Adding Shore Power

I have a 25 pontoon, I would like to add shore power. The shore power would be used for lights, A small electric heater in the fall, and a battery charger. Currently I run and extension cord from the Shore Power box to my boat to do this. While there have been no problems doing this, the extension cords in the boat are a mess. <br /><br />My questions are:<br />What problems with electrolyisis (spelling would I have to be worried about?<br /><br />Do I need to ground the AC coming into the boat?<br /><br />What would be the safest way to do this?<br /><br />I am pretty handy, and have no problem running wiring in the house, and I know to use marine grade componets, IE wire, breaker panel etc..

Re: Adding Shore Power

JM, You do need to ground the AC system coming into your shore tie, unless you want to turn your boat into a giant bug zapper To protect your below water metal, you need also to install a galvanic isolator especially if this is a marine application. They are available from your marine supply store or online. Good luck.

Re: Adding Shore Power

DR,<br /><br />Ground it to what? Remember this is a aluminum pontoon boat, I have no bonding system. How and where would I ground it. And would that put me at a greater risk for electrolyisis? even with a galvanic isolator.

Re: Adding Shore Power

Jollymon,<br /><br />Absolutly do not ground the bare wire comming into the boat to your DC ground system, any of the thru hulls, a motor mount, a pontoon, or anything else.<br /><br />Here is the hookup for you:<br /><br />First get a real shore power inlet. You want one of the 30-amp versions, not the 50. Marinco makes them in a couple of versions ranging from plastic to stainless.<br /><br />The inlets are built for the standard shore power plugs, no problem there. The back of the inlet will have provisions for three wires to leave the inlet. They will be the hot, neutral, and ground (black, white, and green or bare copper, respectively. Connect them to the inlet and run them directly to a breaker. You can buy the breaker from West Marine and the one you want is a double pole version which will look like two breakers with their switch handel fixed together. Run just the hot (black) and neutral (white) wires to the breaker, not the ground. This breaker will act as a switch for your boat's power as well as do its duty as a breaker. Next, from the output side of the breaker run the black and white wires to a standard household GFI outlet (any hardware store for about $10) that you have mounted in a useful, but dry, spot for your boat. Also, and this is important, the ground wire that came from the inlet connects directly to this GFI wall outlet. Now, if your battery charger is one that has a plug simply run wire back to the charger, put a female plug on the end, and plug the charger in and then wrap the plugs with electrical tape to keep moisture out. I am assuming that you are using a full time smart-charger by the way. If you haven't bought a charger yet don't waste your money on one of those trickle chargers.<br /><br />That's really it. You have a safe system with the charger wired in permanently and still have an outlet for your other needs like the heater or whatever. If you choose a charger designed for continous operation you can run all of the DC lights off of it you want as well.<br /><br />By the way, houses and boats are much different in their AC side. Absolutly nowhere should the AC side grounds and the DC side grounds come together - it is begging for two things at once. The first is the very real possibility of electrocution for anyone swimming near the boat and the second is electrolisis (sp?) at a rate that is simply astounding - litterly fast enough to destroy a lower unit in a week. All it takes is a short between either the hot or neutral line somewhere within the boat's system and you are in deep trouble if you tie the AC and DC together. Oh, and the ground plug on the battery charger doesn't count as a grond connection between the AC and DC side.<br /><br />Now let me forwar you about something. You can find advice both ways on this question and you can find the wrong answer in reputable places. You can also find the right answer - no AC/DC ground interconnection - in reputable places as well. I can't emphasise this enough, do not connect that AC ground wire to anything DC on the boat or to any grounding fitting on the boat. I'm dead serious about this because I hate to think of anyone comming seriously dead about this.<br /><br />Thom

Re: Adding Shore Power

pick up a copy of this month's "boating magazine". they do a how-to article on installing shore power. provides an equipment list, tools required, and step by step instructions. good read.