Saturday I got a round to installing a galvanic isolator. Reading up on them, I'm not sure why I need it. My anodes don't seem to take much of a hit after 3 years experience. But I bought it, so what could it hurt, right? It's a ProSafe 30 amp model. Just connect 2 leads from the ground wire somewhere between the shore power connection and my new ELCI on the AC panel. BTW, I weighed the possibility of installing a Isolation Transformer & decided against the expense, since I bought and installed the ELCI first, and it seemed like overkill (maybe the GI is wasted money, too?)
The first part of the installation went well ... I located the loom that holds the Romex with 10 awg stranded wire conductors. It is conveniently located under the quarterberth and fastened right next to an opening with a cover. So I expose the Romex and slice it carefully to expose the conductors. I pull out the green conductor and make my cut so that I can attach ring connectors to each end. What I notice is water weeping out from the Romex shield. Eventually, enough weeps out that I can tell it is fresh water. After about an hour, enough weeps out to make a small puddle. I know that when buildings flood with salt water, all wiring that is exposed to salt water has to be completely removed and replaced. This left me wondering if I should really replace the cable run.
I'm pretty certain that the source of the water is merely leakage under the cover at the shore power connection. I'd bet that enough rain water has leaked through that junction to get into the Romex. There was no sign of water in the loom itself. It only weeped out when I sliced the shield and it continued to weep for about an hour, after which it seemed to abate. When I installed the ELCI at the end of the cable, I saw no evidence of water or corrosion. BTW, does it make sense that that the conductors could be stranded aluminum wire? I didn't even think to notice when I connected the ELCI but the ground wire appears to be aluminum, not copper. But I'm not really sure that I can tell, except that the stranded wire looked silver to me.
Mounting that box under the platform was not nearly as easy as it would seem, given there was barely any room for fingers to secure a lock nut or hold a box end, either - can't see a dam thing, either . Then, when it was finally secured, I attached the ground wire with ring connectors to each end. On one side, I didn't like how I allowed the wire to become twisted so I tried to loosen it and adjust it. No good ... the stud simply loosened. Not happy with that, I finally decided to remove the GI and see what is the problem. Thinking that I might have stripped something inside the GI by over-tightening, I removed the 5 small screws to take the cover plate off. As it turns out, inside the cover, the stud is simply secured with a single nut that also secures a ring connector for a wire lead that disappears into the guts of the GI - it's the same on both ends. The nut had loosened when I was tightening the nuts on the outside. With the nut loosened, the stud just turns. Well, it was easy enough to re-tighten the nut and put everything back together, but it left me thinking.
What if boat vibration loosens that nut inside the cover? What happens to the continuity? I know that the GI advertising says that continuity is guaranteed, but this seemed just too easy to disrupt it (if I did). I don't like the feeling that I may end up with a ground that is disconnected. How will I know if it happens?
It also seems weird to me that the continuity of the ground is now connected with what looks like 18 AWG conductors that link the studs on both ends into the guts of the GI. Does this make any sense? The ground is now 10 awg connected to a stud on each end of the GI, which is in turn linked to the guts with these two tiny wires. What am I missing? Is this hocus-pocus junk? Is the case transferring the ground (does that question even make sense)? The case supposedly does not need to be grounded and is supposedly safe.
I have photos, but did not think to take a picture when the case was opened. I have to go back and shrink the heat shrink anyway, so I'm not done with this. It only took me about 4 hours to do this installation (twice as it turns out - it will be at least 3 times by the time I'm really thru). I'm thinking that I might go back inside the cover and at least insert a split ring washer to secure the studs.
The first part of the installation went well ... I located the loom that holds the Romex with 10 awg stranded wire conductors. It is conveniently located under the quarterberth and fastened right next to an opening with a cover. So I expose the Romex and slice it carefully to expose the conductors. I pull out the green conductor and make my cut so that I can attach ring connectors to each end. What I notice is water weeping out from the Romex shield. Eventually, enough weeps out that I can tell it is fresh water. After about an hour, enough weeps out to make a small puddle. I know that when buildings flood with salt water, all wiring that is exposed to salt water has to be completely removed and replaced. This left me wondering if I should really replace the cable run.
I'm pretty certain that the source of the water is merely leakage under the cover at the shore power connection. I'd bet that enough rain water has leaked through that junction to get into the Romex. There was no sign of water in the loom itself. It only weeped out when I sliced the shield and it continued to weep for about an hour, after which it seemed to abate. When I installed the ELCI at the end of the cable, I saw no evidence of water or corrosion. BTW, does it make sense that that the conductors could be stranded aluminum wire? I didn't even think to notice when I connected the ELCI but the ground wire appears to be aluminum, not copper. But I'm not really sure that I can tell, except that the stranded wire looked silver to me.
Mounting that box under the platform was not nearly as easy as it would seem, given there was barely any room for fingers to secure a lock nut or hold a box end, either - can't see a dam thing, either . Then, when it was finally secured, I attached the ground wire with ring connectors to each end. On one side, I didn't like how I allowed the wire to become twisted so I tried to loosen it and adjust it. No good ... the stud simply loosened. Not happy with that, I finally decided to remove the GI and see what is the problem. Thinking that I might have stripped something inside the GI by over-tightening, I removed the 5 small screws to take the cover plate off. As it turns out, inside the cover, the stud is simply secured with a single nut that also secures a ring connector for a wire lead that disappears into the guts of the GI - it's the same on both ends. The nut had loosened when I was tightening the nuts on the outside. With the nut loosened, the stud just turns. Well, it was easy enough to re-tighten the nut and put everything back together, but it left me thinking.
What if boat vibration loosens that nut inside the cover? What happens to the continuity? I know that the GI advertising says that continuity is guaranteed, but this seemed just too easy to disrupt it (if I did). I don't like the feeling that I may end up with a ground that is disconnected. How will I know if it happens?
It also seems weird to me that the continuity of the ground is now connected with what looks like 18 AWG conductors that link the studs on both ends into the guts of the GI. Does this make any sense? The ground is now 10 awg connected to a stud on each end of the GI, which is in turn linked to the guts with these two tiny wires. What am I missing? Is this hocus-pocus junk? Is the case transferring the ground (does that question even make sense)? The case supposedly does not need to be grounded and is supposedly safe.
I have photos, but did not think to take a picture when the case was opened. I have to go back and shrink the heat shrink anyway, so I'm not done with this. It only took me about 4 hours to do this installation (twice as it turns out - it will be at least 3 times by the time I'm really thru). I'm thinking that I might go back inside the cover and at least insert a split ring washer to secure the studs.
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