Vtonian
E38 - Vashon
Fate has caught up with me so I'm updating the E38's wiring now, but as always, on a tight budget. That said, I try not to be penny wise and dollar dumb, so looking for brighter insights here.
The first question is, can I trust the old breakers to do their job? I do have some melted bits on the AC panel main breaker that were there when I married her 2+ years ago, so I don't know the cause but have assumed it's related to having the old 12ga service entrance wire being asked to support a new 30A inverter/charger. That particular bit I can address with a new 10ga service wire and a double pole 30A AC breaker for under $100.
For more context, I'm also already doing the whole rewire for swing away access door mounting thing, along with replacing the 5 100Ah dead AGM house batteries (thanks, fate) with a single 300Ah LFP and associated charging magic, and updating to smaller, more efficient solar panels while also assassinating a bunch of the other old wiring miscreants in the process, so I'm already up to my elbows in wiring and wallet.
I'd had the initial idea, both for cheapness and the cool, steam punk aesthetics of the old panels, to just put new Blue Sea fuse blocks and circuit breakers behind them and only rely on them to function as switches. I can do that for around $400 (and a LOT of fabby fiddly farting around), because I have some of that lying around.
Alternatively, replacing them with new Blue Sea approximate equivalents would run around $900, entail a lot less of the more excruciating fab work, and probably make everyone else feel much safer (but is there any real value to that).
So aside from the 10,000 things I'm not thinking about (chime in, please), Ockham sez just dig out another buck and do the new stuff. In the grand scheme, it probably only adds 30% to the total project, even if it doubles the panel part 100% (don't fact check my math but it's in that marina).
But for me, the kicker is whether there is any justification (excuse) for relying on anything about the old panels, or if it's just stoopit to put an old breaker behind another breaker or fuse. AI says it's not recommended but not banned, unlike plugging a surge suppressor into a surge suppressor, which literally causes fires all the time and is verboten.
I'd appreciate any input, advice, knowledge or opinion. I can get lost in my own head on these projects and any outside perspective can often open a door.
Fateful footnote:
The instigator of all this was the drain for the vent above the quarter berth. While ignoring the boat for the first rainy month of the season to make a winter cover, I neglected to look under the nav seat, where the PO had 'installed' a loose battery switch for the inverter/charger, and which had wiggled its way to the bottom of that undrained compartment. Apparently, when I moved from the free swinging buoy to a slip at the club and so hung a new 17in round ball fender for better protection in the fleet, I inadvertently hung it directly against the vent drain thru hull (didn't even know it was there), and I guess the old plastic thru hull's outer flange must have failed in a rollicking blow, being beaten by the ball fending against the finger pier, leaving the vent drain hanging hose loose inside to fill the nav seat compartment with enough rain water seeping in through the leaking vent cover plate to steep the battery switch in water for a nice long time. By the time I caught it, 5 of the six AGM batteries had been murdered, with the last one left with about half its original 800CCA capacity. Not crying about it, going LFP was on my list, but I am irritated I'm missing out on a lot of great winter sailing. The weather has been phenomenal this year, if you don't mind the planet frying...
The first question is, can I trust the old breakers to do their job? I do have some melted bits on the AC panel main breaker that were there when I married her 2+ years ago, so I don't know the cause but have assumed it's related to having the old 12ga service entrance wire being asked to support a new 30A inverter/charger. That particular bit I can address with a new 10ga service wire and a double pole 30A AC breaker for under $100.
For more context, I'm also already doing the whole rewire for swing away access door mounting thing, along with replacing the 5 100Ah dead AGM house batteries (thanks, fate) with a single 300Ah LFP and associated charging magic, and updating to smaller, more efficient solar panels while also assassinating a bunch of the other old wiring miscreants in the process, so I'm already up to my elbows in wiring and wallet.
I'd had the initial idea, both for cheapness and the cool, steam punk aesthetics of the old panels, to just put new Blue Sea fuse blocks and circuit breakers behind them and only rely on them to function as switches. I can do that for around $400 (and a LOT of fabby fiddly farting around), because I have some of that lying around.
Alternatively, replacing them with new Blue Sea approximate equivalents would run around $900, entail a lot less of the more excruciating fab work, and probably make everyone else feel much safer (but is there any real value to that).
So aside from the 10,000 things I'm not thinking about (chime in, please), Ockham sez just dig out another buck and do the new stuff. In the grand scheme, it probably only adds 30% to the total project, even if it doubles the panel part 100% (don't fact check my math but it's in that marina).
But for me, the kicker is whether there is any justification (excuse) for relying on anything about the old panels, or if it's just stoopit to put an old breaker behind another breaker or fuse. AI says it's not recommended but not banned, unlike plugging a surge suppressor into a surge suppressor, which literally causes fires all the time and is verboten.
I'd appreciate any input, advice, knowledge or opinion. I can get lost in my own head on these projects and any outside perspective can often open a door.
Fateful footnote:
The instigator of all this was the drain for the vent above the quarter berth. While ignoring the boat for the first rainy month of the season to make a winter cover, I neglected to look under the nav seat, where the PO had 'installed' a loose battery switch for the inverter/charger, and which had wiggled its way to the bottom of that undrained compartment. Apparently, when I moved from the free swinging buoy to a slip at the club and so hung a new 17in round ball fender for better protection in the fleet, I inadvertently hung it directly against the vent drain thru hull (didn't even know it was there), and I guess the old plastic thru hull's outer flange must have failed in a rollicking blow, being beaten by the ball fending against the finger pier, leaving the vent drain hanging hose loose inside to fill the nav seat compartment with enough rain water seeping in through the leaking vent cover plate to steep the battery switch in water for a nice long time. By the time I caught it, 5 of the six AGM batteries had been murdered, with the last one left with about half its original 800CCA capacity. Not crying about it, going LFP was on my list, but I am irritated I'm missing out on a lot of great winter sailing. The weather has been phenomenal this year, if you don't mind the planet frying...
