Mounting Electrical Components

Tim22

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Jun 16, 2014
254
Hunter 310 Ottawa
Just curious as to what backing people use when mounting electrical equipment such as chargers, solar controllers, inverters etc which can produce a fair amount of heat. Do you mount directly to a plywood bulkhead or do you add some heat resistant barrier between the bulkhead and the components? What is the best practice?

Thanks
Tim
 
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Rick D

.
Jun 14, 2008
7,131
Hunter Legend 40.5 Shoreline Marina Long Beach CA
Just curious as to what backing people use when mounting electrical equipment such as chargers, solar controllers, inverters etc which can produce a fair amount of heat. Do you mount directly to a plywood bulkhead or do you add some heat resistant barrier between the bulkhead and the components? What is the best practice?

Thanks
Tim
I have all of those and have not found heat to be an issue. Mounted directly to the plywood. Any heat generated seems to be easily dissipated. FWIW.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Ditto Rick's offering. Our 2500 watt inverter/charger has been mounted on a plywood platform for years and while it does get warm at times, never a problem. Same with the diesel furnace mounted on a plywood bulkhead; not an issue. Of all the assorted appliances/components that we have on our boat, none get so hot as to require any kind of heat barrier.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Tim, when selecting electrical products to be used on a boat, I believe you are rewarded for buying the better grade of product, from a responsible manufacturer, who has been in the business and developed good reputation. Yes this will likely cost you a bit more in dollars. You will be getting a product that has been field tested. If there was an engineering glitch or a bad circuit that over heated it had been caught and the problem resolved.

I shy away from being a BETA tester on a cruising boat.

Just an observation and my opinion.
 
Nov 21, 2012
587
Yamaha 33 Port Ludlow, WA
I use marine ply with stainless steel T-nuts and machine screws to enable mounting/remounting without destroying the wood. I've never seen heat cause an issue.
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,321
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Good ventilation is important. If there is anything electric that can cause enough heat in normal use to be a fire hazard then it doesn't belong on a boat. Period.

Paper ignites at 451° F as does wood. Your electronics should not get any where near that heat. The key is to provide ventilation and to properly fuse all wires. When electrical fires start on boats it is because wires were not properly fused and the wire was near combustible material.

Generally I mount all devices directly to the bulkhead. When I added solar, the controllers required wiring that would be difficult to complete when installed. To make life easier I mounted the controllers to a piece of Starboard with all the connections made with pigtails using Andersen Connectors.

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