Since I'm rewiring the battery/solar charger 'panel' on my O'day 22 (in the locker) I thought I would replace the wire running from the batteries to the distribution panel (DC only) in the cabin, about a 6 ft one way run. When I did the work originally I used a section of an old extension cord I had laying around, it's 12-3 I think, cut to length and used the white for battery 1, black for battery 2, and green for a common ground. The panel has a A/B/Both switch and powers just a few cricuts - VFH, AM/FM, Auto Tiller, Nav lights (non-led), and that's it. Max load with everything on is probably 4 amps, and that's mostly the nav lights. I do have an inverter I never use but it's connected directly to the battery (somehow, need to look at that).
I was thinking of using Anchor's marine grade 12 AWG 3-wire using the same wiring scheme, but then I wondered if I should use 2 runs of 2-wire instead and not have a common ground. The only time it would matter I think is if I had the battery selector on 'Both' (which I never do and can't image why I would...), so this is mostly a best practice question. The battery and solar grounds are all connected in the locker.
One complication I forsee with two 2-wire runs is wire color, with the 3 wire I can tell battery 1 from battery 2, if I used 2 wire I would be tempted to use red-black for 1 and red-yellow for the other so I could tell them apart in the panel, essentially doubling the cost.
So any issues with using a common ground wire to deliver power to the distribution panel?
I was thinking of using Anchor's marine grade 12 AWG 3-wire using the same wiring scheme, but then I wondered if I should use 2 runs of 2-wire instead and not have a common ground. The only time it would matter I think is if I had the battery selector on 'Both' (which I never do and can't image why I would...), so this is mostly a best practice question. The battery and solar grounds are all connected in the locker.
One complication I forsee with two 2-wire runs is wire color, with the 3 wire I can tell battery 1 from battery 2, if I used 2 wire I would be tempted to use red-black for 1 and red-yellow for the other so I could tell them apart in the panel, essentially doubling the cost.
So any issues with using a common ground wire to deliver power to the distribution panel?