Good day Captains. I know the AC 30a Main breaker has been mentioned in older posts but will start a new, dedicated one here.
As I noted in my initial post on the Pub forum, replacement of the factory-installed residential breaker has been on my list, and we had an event last weekend that brings it to the top.
We arrived at the boat on a cold, windy, rainy Friday afternoon. All was well aboard and inside, we stowed gear for the weekend and powered up our primary dockside heat, two electric space heaters (one fan-driven and one oil-filled radiant). We're always mindful of loads when running these two devices; we plug them into separate 15a circuits, and avoid using anything else with high draw while they're running (water boiler, water heater, etc). About an hour later the main tripped. I braved the cold and sideways-rain and went out to the helm seat locker, found that the switch was in the tripped position as expected; I turned it Off, then back to On and the switch held that position (didn't trip). However, still no AC was present at the PDP above the desk.
Marina staff verified no fault at the dock tower and at the boat-end of Vixen's shore cable. A phone consultation with our ABYC electrician (who actually picked up while working on another boat!) got some speculative discussion about the failure cause, and he has put me into his queue to schedule replacing the main (what Boeing would call a "plan for a plan"); he'll also install a galvanic isolator and check our inverter hookups. He advised the Blue Sea Systems 8011 ELCI 30a AC Main Breaker is a good choice for our application.
The 8011 appears to be similar in function and features to the 1502 but with old-style white toggle switches. The 8011 has been deleted from the BSS online catalog, so it's probably superseded by the more modern-looking 1502; the 8011 is still available through some online retailers; prices are similar and either device would be okay for us.
I have three questions for this esteemed Forum:
1. Does anyone have experience with the BSS #8011 (or 1502) breaker, or recommend an alternative 30a AC main breaker?
2. I intend to install the new breaker in the quarter berth aft bulkhead as I've read others have done - any issues with that, assuming it's within the ABYC limit? (<10' from Inlet, I believe)
3. Does anyone have photos available of their solution to relocate the AC Main from the factory's (kind of ridiculous) original spot?
Thanks!
Dave
Vixen, 1981 M382 #260
As I noted in my initial post on the Pub forum, replacement of the factory-installed residential breaker has been on my list, and we had an event last weekend that brings it to the top.
We arrived at the boat on a cold, windy, rainy Friday afternoon. All was well aboard and inside, we stowed gear for the weekend and powered up our primary dockside heat, two electric space heaters (one fan-driven and one oil-filled radiant). We're always mindful of loads when running these two devices; we plug them into separate 15a circuits, and avoid using anything else with high draw while they're running (water boiler, water heater, etc). About an hour later the main tripped. I braved the cold and sideways-rain and went out to the helm seat locker, found that the switch was in the tripped position as expected; I turned it Off, then back to On and the switch held that position (didn't trip). However, still no AC was present at the PDP above the desk.
Marina staff verified no fault at the dock tower and at the boat-end of Vixen's shore cable. A phone consultation with our ABYC electrician (who actually picked up while working on another boat!) got some speculative discussion about the failure cause, and he has put me into his queue to schedule replacing the main (what Boeing would call a "plan for a plan"); he'll also install a galvanic isolator and check our inverter hookups. He advised the Blue Sea Systems 8011 ELCI 30a AC Main Breaker is a good choice for our application.
The 8011 appears to be similar in function and features to the 1502 but with old-style white toggle switches. The 8011 has been deleted from the BSS online catalog, so it's probably superseded by the more modern-looking 1502; the 8011 is still available through some online retailers; prices are similar and either device would be okay for us.
I have three questions for this esteemed Forum:
1. Does anyone have experience with the BSS #8011 (or 1502) breaker, or recommend an alternative 30a AC main breaker?
2. I intend to install the new breaker in the quarter berth aft bulkhead as I've read others have done - any issues with that, assuming it's within the ABYC limit? (<10' from Inlet, I believe)
3. Does anyone have photos available of their solution to relocate the AC Main from the factory's (kind of ridiculous) original spot?
Thanks!
Dave
Vixen, 1981 M382 #260