not rely entirely on solar as we have a separate plug socket that sources power from the domestic battery bank, in the case of no sun/solar power. So we can choose to run fridges from either source.
Both fridges have sensing transformers plugged into 12v and 230v at some time. By default they run off 12v but when they sense 230v current, they automatically switch 230v and stop using the batteries.