Breaker Panel

[Sylvain]

I'm redoing the (very messed up) wiring on my 1980 33 and the photo I took of the breaker panel before taking it out have been deleted.
The AC side has a tri-pole main breaker. One is for the reverse polarity I know.
Would anyone be able to provide either a photo or a diagram of their AC main breaker?

Thanks,
Sylvain

PS I'm relocating the panel above the chart table. It's closer to the DC source but the main problem is that the pipes for the ice box refrigeration were running right beside the breaker panel. It was nuts. There was so much condensation I wonder how it didn't blow up or kill anyone.

 

[Bill Roosa]

AC main breaker

The main AC breaker should be a double. One for the hot and one for the neurtal. The ground should never be run through a breaker for safety reasons. If you had a triple breaker I'm not sure what other wire you would have running through it unless you had 220 service. With 220 you get two hots and a neutral plus the ground. That is not very common on boats though.
Check your shore power plug. how many lugs does it have?

 

[Johnb]

Picture and Wiring

Hi,

The attached shows my panel and wiring diagram. The reason for the third switch on the incoming is it is wired between neutral and ground and is mechanicly coupled to the other two breakers. In the event that it detects more than 65 volts between neutral and ground it trips all three.

John Brecher

 

[Pat McCartin]

Hi,

The attached shows my panel and wiring diagram. The reason for the third switch on the incoming is it is wired between neutral and ground and is mechanicly coupled to the other two breakers. In the event that it detects more than 65 volts between neutral and ground it trips all three.

John Brecher

I've never seen that and believe it is against ABYC standard. The neutral and ground should never be attached together.

 

[Sylvain]

Thanks for the replies.
I was wondering about the third breaker. I read a lot about marine electrical systems and the importance of the ground being isolated.

My system and shore power is 110-120 v.

 

[Sylvain]

One other point the ABYC makes about the green safety wire - which is very important.

• 
  [*]There shall be no switch or over current protection device in the AC grounding (green) conductor.
  

Pretty straightforward: Do not connect a switch or circuit breaker to the grounding conductor.

 

[Jim Legere]

One other point the ABYC makes about the green safety wire - which is very important.

• 
  [*]There shall be no switch or over current protection device in the AC grounding (green) conductor.
  

Pretty straightforward: Do not connect a switch or circuit breaker to the grounding conductor.

Sylvain, I think there is a distinction between having a switch or over current protection IN the ground (green) circuit and having one ATTACHED to it. Obviously you would never want to interrupt the green wire. All GFICs (Ground Fault Interrupter Circuits) measure the differnce in potential between neutral and ground - hence they are connected. Your 3-gang breaker is essentially a GFIC. If it senses current flowing between neutral and ground (which should normally be at almost the same potential) it trips the breakers. You will note that ABYC recommends the use of GFCI on marine AC systems (I can't cite the reference now, because its on my other computer!).

 

[Pat McCartin]

Sylvain, I think there is a distinction between having a switch or over current protection IN the ground (green) circuit and having one ATTACHED to it. Obviously you would never want to interrupt the green wire. All GFICs (Ground Fault Interrupter Circuits) measure the differnce in potential between neutral and ground - hence they are connected. Your 3-gang breaker is essentially a GFIC. If it senses current flowing between neutral and ground (which should normally be at almost the same potential) it trips the breakers. You will note that ABYC recommends the use of GFCI on marine AC systems (I can't cite the reference now, because its on my other computer!).

if it's a ganged breaker with the other two. It won't have a different V value.
Breakers typically trip due to max amps exceeded, not voltage.

 

[Johnb]

Jim is correct, if you look at the circuit diagram you can see that the breaker does not disconnect the ground, it is just connected to it. Also to answer Pat, this is a purpose made special that monitors current in two of the breakers and voltage in the third, specificaly to interrupt the incoming power in the event of the neutral and live being reversed.

It should not be construed to provide ground fault protection because that is set up to detect and trip on the difference between the current flowing in the live and neutral, which results from a "leakage" to ground.

Finally, because the unit measuring the neutral to ground potential is high impedance it does not constitute a connection between ground and neutral.

John Brecher

 

[Pat McCartin]

Jim is correct, if you look at the circuit diagram you can see that the breaker does not disconnect the ground, it is just connected to it. Also to answer Pat, this is a purpose made special that monitors current in two of the breakers and voltage in the third, specificaly to interrupt the incoming power in the event of the neutral and live being reversed.

It should not be construed to provide ground fault protection because that is set up to detect and trip on the difference between the current flowing in the live and neutral, which results from a "leakage" to ground.

Finally, because the unit measuring the neutral to ground potential is high impedance it does not constitute a connection between ground and neutral.

John Brecher

interesting. I'll have to do some reading on that.

 

[Johnb]

Trying to post a better picture

Trying to post a better picture