110 volt outlets

[Stu Jackson]

Good idea to do it that way

Richard,

It would be fine if you'd like to send me a draft of your diagram. I'd be pleased to help you out.

Stu

 

[Steve Dion]

I think that someone may have rewired a couple of these plugs. It has been sometime since I owned my H'31, but I am certain that all the plugs ran thru the AC circuit breaker. If you are pulling wire, you should be able to do this with either the old wire or a fish tape.

 

[wufibugs]

Richard,

It would be fine if you'd like to send me a draft of your diagram. I'd be pleased to help you out.

Stu

That is very nice of you Stu, though you may regret when you attempt to make sense of what I've drawn. I am the only person who actually failed fingerpainting and would still be in kindergarten were it not that at age 13 I could not longer fit into those small desks. Amongst what I am sure are the many errors, I have not yet conformed the battery isolator wiring to the instructions that came with it. Also, I am not sure if the ac ground wire should diverted to the galvanic isolator, or just spliced in, also continuing through the boat's ac circuitry. Also probably unclear and incorrect are that both ammeter and volt meters are supposed to be switched so each can show two different readings. The Hunter installed volt meter already does this; the ammeter is added.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Richard, please

send me the sketch by email attachment so I can print it out and work on it.

Now, after all these weeks, what was the question again????

"Do I need a breaker in the AC line before it goes to the Freedom I/C?"

Right?

Oh

 

[Ron20324]

for wufibugs

I'll try to locate the page from which I concluded that a breaker should be installed.

Maybe page 149 (of the third edition) that ABYC calls for an AC breaker (protecting ALL AC components on board) withing ten feet of the shore power connector. ISO standards call for .5 meter (20 inches).

Your sketch does not show a transfer switch between the generator and shore power. Maybe a manually done thing?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Wiring Diagram Comments

Richard,

WIRING THE FREEDOM 20 Combined Inverter Charger

You did a very good job on the diagram. Now we know how you finally got out of kindergarten!

Here are my comments on your wiring diagram.

AC System

1. The 2 pole breaker between the shorepower (SP) inlet and the Freedom 20 (F20): It may be existing, if so, just keep it. For instance, the newer Catalinas have a breaker right at the SP inlets and then there is another breaker on the main interior electrical panel, what you call "Power Panel." You show "AC in" on the "Power Panel" but do not indicate an AC breaker there, either single or 2 pole. There should be one there, in addition to the "2 pole 30A AC breaker" between the shorepower inlet and the F20. The Power Panel AC breaker could be a single pole (i.e., HOT) or double (hot & neutral). If single pole, show the neutral to a bus bar behind the panel, similar to item 3 below. If double, show it as it would be wired to the Power Panel AC In breaker. You NEED one downstream of the F20 to be able to turn the AC power off to receptacles and other AC loads easily from the Power Panel, unless the "2 pole breaker" is ready to hand - I just don't know where it is physically.

If your ONLY 30 A AC breaker is the one you show, then you could do either of two things:

(a) move that 2 pole breaker downstream of the F20 and use it as your Power Panel AC breaker; that's how my 1986 boat is wired and it works just fine; the "additional" AC breaker on newer boats at the shorepower inlet is part of newer codes; my boat is 1986 and I put my Freedom 15 in back in 1998! FYI the 1998 Freedom wiring diagrams in the instruction manual had it that way; or

(b) add ANOTHER 2 pole breaker between the F20 and the AC Power Panel if you don't have one on the Power Panel. Your boat, your wiring, your choice.

2. Add the AC ground wire FROM the shorepower inlet TO, and around, the 2 pole 30 amp breaker TO the F20 AC input.

3. Add the AC ground wire FROM the F20 AC output TO the AC green ground bus bar that should be behind your Power Panel, since all your interior AC receptacles have ground wires going to them.

4. Generator to Shorepower Wiring: I don't know if your generator is built-in. If it is, then you need a Blue Seas 8032 switch to select between the generator OR the shorepower, never both. See: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,833.0.html If, however, your generator simply plugs into the shorepower inlet when you're away from shorepower, like a portable genset, i.e., Honda 1000 or 2000, then it's fine as shown. I do not know about the galvanic isolator wiring and am specifically not commenting on it. The grounds discussed in Items 2 & 3 above still need to be run to and from the F20, as well as showing the grounding chassis lug, too, which you do not yet show. You know this, others may not: The F20 has its own built-in transfer switch to detect if there is incoming AC power, whether it be from the generator or the shorepower (the F20 IN) and so won't allow the inverter to run unless it senses no incoming AC regardless of source. That's the beauty of the Freedom units.

DC System

5. Looks just fine, mostly. The power from the 1-2-B switch to the Power Panel DC in should come from the C post of the switch, not from only the "1" post. Change that unless you designed it that way. I wouldn't do it that way, because it's useful to be able to use the reserve bank for emergency and limited house loads if (NOT WHEN, JUST IF!) the house bank dies. It would be interesting to know if you did this deliberately, because as shown the reserve bank can't ever serve the Power Panel, like your VHF if the house bank dies. OTOH, just thinking out loud, your way separates the reserve bank when starting the engine, runs the house loads always off the house bank, and then uses the reserve to run [limited] house loads if the house bank dies with the switch on B. The real downside of this, like the stupid dual purpose switch, is that it combines a good (reserve) bank with a dead one if you ever use B in that case, which I do not think is wise. Folks have argued that the connection of a dead bank to a good one is only as long as it takes to start the engine and then the alternator will charge the dead bank. Nuts! I say - if it died there's a reason and the last thing you want to do is combine good and dead banks! It does have the advantage of separating the engine load from house electronics, but doesn't allow switching to a backup bank if one fails. This seems to be a different discussion than your original question, but bears followup, if you'd like. And, unless, of course, you just drew it wrong...

6. Change B to C on the diagram. B is a position on the switch, C is the post on the switch. There are four positions on the switch, off is one of them, B is another. There are three POSTS on the back of the switch: 1, 2 &C. The switch does two things: determines which battery bank the juice comes FROM, and then sends it where it goes to, which are only two places: the DC side of the Power Panel and the starter solenoid.

7. Eventually you should get rid of the isolator, which drops critically important voltage of anywhere from 0.7 to 1.0V and replace it with either an echo charger or a simple switch. You're chronically undercharging your reserve bank, unless this is only for away from the dock and your shorepower charger tops it up. The switch is easier and less expensive, since the reserve bank is almost always full, especially if you run the boat off the house bank, including starting the engine. See the end of page one and page two of this thread for a more detailed discussion: http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=104505 This deals with the 1-2-B switch wiring, too.

8. Miscellaneous Shunts, ammeters and voltmeters: I haven't commented on these. These could be for individual analog or digital voltmeters and ammeters that you have on your boat. For instance, in addition to our Link 2000, we have an analog ammeter inline with our DC (+) between the switch and the distribution (power) panel, and also a two bank analog voltmeter with its own either / or switch, wired pretty much as you show. If the shunts are for a Link or other digital battery monitor, I'd consider that a separate discussion, not commented on here.

9. Fuse the Alternator Output (AO) before the PDP assuming the PDP is very close the house bank.

10. Most starters are engine grounded and thus don't have a separate ground wire per se to the engine or NDP (negative distribution post).

If I haven't mentioned it before, a very good discussion about basic DC system wiring and a few diagrams is here: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4949.0.html