DC Electrical Upgrade

[Jammin']

A couple of places I've been spending time.

 

[brettportzer]

Looks like an improvement for sure, I am familiar with what was there (well, that area on my boat anyway, which is pretty much stock.)

I know you have been doing lots of electrical, but what can you tell us about the water system? That looks pretty nice!

On the electrical side, how are your motors connected in, ground wise? Mine originally basically starter-batteries-across boat-other batteries-other starter... Looking at some ideas to improve that bit.

 

[Jammin']

I had a large accumulator tank which I had to remove to make room for the battery chargers. I added the water filters and replaced my faulty water pump with a Shurflo with internal by-pass that is supposed to not need an accumulator tank, but I added a small one that I could make fit. I put a pressure regulator valve in the system to make the fill time more consistent on the Raritan Purasan system I installed. I also needed to replace the hot water heater to make room for the chargers, but the old one was a mess. I'm assembling the plumbing for the hot water heater. I'm plumbing it to be able to by-pass it for winterizing without having to undo plumbing and physically by-pass it. I also need to plumb the heat exchanger into the starboard engine cooling system.

I take turns on which side of the boat I work on since it's only practical to open the hatches on one side at a time.

The way I've laid out my battery banks is "Starboard Start" (has 2 of 5 bilge pumps, autopilot and VHF radios), "House 1 & Port Start" (nav and interior lights, 3 bilge pumps, instruments, half of the thruster, heads & sanitary system), "House 2" (windlass, inverter, 12 volt fridge, half of the thruster). As I've gone along, I've thought of better ways to do things and I seem to tend to make things needlessly complex.

I'm waiting on some wire (materials seem to be out of stock a lot these days) to replace some 120 volt circuits that were installed with solid household wiring and installing a dedicated inverter outlet in the aft cabin.

 

[jim rosenthal]

The bypass of the water heater is excellent; it makes winterizing much easier. Also the HE loop through the water heater will give you a lot of VERY hot water, and because it's in the engine area, it stays hot. Very nice.

 

[Jammin']

On the subject of the heat exchanger loop, it took me awhile to find this here, so this is to bring it back to the top. It's a diagram of where to plumb the water lines for 671's from Johnson & Towers.

 

[brettportzer]

Nice!