The electrical panel on the 83-87 Hunter 34 is rather spartan. Other than the usual circuit breakers for both AC and DC there is no provision for monitoring usage or having accessory power sources. There is room on either side of the stock panel for some extra home made additions that I had made some rudimentary attempts to utilize in the past. Most recently I upgraded again and think I've finally got what I need.
On the DC side (left side of the panel), I installed a new Balmer Smart Gauge to complement my 4 x 6 volt house battery bank. Now I can monitor voltage on both the house and engine start (single Group 27) batteries. It also self calibrates and reads out the State of Charge of the house bank which gives me insight into my rate of consumption or recharge. I'm already seeing that the 35 amp stock alternator doesn't do much in recharging my batteries. I knew it didn't but not with any degree of accuracy. Thanks Mainsail for doing all the research on this device. I purchased it on an Active Captain special price at Defender a couple of months ago. I also used an old analog DC Ammeter I've had forever that has an internal shunt, so wiring it in series with the panel feed was easy. I could really see the reduction in draw as I swapped my incandescent light bulbs out for LEDs. The last big improvement was to buy a power accessory from the auto parts store that had 2 12V DC power receptacles and 2 USB ports. I took it apart and drilled my aluminum plate out to accept them. Very convenient.
On the AC side I installed a combination digital voltmeter/ammeter that I bought on Amazon. That was easy to wire as it uses a sense coil for current that I slipped over the AC main wire as it attaches to the circuit breaker. I monitor voltage on the input of the circuit breaker so I can see right away if the shore power is on even if my main is off. Nice to see the current draw of the water heater, microwave and space heater (the big ticket items). We've always been careful of what breakers to turn off before using those various devices (never in combination) just so we don't run the risk of overheating wiring if the breaker should not trip. I also added a GFCI outlet at the nav station in that new panel. It was always a pain to drape a power cord clear back (or really forward) half way down the cabin to the nearest 110V receptacle to use some accessory. Since this model Hunter had no GFCI receptacles at all, it is a nice addition. The port AC breaker had two black wires sharing the output terminal: one went aft to a single receptacle in the rear stateroom, the other went forward to service receptacles in the main salon, vanity and forward v-berth areas. In the new setup, I ran a single wire off the breaker to the Line feed input of the GFCI. Then I took the existing cable that went aft and attached it to the Load side of the GFCI. I then took a new piece of 14/2 with ground and came back from the aft receptacle and connected it to the previous run going forward. Now that GFCI at the nav table protects the entire port side of the boat. Much safer. I still have to install another GFCI on the starboard galley receptacle to protect that side (next week).
Its nice to monitor usage and tidy up a bit with extraneous cords for laptops, cell phones and the like. And I like the security of the GFCI (long overdue).
On the DC side (left side of the panel), I installed a new Balmer Smart Gauge to complement my 4 x 6 volt house battery bank. Now I can monitor voltage on both the house and engine start (single Group 27) batteries. It also self calibrates and reads out the State of Charge of the house bank which gives me insight into my rate of consumption or recharge. I'm already seeing that the 35 amp stock alternator doesn't do much in recharging my batteries. I knew it didn't but not with any degree of accuracy. Thanks Mainsail for doing all the research on this device. I purchased it on an Active Captain special price at Defender a couple of months ago. I also used an old analog DC Ammeter I've had forever that has an internal shunt, so wiring it in series with the panel feed was easy. I could really see the reduction in draw as I swapped my incandescent light bulbs out for LEDs. The last big improvement was to buy a power accessory from the auto parts store that had 2 12V DC power receptacles and 2 USB ports. I took it apart and drilled my aluminum plate out to accept them. Very convenient.
On the AC side I installed a combination digital voltmeter/ammeter that I bought on Amazon. That was easy to wire as it uses a sense coil for current that I slipped over the AC main wire as it attaches to the circuit breaker. I monitor voltage on the input of the circuit breaker so I can see right away if the shore power is on even if my main is off. Nice to see the current draw of the water heater, microwave and space heater (the big ticket items). We've always been careful of what breakers to turn off before using those various devices (never in combination) just so we don't run the risk of overheating wiring if the breaker should not trip. I also added a GFCI outlet at the nav station in that new panel. It was always a pain to drape a power cord clear back (or really forward) half way down the cabin to the nearest 110V receptacle to use some accessory. Since this model Hunter had no GFCI receptacles at all, it is a nice addition. The port AC breaker had two black wires sharing the output terminal: one went aft to a single receptacle in the rear stateroom, the other went forward to service receptacles in the main salon, vanity and forward v-berth areas. In the new setup, I ran a single wire off the breaker to the Line feed input of the GFCI. Then I took the existing cable that went aft and attached it to the Load side of the GFCI. I then took a new piece of 14/2 with ground and came back from the aft receptacle and connected it to the previous run going forward. Now that GFCI at the nav table protects the entire port side of the boat. Much safer. I still have to install another GFCI on the starboard galley receptacle to protect that side (next week).
Its nice to monitor usage and tidy up a bit with extraneous cords for laptops, cell phones and the like. And I like the security of the GFCI (long overdue).
