I'm a new owner. When I am not on the boat, shore I leave shore power connected? What switches should be on, on the boat?
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dunno
Depends on what your power needs are and what type of boat you have. If you have a boat under 28', no fridge, with a set of house batteries and a bilge pump wired directly to the battery. Shut every thing down... unplug shore power and close "all seacocks". Of course if you have a fridge, wide screen T.V and the like... all bets are off as that is way out of my league. Why chance 120V's in a marine enviroment when you are not around? Don't forget to open the seacocks when you return.
Depends on what your power needs are and what type of boat you have. If you have a boat under 28', no fridge, with a set of house batteries and a bilge pump wired directly to the battery. Shut every thing down... unplug shore power and close "all seacocks". Of course if you have a fridge, wide screen T.V and the like... all bets are off as that is way out of my league. Why chance 120V's in a marine enviroment when you are not around? Don't forget to open the seacocks when you return.
I've always left it connected
Will, A lot of this is general preference, past experience (bad or good) and marina policy. I've always left my shore power connected, but used the west marine velcro straps to secure it to the boat well (with enough play so it doesn't accidentally become a dock line, but not so much it hits the water.) Our H-26 had a single, older battery and without leaving the boat connected, would be dead in a week. (Yeah, I know, should have gotten a new battery.) I left all switches off, as when it was plugged in to shore power it was automatically 'charging' the boat. Now, there are two major concerns if you leave it connected. The first is if your shore cord hits the water - could be a major concern for the boats (or people in the water) around you. The second is you're running electricity to your boat and you're not around. In the firefighter's world, they always look to an electrical issue first if there is a fire of 'unknown origin'. So, you're running juice and if there IS an issue, you can't do much about it. I've never personally heard about this happeneing, and all the boats that were around us left their power connected, but something to be aware of. As an aside, when we moved our boat to a mooring, I bought a very simple solar panel (the $100 one from West Marine) and this did an amazingly good job of keeping the batteries topped. Hope this helps! Dave Crowley s/v Wind Dreamer II P303
Will, A lot of this is general preference, past experience (bad or good) and marina policy. I've always left my shore power connected, but used the west marine velcro straps to secure it to the boat well (with enough play so it doesn't accidentally become a dock line, but not so much it hits the water.) Our H-26 had a single, older battery and without leaving the boat connected, would be dead in a week. (Yeah, I know, should have gotten a new battery.) I left all switches off, as when it was plugged in to shore power it was automatically 'charging' the boat. Now, there are two major concerns if you leave it connected. The first is if your shore cord hits the water - could be a major concern for the boats (or people in the water) around you. The second is you're running electricity to your boat and you're not around. In the firefighter's world, they always look to an electrical issue first if there is a fire of 'unknown origin'. So, you're running juice and if there IS an issue, you can't do much about it. I've never personally heard about this happeneing, and all the boats that were around us left their power connected, but something to be aware of. As an aside, when we moved our boat to a mooring, I bought a very simple solar panel (the $100 one from West Marine) and this did an amazingly good job of keeping the batteries topped. Hope this helps! Dave Crowley s/v Wind Dreamer II P303
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