Dc/ac

[USNChief]

When my boat is pluged in ship to shore power, I can turn on my AC swtich and everything works. When I unplug, the outlets, stove, will not work. There shows now power to my AC panel. Any ideas?

 

[Jerryh3]

Re: Dc/ac

Do you have a generator? You can only have AC power from shore power, an inverter, or generator.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Dc/ac

AC power is the same as household current (110v). That's why you can run the same stuff on your boat that you can as if you were in your house. You're getting the AC power via the shore power cords. Once you disconnect, you're operating on 12v battery power and will only be able to operate 12v items, such as haolgen lights, led lights, radio, etc. You may have some items such as a refrigerator that can operate on 110v/12v, but it would have to be a dual purpose built unit. Items such as stoves & A/C units will have to have another source of power.

This is where the (as mentioned above) invertor or generator comes in. Once those units have been activated, you should see the AC panel showing power. Is your boat equipped with either (some are not)?

 

[USNChief]

Re: Dc/ac

AC power is the same as household current (110v). That's why you can run the same stuff on your boat that you can as if you were in your house. You're getting the AC power via the shore power cords. Once you disconnect, you're operating on 12v battery power and will only be able to operate 12v items, such as haolgen lights, led lights, radio, etc. You may have some items such as a refrigerator that can operate on 110v/12v, but it would have to be a dual purpose built unit. Items such as stoves & A/C units will have to have another source of power.

This is where the (as mentioned above) invertor or generator comes in. Once those units have been activated, you should see the AC panel showing power. Is your boat equipped with either (some are not)?

Thank you. I'm not much of an electrician, but I can follow. There are two electrical lines going to my AC panel. One is the ship to shore electrical. The other comes via the battery charger (thus the batteries). I see no invertor or generator.

My wife and I bought this boat as a project. It's a 1986 Imperial 26 foot cruiser. It is now up and running. We are now just doing the fine tuning of it.

We would like to have the outlets, stove, and TV work when we are away from shore. Any suggestions how to do that?

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Dc/ac

take a picture of the battery charger. make sure you get the label in the picture as that may not be a battery charger but a inverter if its feeding the panel and not being feed by the panel.

thinking about this even if it was a inverter/charger theres no way its going to run a stove unless you have a generator somewhere hidden on the boat

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Dc/ac

We would like to have the outlets, stove, and TV work when we are away from shore. Any suggestions how to do that?

Your only way would be with an inverter or a generator. The refrigerator will kill your batteries in a matter of hours so I would make sure that there is something there to keep the batteries topped off. The easiest way is with a genset. If you don't have one, you can always use a portable unit, secured outside on the cockpit somewhere, but make sure all safety precautions are met, especially CO detectors anywhere someone would be residing. They make very quiet, efficient units for this application. Use the search feature and read the forum posts about it if that's the way you decide to go.

Safety first!! No one wants to wake up dead!