Monitor Panel

[Sadey]

Had a strange thing pop up today. Put the boat away for the winter. I turn off all of the battery switches, the main breaker at all three DC panels and all but light and receptacle breakers for the AC panel. The last thing I do is turn off both main AC breakers (on the hard I only use 1 shore power cord to power both AC panels) for power coming into the boat. Apparently I had the AC monitors on and of course they went off for the loss of AC source I was using. Everything is off including main breaks and I get the alarm!? Out of curiosity I pressed the test on the monitor panel and with shore power connected but main breakers off, the Bilge, Fire and AC light illuminate and the alarm sounds. Long winded way to ask are those three alarms hard wired to the AC input side of the distribution panel? Again all main AC and DC breakers are off but shore power is connected and my 240V light is illuminated for the respective shore power cord.

 

[Captain Ralph]

This portion of the alarm box/panel, is fused direct from the ships (port?) battery bank.

 

[Sadey]

There must be a hot battery bus of some sort. The fire and bilge being hot all the time makes sense. It the AC? I don’t disconnect my batteries during storage and so far I’ve not had a problem. I won’t be back to the boat as much this storage season so I wonder how much of a discharge I’ll experience.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Dave, do you leave the battery charger on while the boat is hauled? Some do, some don't. Some rig up a timer to charge the batteries for a couple of hours daily, also.

 

[jmooney]

Fuse is in Starboard battery disconnect panel in think , lower right.

 

[Captain Ralph]

There must be a hot battery bus of some sort. The fire and bilge being hot all the time makes sense. It the AC? I don’t disconnect my batteries during storage and so far I’ve not had a problem. I won’t be back to the boat as much this storage season so I wonder how much of a discharge I’ll experience.

The monitor system draws no current till a fault and alarm is sounded. Even this we are talking MicroAmps.

Leaving the old No-Tech battery charger on / off is up to you.
IMO, I'm not a big fan of that.
The newer battery chargers with a real float / maintenance charge would be preferred and can be left on for ever.

 

[Sadey]

Ralph, thank you for the reply’s. I have new Mastervolt chargers throughout the boat. Jim, I turn all battery switches off, all but the outlet and light’s breakers I’ll need for work when I’m there off. Then I turn the shore power breaker off and disconnect the cord from the buildings outlet. I’ve left the boat for months at a stretch without issues with the batteries so far. This will be our fourth storage season. I do have the charger breakers on so once I power up the boat they come on automatically.

 

[Captain Ralph]

. I have new Mastervolt chargers throughout the boat.

Most excellent. I used to sell Mastervolt stuff. Great charging profiles.