ac power from engine

Stu Jackson · Feb 17, 2013

A picture of your panel would help us answer the question. Do you have an inverter? The way inverters work is that they take 12V power from the batteries and transform it up to 110V power. The engine, when it's on, makes 12V power by the alternator to charge the batteries.

You may also not be aware of this group: http://www.catalina350.net/

Many of us are registrants on our Catalina "one design" message boards AND this very helpful forum.

Congratulations on your new boat.
http://www.catalina350.net/

anchorclanker · Feb 17, 2013

Just remember that diesels like to run with a load appropriate to their RPM, like as when turning the propeller/pushing the boat. When only producing electricity, they often produce very light loads and this is where they begin to carbon glaze the cylinders.

As long as you do not run the engine for extended periods under light loads, and DO run the engine with heavy loads (actually pushing the boat at near full speed) of at least equal time periods, you shouldnt have any trouble.

Ralph Johnstone · Feb 17, 2013

Soooooooooooo ....................

................... how much does your bird repellant cost to feed each day ?

Does he do much collateral damage such as little kids, small dogs, etc.

?

Jon_E · Feb 17, 2013

The best thing is to open the panel and trace the wires through the boat. If you just bought the boat, what it SHOULD do may be different than what it REALLY does. One never knows what a previous owner has done.

(Make sure you disconnect from shore power before running your fingers over wires and testing leads, especially with AC power)

onecoolair · Feb 17, 2013

nybor said:
first off, please excuse my ignorance. just bought it and am slowly learning the ropes (oops, sheets!)

anyway, my panel has an "ac aux" switch on it. it doesn't seem to do anything. I thought it would allow the engine to feed an inverter so I would have ac power. any ideas?

thanks
dave
ps. just in case you have bird problems, here is my answer. Remember it is patented and you will have to send me $1,000 to use it. (send it to my Nigeria National Bank account please)

If this a catalina 350 then this should be your a/c shore power breaker at the main instrument panel at nav station. Are there two or just one?? If you have air conditioning there should be two 30 amp shore power connections . One side of main breaker 120 volts used for the air conditioning and the other 120 volt main breaker..."Typical" is one side of panel is all your 12 volts and the other side is for 120 a/c volts. Were is your dock side shore power connection? Is it at the typical location on the corner of transom? If so look inside the adjacent cockpit locker there should be a main breaker that interupts the a/c power feed from shore power to your main instrument nav panel. If you just have one 30 amp service then there will be one breaker if you have two 30 amp shore power connections then there will be two.
I find that when I am only using one 30 amp shore power connection it is very easy to have this 30 amp breaker down in the locker too trip when using say microwave and water heater decides to kick on at the same time while a few other appliances are already running..So I have to remimber to watch the power management....Sometimes the 30 amp breaker on nav panel will kick first but most times it is this more inconveniently located breaker that will trip first.

ix:BTW....Now on the other hand now that I think about it....Is this a/c aux. breaker on the "B" 120 volt side of your instrument panel.?? You were not very clear!
On my instrument panel I have two a/c breakers on the 120 volt "B" side of panel...These are the main breakers for my air conditioning units...:zzz:

Stu Jackson · Feb 17, 2013

onecoolair said:
I find that when I am only using one 30 amp shore power connection it is very easy to have this 30 amp breaker down in the locker too trip when using say microwave and water heater decides to kick on at the same time while a few other appliances are already running..So I have to remimber to watch the power management....Sometimes the 30 amp breaker on nav panel will kick first but most times it is this more inconveniently located breaker that will trip first.

A good habit to get into: never just leave your water heater on all the time. It only takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to heat the water. Then, turn it off. Yes, it IS kinda like power management, but also prudent to not run stuff unnecessarily.

Do you have an owners manual? If not, you should be able to get one frtom the link I gave earlier.

Good luck.

onecoolair · Feb 17, 2013

Stu Jackson said:
A good habit to get into: never just leave your water heater on all the time. It only takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to heat the water. Then, turn it off. Yes, it IS kinda like power management, but also prudent to not run stuff unnecessarily.

Do you have an owners manual? If not, you should be able to get one frtom the link I gave earlier.

Good luck.

The only time this happens is when I am not in my home port and all they have is 30 amp service available. Otherwise I am using both 30 amp connections with a two 30amp "Y" single 50/250 adapter to a single 50 amp service at the dock.

Calif. Ted · Feb 18, 2013

There are 4 sub circuits on the AC panel, outlets, water heater, charger/inverter and the bottom one "AC Aux". On my boat there is just a plug, no breaker in the AC Aux hole. If you have some sort of 4th circuit that needs AC like air conditioning (only one I can think of) it would require a breaker.

Big Windy · Feb 25, 2013

Stu Jackson said:
....Do you have an inverter? The way inverters work is that they take 12V power from the batteries and transform it up to 110V power. The engine, when it's on, makes 12V power by the alternator to charge the batteries....

Yes, the engine itself does not generate AC power. AC power comes from the inverter or shore power.

ac power from engine

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