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Basic electricity for boat builders,
boat repairers and owners. What you need to know about the electrical
systems on your boat. Working on AC Circuits, safety, good practices.
Videos, Basic wiring techniques.
Wear Rubber Sole Shoes:
Insulate yourself from the ground.
Never work with wet hands or while standing on
a wet surface.
Do not use power tools that have frayed,
cracked or melted cords. Use good quality industrial grade cords of at least
20 amp rating. Do not use household (two wire) extension cords. They do
not have a third green grounding wire so you are not protected from
shock if you accidentally contact a live circuit.
Buy good quality tools.
Why pay more? Quality tools are almost always guaranteed
by the manufacturer. They perform better, last longer, and
rarely break, and some will be replaced free if they do break. Cheap
tools will break and can injure you when they do. Again, it's
all about safety. This is just as true of electrical tools
as it is of wrenches, hand tools and power tools.
If possible, buy hand tools that have insulated
handles. For instance, adjustable wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers.
They should be insulated so you do not accidentally contact a live
circuit and ground at the same time causing a short and a shower of
sparks.
Electrical tools, such as drills and soldering
guns should be double insulated. This prevents you from being shorted to
ground and getting a nasty shock. If possible use cordless,
battery operated tools. They are safer than AC powered tools
around the water.
Use Eye Protection: A
good set of safety goggles is essential. Always wear eye
protection when working with lead acid batteries or other caustic
liquids such as gasoline. Also
wear gloves. Acid leaves nasty burns. Most DIYers don't have an eyewash
station so make sure you have lots of water available. If you do
get acid in your eye, have enough water handy that you can flush out
your eyes for at least fifteen minutes. This can happen! It has
happened to me. See a doctor immediately after flushing out your
eyes.
1. Always select good quality materials. Wire, connectors, terminals,
bus bars and panels should all be good quality marine equipment. This is
no place to scrimp or try to save a few pennies. Remember, the most
common fires on boats are electrical fires. Most are due to bad high
resistance connections. Do it right!
3. Use good quality tools. A cheap crimping tool will give you
a bad crimp that will loosen and allow moisture into your connections.
This will cause corrosion and high resistance connections. Buy a
good ratcheting type crimper. This will give you good crimps that
don't come loose.
4. If you decide to solder, use good quality solder and soldering
tools. Learn how to solder so you don't get cold solders. A bad
solder is going to cause a bad connection. Do not use solder alone.
If you crimp and solder, crimp first, solder second.
5. Seal electrical connections with a good quality sealant
such as dielectric grease and a heat
shrink wrap to keep moisture out. If possible buy connectors with
heat shrink insulation pre-installed.
6. Use the correct size connector for the wire and use the
correct size crimp on the crimping tool for the
connector. This is very important. Otherwise you will get a
loose crimp and the wire will eventually work free or break.
Battery Terminal Connectors:
Use good quality terminals that do not use wing nuts to connect the wire
to your battery. 33 CFR 183.420(g): Each battery terminal must
not depend on spring tension for its mecanical connection to the
terminal. ABYC E-10.8.3, Storage Batteries: says that wing nuts are not to be used to
connect any terminals to batteries for wire larger than six (6) gage.
Since most battery cables are four (4) gage or larger, then wing nuts should not
be used at all. The concern is that they will loosen from shock and
vibration.
When your boat is on the hard (ashore) and you are using power tools,
do not power them from the boat (inverter, generator etc.). You no longer have a green
grounding wire connection to ground on board. Power them from a
good quality extension cord from a power source at the marina or place
where you are working, or use cordless power tools. Tell the marina
staff what you are doing. They can keep an eye on you
in case there is an accident.
Do not run extension cords onto your boat when it is sitting in the water. Would you
plug in a power tool and then stand in a bathtub full of water?
That is what you are doing! Use cordless power tools or power them
from the on-board shore power to maintain the shore ground connection.
To connect two wires together or to connect a
wire to a buss bar or electrical equipment, terminals must be used.
ABYC E-11.15.3. Bare wire to stud connections with the wire wrapped around the connector
are not allowed. Good terminal connectors are required. The part
of the terminal that surrounds the wire should be
insulated and sealed against moisture. Buy connectors with heat
shrink insulation if possible.
A page on the Friendship Sloop Society web site explains it well.
http://www.fss.org/techtip2.htm
Terminals should be ring or
captive spade. Captive Spade terminals have tangs on them that
prevent them from being pulled off, and ring terminals have to be lifted
off. ABYC has standards (ABYC E-11) for
terminals that say they must not be able to be pulled off the
connection under a specific pound pull. The amount depends
on the wire size. A sixteen gauge wire must not pull off under a
ten pound pull. A 4 gauge wire must resist a 70 pound
pull. So use the correct wire terminals.
Test Equipment
Learn to use a Digital VOM.
A Volt-Ohm-Amp Meter (also called a multi-meter) is essential
for anyone doing electrical work. You do not need to spend
a lot of money on this. You can pick up a good digital VOM at
any home improvement or hardware store, or a Wal-Mart, or any store that sells tools. They vary in price
from $12.00 USD and up to several hundred. But all you
really need is something to measure voltage, amperage,
resistance, and continuity. Any multi-meter will do this.
I have an inexpensive one by Cen-Tech that I can carry in my
coat pocket that does the job just fine. It cost about $13.00
USD new. I bought it used for $5.00. I realize this sounds counter
to what I said about buying good quality tools. But you can get a
good quality VOM for not a lot of money. You don't need a professional
grade VOM, which can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of
dollars.
Get a Receptacle Tester.
For testing AC circuits a receptacle tester is a very good tool
to have.
You
simply plug it in and the lights tell you if the circuit is
good, whether there is a ground fault or reverse polarity, or if
the circuit is dead. The last is vitally important if you
are working on the circuit. I have seen these for as
little as $8.00 USD. A great item to have for testing AC
circuits on a boat! I picked up one free as a giveaway at a boat
show.
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Everything Boat Building
For testing AC circuits a receptacle tester is a very good tool
to have.
You
simply plug it in and the lights tell you if the circuit is
good, whether there is a ground fault or reverse polarity, or if
the circuit is dead. The last is vitally important if you
are working on the circuit. I have seen these for as
little as $8.00 USD. A great item to have for testing AC
circuits on a boat! I picked up one free as a giveaway at a boat
show.