Boatbuilding!

Basic Electricity - Page 11 - AC Circuits

This is a very simple Basic AC circuit diagram like you would find on a boat. These types of diagrams are called schematics.  The power comes in from the shore, on the left in the diagram and goes through the power cord.  In this case I have shown a 220 VAC 50 amp cord.  We know this because it is a four wire 220 VAC circuit. If this were only for 120 volt AC then it would only have three wires, Black, White and Green.  It goes from the cord to the main breaker which should be in a panel box.  It then goes out to the boat and splits into branch circuits each which has it's own circuit breaker. This splitting would probably be actually done in the main panel box by using buss bars for each branch circuit and the running wire from the bus bars out to the equipment. That is about as simple as it gets. 

Some things have been left out.  If we want to protect the boat from galvanic corrosion, there would be a  galvanic isolator in the green line where it enters the boat, probably next to the main breaker panel box. To protect people from shock hazards such as ground faults or reverse polarity the would be a GFCI included in the outlet.  To protect against reverse polarity there would be a polarity indicator at the main breaker panel wired between the black and the white wire.  Also I have stopped the red wire, that brings in 220 VAC, at the main breaker.  However, it would be available in case of electrical equipment that needs 220 VAC, such as a washer and drier. Many boats don't have a 50 amp system.  Most have only a 30 amp 120 VAC system.  This will run almost all AC appliances, even such items that draw a lot of current such as microwaves and air conditioners.

The next  schematic adds a polarization transformer. This effectively isolates the onboard system  from the shore system and at the same time protects against reverse polarity. You could also use an isolation transformer.  The wiring to the transformer would be slightly different. Here the input to the transformer is 220 VAC so a 50 amp cord is necessary. The output is 120VAC. However you could very easily tap off a 220 VAC circuit as well. Beyond the transformer itself the circuits are the same.

© newboatbuilders.com 2007 All rights reserved. revised 05/06/2011

Links to Offsite References:
Wiring Your Boat  http://newboatbuilders.com/docs/WiringYourBoat.pdf
Glacier Bay Battery Bank Load Analysis  http://www.glacierbay.com/1batcrg.as