Dedicated shore power for onboard air conditioner ????

Stu Jackson · May 29, 2016

woodster said:
only thing i have reservations about is the neutral being one and the same on those outlets..........

As long as they are separated inside your boat.............

kloudie1 · May 29, 2016

Yup.. Stu has it.. keep the systems separate between dock outlet and anything past that. The neutrals to dock service are together (on 60 ampere wire) until the breakers in the dock outlet.

Bill Roosa · May 29, 2016

One thing nobody has mentioned is what happens when you visit another port? There are numerous configurations that you will run into and your solution should be workable with a minimum of "extra shore power wiring parts" like splitters and "Y"s and 50-30A converters.....

Stu Jackson · May 29, 2016

Bill Roosa said:
and 50-30A converters.....

Those come in very handy when you're visiting other marinas. Sometimes I've been placed on commercial docks where all there is are 50A service boxes. In many cases, we can rent them (no cost) from the harbormaster, like in Half Moon Bay. Splitters and Ys get too complicated for me.

I also have a 30A to 15A MALE. When we're rafted up or with limited shorepower outlets, it allows one of our friends to hook their shorepower cord to my splitter and I plug it into one of our 15A outlets down below. I just tell him not to run his water heater without letting me know!

Gene S · May 29, 2016

What Bigeasy said. My boat had a/c but it was taken out. Separate transom socket to single double breaker panel and then to ac.

Gunni · May 31, 2016

What is the plan for grounding the Honda generator AC service?

Gunni · May 31, 2016

A genset is supposed to be grounded so that it can provide grounding to it's supply service - it comes back on the ground wire. My built in genset has the ground connected to the engine block. If you have a generator that is not grounded I would assume that any short circuit in your connected electric service could use you as the ground

thinwater · May 31, 2016

woodster said:
ok it's getting hot down here and i have onboard ac .....now it is wired in the the maine panel...via a 30 amp single breaker on the acv panel......i am wondering how to add an extra shore power cord through a new 30 amp deck fixture ...that's the easy part...but when i feed the power to the panel should i treat it like a maine breaker on its own or can i wire the hot leg to the single pole breaker and connect the neutral and ground to the buss bars that are in place now granted i isolate the breaker from the grid in my panel or do i need to have an extra maine breaker in the panel on its own and then a single pole breaker from there to the ac ...its a power hog and makes it hard to run the micro wave and the other things at the same time...i do have an extra dock side outlet available ....i will have to check and see that the two outlets or not on the same hot leg at the dock

How on earth do you need more than 30 amps? I have AC on a 34' cat (we are discussing 30' mono) and never draw more than 16-17 amps, even with the lights on and the charger drawing. I've used a single 30a for over 10 years with no issues.

I would take a look at actual consumption, bearing in mind that certain things can't run at the same time.

Chief RA · May 31, 2016

Sounds like you have it figured out since you already have 2 power entry accesses on your boat. Chief

Gunni · May 31, 2016

You are on the right track with a dedicated supply for your A/C. Every year about November fellas start setting their boats on fire and burning up their neighbors too because they think a single 30 Amp service can run all their house loads. I really don't think our common Hubbel twist lock shore cord connections can safely take more than about 20 amps anyway. Mine see maybe 15 amps each and the plugs still feel warm.

So if you are going to use a genset afloat, you will want to use that grounding lug so that if something shorts out it doesn't light you up.

Chief RA · May 31, 2016

Gunni: Drop a ground line in the water off of the gen. lug? Chief

Gunni · May 31, 2016

Chief RA said:
Gunni: Drop a ground line in the water off of the gen. lug? Chief

And the good news is, when your A/C shorts to ground and quits.. you will be rewarded with a basket of stunned fish!

thinwater · May 31, 2016

woodster said:
i don't need 30 amps total to run the ac ...the ac company requires a 30 amp breaker on the power feed....my dock power in the summer time gets a little low on voltage .......if i dedicate a power source to the ac only i will have enough to run the ac stand alone .....with a separate power source for the house panel i can run my accessories with out tripping out the 30 amp breaker here on the main panel ...if i try to run the ac and all the rest it will exceed the power limit ....my cooking will be interrupted and my boat will get hot here in the sunny south ....it takes about 13 amps to run the ac with the fan and the water pump along with the ac compressor...and that is about 50% of the power on the maine breaker and if you add in a microwave and a induction cooktop...hot water heater and battery charger you are using a lot of power ....mind you this condition is only at the dock ....on the water my creature habits are different...but at the dock i see no need to live like i am on the water....we are all victims of our trappings in one way or another....mine just happen to be at the dock

Yup, that is a bigger (or less efficient) AC unit than I have, and you have a whole lot of power-hungry AC equipment.

What puzzles me is that most of that equipment either won't work away from the dock or will smash you batteries fast. I don't understand electric cooking, water heating on a boat. But given the bed you have, you've got to lie in it. Be aware that you are probably headed for increased slip fees, depending on how charges are based.

I wonder if you would be money and cruising flexibility ahead to put the boat on an energy diet. It seems unlikely you have enough solar to sustain that load (without the AC) for even 2 nights away from a plug.