Has anyone added a 12 VDC outlet at the NavPod by the wheel to have power for a search light, or just to plug your phone into? I know some panel drawings show one at the nav station, but my boat is missing this important feature.
Please keep in ind that if running a search light you will need to know the wattage and convert it to amperage to size the wire correctly. Some of these hand held lights can draw as much as 10A. For a 40 foot wire run from the panel, could be less, and 5% voltage drop you'd be looking at 10GA wire.
The wire distance is the total length of the circuit round trip. Many times on boats an 8 foot "as the crow flies" distance in wire equates to 20 feet or more of one-way wire run. A 20 foot one-way turns into 40 feet round trip. You can go with a 10% voltage drop but the light won't be as bright. For "outlets" I generally wire at 12GA min because you never know what owners will try to plug into them.
May be a challenge connecting a 10 or 12guage service to a standard cigarette lighter outlet, may consider another type of plug. Those thinga are a POS, and frankly I'm surprised they have not come up with something better.
ours is in the engine instrument panel which when sitting at the wheel is by my left leg. right behind the engine instrument panel down below in the work room is the DC panel, so the wire run is less than two feet to the breaker on the panel.
also last year we replaced the old high amp spot light with an LED spotlight that takes care of any concern there. everyone should dump those old high amp, high heat spot lights for the LED's. And the LED spot lights are much smaller, lighter and cooler and can run on internal rechargeable batteries for hours. So it does not even need to be plugged in to use it if you keep it charged.
I have to say you are GREAT with the photos. Looks like they picked up existing power from what was there? What is the switch or item on the right side of the pod? Thanks for your assistance.
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