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Auspicious · 11-11-2019, 06:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by valhalla360

You implied someone has to change...so if it's not right-hand drive vehicles, it's left-hand drive countries that have to change...Tell us which one is viable and who pays for it?

Lots of left-hand drive cars in St Thomas where we drive on the left.

valhalla360 · 11-11-2019, 06:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Lots of left-hand drive cars in St Thomas where we drive on the left.

Brits sometimes go to continental Europe...of course, that's not the extent of the cost of switching over....by a long shot.

It also ignore the safety issues with having the driver on the wrong side of the car relative to the road system.

Auspicious · 11-11-2019, 07:10

I well remember the switchover at the Sweden-Norway border.

boom23 · 11-11-2019, 09:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailcrazy

We have the situation you describe.....our boat was built in Asia, for Asian power(230v 3-wire, 50Hz). All was good in Asia, and in the Medd, but here in the Caribb we had "issues". We (finally) bought a Victron Auto-sensing Isolation Transformer....it works, and provides 230v output to the house, no matter what the input voltage! We either plug into a 115v US power pole or a 230v power pole(both are 3-wire). And when were away from the dock (most of the time), we use our 230v, 50Hz genset. Although we have both 50Hz(watermaker, Refer, aircons,etc) and 60Hz(microwave) equipment installed, they both seem to work just fine, with no apparent issues. Just spec your circuit wire sizes and and c/bs accordingly.

I really like the Victron Isolation Transformer. It not only provides galvanic isolation but it can also Up/Down convert shore power voltage. I had the manual Isolation transformer on my previous boat and it worked perfectly in the S. Pacific. There were no issues in New Zealand, where everything, even the shore power cord, had to be certified before connecting to shore power.

I also have the isolation Transformer on my current boat, but I have not had chance to use it yet as she is set up for 230V and we're sailing in 230V countries. In the Med I have to deal with different plugs and inconsistent neutral-hot wire connections.

Sailing4Jesus · 11-11-2019, 11:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by boom23

I really like the Victron Isolation Transformer. It not only provides galvanic isolation but it can also Up/Down convert shore power voltage. I had the manual Isolation transformer on my previous boat and it worked perfectly in the S. Pacific. There were no issues in New Zealand, where everything, even the shore power cord, had to be certified before connecting to shore power.

I also have the isolation Transformer on my current boat, but I have not had chance to use it yet as she is set up for 230V and we're sailing in 230V countries. In the Med I have to deal with different plugs and inconsistent neutral-hot wire connections.

OK, Here is the solution: Build all New Cars with The Driver seated in the Middle Of The Car? I'm 75 and soon to be 76 so in truth I could give a HOOT LESS.
You can satisfy Some of The People All Of The Time, and you can satisfy All Of The People Some Of The Time, but you cannot satisfy ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME. There are those that if you hang them with a New Rope would still complain.

Sailing4Jesus · 11-11-2019, 11:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by boom23

I really like the Victron Isolation Transformer. It not only provides galvanic isolation but it can also Up/Down convert shore power voltage. I had the manual Isolation transformer on my previous boat and it worked perfectly in the S. Pacific. There were no issues in New Zealand, where everything, even the shore power cord, had to be certified before connecting to shore power.

I also have the isolation Transformer on my current boat, but I have not had chance to use it yet as she is set up for 230V and we're sailing in 230V countries. In the Med I have to deal with different plugs and inconsistent neutral-hot wire connections.

OK, Here is the solution: Build all New Cars with The Driver seated in the Middle Of The Car? I'm 75 and soon to be 76 so in truth I could give a HOOT LESS.
You can satisfy Some of The People All Of The Time, and you can satisfy All Of The People Some Of The Time, but you cannot satisfy ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME. There are those that if you hang them with a New Rope would still complain.

Rimica · 15-11-2019, 08:36

I am set such that the boat accepts electricity in whatever form. All the dock power, whatever the type, goes to a charger for my batteries. The charger, a Mastervolt, accepts any inputs. I have 2 in line Mastervolt converters that feed the internal ac needs of the boat (Set as an american standard). The inverters feed 2 air conditionners as well as all the internal other needs. You could do the same with 2 european standard inverters. The trick is to have a charger that can output enough dc amps to keep up with the charging demands of the batteries. Mine puts out 200 amps dc into 700 amps lithium batteries. I have no issues.

john61ct · 15-11-2019, 10:06

Similar to my #2 scenario, but on a much higher level, and budget.

Personally, I prefer to use "converter" for DC-DC only.

Could you link to the Mastervolt units you refer to with that term in an AC-AC context?

windlass79 · 15-11-2019, 10:40

I think I see...

My Boat: Hunter 340
Charger/Inverter: Heart 2000W 120v 60Hz
Batteries: (1) 12v Marine Starting and (1) 12v Marine Deep Cycle

If I were going to sail to a European owned Caribbean Island, I would need to have another charger (230v 50Hz input) connected to the 12v batteries.

And if I re-routed the wiring for the appliances (microwave, water heater, and cabin recepts) so they were connected to the Heart Inverter output (120v 60Hz) instead of to shore power as they are now, then I could run all my 120v 60Hz gadgets.

So if I were building a boat, instead of wiring the ac powered appliances and recepts directly to shore power, I could run them to the inverter output and save myself some trouble.

wingssail · 15-11-2019, 11:19

We are very impressed at how thorough and well engineered the electrical systems described in this thread have been, jedi, dockend and others have done fantastic jobs covering all bases. I watched a Delos video and they too have a well engineered system.

But we wondered if we could get most of the advantages of convenience, reliability, and redundancy with fewer components, with less weight, less money spent, and more simplicity. We’ve never been a BOMS (bolt on more stuff) boat.

I think we’ve accomplished those goals in a very simple way, which might be appropriate for other cruising boats with less grand plans.

We’re a 12vDC boat. As much as possible we have 12DC equipment. It runs on the house batteries. We recharge with a high capacity alternator on the main engine supplemented by moderate amount of solar (no genset).

We have some 110v AC equipment: a few power tools, hairdryer, coffee grinder, and power adapters for various computer equipment AND we have a 110v battery charger/inverter, 50amp/1500w full sine wave. There are four outlet boxes on the boat which use shore p, nothing else. No permanently installed or wired AC devices.

We’ve kept the boat a “110v boat" for 20 years though most of that time we’ve been in 240v land. We still have all the AC tools we started with (except a new coffee grinder and jig saw), they are all still 110v.

To supply the boat with 110v shore power in 240v land we installed a very good isolation transformer, capable of converting just about any voltage to any other voltage through jumper plugs. It, of course, does not change the cycles.

But the charger/inverter, according to the specs, does not care about the cycles/sec. None of our other AC devices seem to care much either, other than running 16% slower.

For contingency we have a spare 1500 center tap transformer, a couple of small, portable, inverters and a automotive plug in trickle battery charger.

When we bought an air conditioner we were in 240v land. Problem, it won’t run in a 110v boat. So we intercepted the 240v AC line prior to the transformer and inserted a plug just for the Air Cond. All good. Later, back in 110v land with a 240v Air Cond we reversed the transformer to provide 240 while the 110v shore power was connected directly to the inverter/charger.

So for 20 years we have had a simple, reasonably inexpensive, light weight system which provides all the convenience of being able to run on any voltage shore power, ignore the cycles/sec, have back-up and contingency, and 100% monitoring system, and no loss of comfort or conveniences of home.

Standard 110v boat with two extra pieces of equipment:

Multivoltage Isolation transformer
Charger/inverter with system monitor

And a handfull of shore power adaptor plugs.

Rimica · 15-11-2019, 12:08

I do not understand the question? Ac to ac?

**EngNate** · 15-11-2019, 14:03

Look at shore power converters from Atlas or ASEA Systems. Both are good, ASEA is lower cost. Run on any power worldwide 90-500 Volts 47-63 cycles. Anywhere you go just adapt a plug, maybe set input amps limit for the dock breaker.

**s/v Jedi** · 15-11-2019, 16:49

Here’s my latest diagram, which probably is the final revision

john61ct · 15-11-2019, 18:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by windlass79

I think I see...

My Boat: Hunter 340

Charger/Inverter: Heart 2000W 120v 60Hz

Batteries: (1) 12v Marine Starting and (1) 12v Marine Deep Cycle

If I were going to sail to a European owned Caribbean Island, I would need to have another charger (230v 50Hz input) connected to the 12v batteries.

And if I re-routed the wiring for the appliances (microwave, water heater, and cabin recepts) so they were connected to the Heart Inverter output (120v 60Hz) instead of to shore power as they are now, then I could run all my 120v 60Hz gadgets.

So if I were building a boat, instead of wiring the ac powered appliances and recepts directly to shore power, I could run them to the inverter output and save myself some trouble.

Yes, and you'd start out from the beginning with a powerful shore charger that is "universal world power" compatible for its input.