San_Diego_SeaRay
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Messages
- 337
I bought a 27' Chaparral last January and immediately started rebuilding the engine, outdrive, and transom assembly. Well I'm finished w. all that now and I'm realizing I kind of forgot to note the electrical layout.
As you can see from the pictures, I have two starting batteries that are routed to a four position Perko battery switch. Then there's one power wire that gets routed from the four position switch to a two position Perko. This "red" Perko controls the House battery. This is where my confusion comes in as I forget exactly how this section was connected. I'm about 90% certain that the red power wire coming out of the red Perko was mounted to the House Battery positive. And then there was a red power wire coming off that same battery terminal routed to the + on the inverter. Then there was black power wire routed from the House Battery negative to the negative side of the inverter.
Here's my confusion:
EDIT: You can't actually see the house battery; it will be tucked away almost mid-cabin down the starboard side.
As you can see from the pictures, I have two starting batteries that are routed to a four position Perko battery switch. Then there's one power wire that gets routed from the four position switch to a two position Perko. This "red" Perko controls the House battery. This is where my confusion comes in as I forget exactly how this section was connected. I'm about 90% certain that the red power wire coming out of the red Perko was mounted to the House Battery positive. And then there was a red power wire coming off that same battery terminal routed to the + on the inverter. Then there was black power wire routed from the House Battery negative to the negative side of the inverter.
Here's my confusion:
- With this setup wired as above, it seems that the purpose of the house battery is to supply the inverter w. power, so that if you set the red Perko to "off" then you could still run A/C on the boat?
- I imagine the red Perko must be "on" while the engine is running so that the alternator can recharge all 3 batteries, not just the starting batteries?
- If I stop my engine and leave the black Perko to "all" and the red Perko to "on", doesn't that mean that all 3 batteries will then be supplying electricity to the boat? Is it expected that you should set the black Perko to "off" and the red Perko to "on" to only use the house battery?
- Should the negative on the house battery somehow be connected to the engine as well?
EDIT: You can't actually see the house battery; it will be tucked away almost mid-cabin down the starboard side.