New electrical/electronics

[Don1500]

Just starting to add electrical and electronics to a very basic sail boat.



On the 115vac side I want to add 30 shore service with HVAC and a small 12vdc/115vac refrig/freezer box, also some outlets and a battery charger.


On the 12VDC side I will add one new house battery to handle the refrig/freezer and some outlets for DC power to computers and such. I will also be adding an wind/speed direction system (seatalk II), depth gage (with thru hull), GPS/Chart plotter and autopilot (all Raymarine).


What I would like to know is what type and size wire should I use for the AC mains? Multi-strand? What guage? What type of insulation?

[Dsanduril]

Per code (US) 30A requires at least 10AWG wire. On a boat my preference would probably be to go up one size (8AWG) simply because corrosion gets at things and it's nice to start with a little buffer. Typically multi-strand is used on boats for the added flexibility. Tinned copper wire is used to reduce corrosion. Vinyl insulation is the most common in 'marine' wire.

The common 'marine' wire is Ancor or similar, they make a multi-strand, tinned copper, vinyl insulated product for the marine market. I generally use MTW (machine tool wire) or similar generic products that are tinned copper, stranded (some MTW is extra fine strands which may be more of a corrosion issue - care in selection required), vinyl insulated - usually at a significant savings over Ancor, especially when purchased at a wholesale house.

[a64pilot]

Min for 3O amp is 10 ga.
Best price is likely these guys
https://www.genuinedealz.com
Probably ought to use real Marine tinned wire, certainly not house wire.
Do some reading, people will soon tell you that you don’t know enough to do this right, but nothing says you can’t learn.

I wouldn’t go with a 115 / 12 V fridge myself, go with 12 Only, save some bucks and it will run off of your battery charger when you have shorepower anyway.
If you mean like an Engel, never mind, they come that way.

[Don1500]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I wouldn’t go with a 115 / 12 V fridge myself, go with 12 Only, save some bucks and it will run off of your battery charger when you have shorepower anyway.
If you mean like an Engel, never mind, they come that way.

Engel is right.