Ours is in the cockpit starboard locker on the forward bulkhead. You have to be careful not to hit it climbing in and out. I assume it was located there due to charger fan noise? Long way from the house batteries located port lazarette and opposite side of shore 110 located port rear corner of cockpit. Installing a new charger and would like it located closer to the batteries. Why not?
Mine's in the same place.
I agree - it seems like an odd wiring path ... from the shore power hookup in port corner of the cockpit to charge controller at the forward end of the stbd locker, then back over to the batteries on the port side of the engine.
But maybe there was method in their madness:
- if they put the shore power socket on the stbd side of the cockpit, the initial cable path to the controller would be short and straight, but the back of that socket would be hard to access on my boat because of the propane locker
- if they installed the charge controller on the port side - where the quarterberth is - where could it go, and where would the cables run from the shore power socket to the controller?
- since AC cables on my boat go to 110V sockets in 3 places on both sides of the boat, I think the location of my charge controller is probably optimal - not perfect, just better than other spots.
Plus, it'll be super-easy to swap for a new one if I ever need to do that.