Wow, I hadn't heard that existing boats were being required to retrofit them. My survey did not. As it happens, I am planning a serious refresh and clean-up of the electrical systems on s/v Wild. I have quite a ruinously expensive stash of kit ready to take to the boat in Mexico this month. But I glossed over the ELCI.
Wild does have an older Blue Seas double-pole main breaker, just a few inches from the shore power inlet, so that ELCI panel would fit right in its place, with a little enlarging of the hole. Just a few more Boat Bux (ouch ouch ouch ouch)... Oh, but wait... that model is 120 VAC only, so I'd need a "C series" unit, that needs a separate enclosure. (see below) Yep, sounds like a B.O.A.T. project alright.
Why would you want ELCI (or RCD) at the shore power inlet, rather than the main AC panel? Well, the AC panel might not be close enough to meet code, but also because newer/larger boats tend to come wired in the sequence:
shore power inlet ----> main breaker -----> isolation transformer -----> inverter/charger -----> main AC panel
Quite a lot of gear up-stream from the panel. Also there might be stuff like transfer-switches for boats with generators. And there may be more than one AC panel.
OK, the post should end there... but... A bit off-topic, and just as an example (and not because I just put a lot of work into it) here is my current project (no pun intended) on
Wild. A lot of this is pre-existing. Because I'm considering sailing away from North America, even though I rarely plug in to shore power, I'd like to be prepared with a few upgrades. (All except the left-hand edge drawn to scale.) Like this post, the drawing just kept growing.
First, I'm replacing the "galvanic isolator" with a Victron isolation transformer. It will be useful even if I never shove off and it has the ability to step up (or step down) voltage to match the boat with the local supply. And it'll look good sitting next to the Victron Multiplus inverter/charger. In fact, today I'm testing the "open box" unit that I got on eBay. (It cost less than that ELCI...) (Not shown: collection of power plug adapters.)
Second, I'm adding an auxiliary battery charger. Nothing fancy, but I'm using a Victron unit (keeping it blue) that can run at 50/60 Hz. When in the 50 Hz world (or anywhere questionable) an isolation breaker disconnects the Multiplus from shore power, the aux charger supplies 30 amps at 13.8 VDC to the battery box, and the Multiplus converts that to 115 VAC at 60 Hz for the AC panel. Lots of stuff can run just fine on 50Hz these days, but for those few things that can't, it can let all the magic smoke out. My air conditioner says it wants 60 Hz only.
Third, adding a second small AC panel. This is a bit in the weeds, but the Multiplus has a secondary AC output. This is for loads that you don't usually ever want to run on batteries (e.g. water heater, air conditioning.) It's live only when plugged in to shore power. Of course you can do this manually with no extra hardware. You can also achieve the same thing by sawing through the busbar in the main Blue Seas panel to isolate a couple of breakers. But in a solar power system, Multiplus can also be programmed to turn on AC2 when the batteries reach 95% charge and turn it off when they ramp down to 90%. This dumps extra solar power into the water heater (or...?), instead of just turning off the panels. Et voila! Hot showers without running the engine. (Again, you
can do this manually, if you happen to be in the salon and think of it. And remember to turn the heater off before the batteries get sucked down too much. I manage to remember about half the time.)
Also possibly of interest, the new Victron Lynx DC busbar and fusing system is shown. The original wiring had a lot of daisy-chained 2/0 cables, and not enough fuses, by modern standards. I added solar power and more batteries and some less than top-of-the-line busbars. Which is threatening to become a high-amperage rats nest. The leading cause of fires on boats. Solar power turns out to need really perfect cable connections to work efficiently, and those cheap busbars are falling down on the job. The Lynx system looks really expensive! But pricing out the equivalent in Blue Seas hardware, actually comes out to cost quite a bit more! And the Lynx comes with integral enclosures, so it doesn't have to be hidden away inside something else. This also shortens-up a lot of those big cable runs. (The DC wires actually enter the Lynx from the right-hand side but it got too complicated to draw it that way.) Don't worry, Blue Seas is still getting plenty from me on this project.
