Power Up

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Is a new electronics suite in your future? Upgrading galley equipment? How about underwater lighting? New systems, or even just updating equipment, may overtax your electrical system. Problems like poor electronics performance or tripping shore-cord breakers may have been inherited from previous work, too. Solutions may carry added benefits like automated load management or redundancy for critical equipment. A new main electrical panel may also bring an expensive pilothouse upgrade into the 21st century.

Electronics often cause the most trouble, since they don’t work well when voltage drops even modestly. “Just because it fits at the helm doesn’t mean the power is available,” says David Gratton of Martek in Stuart, Florida (www.martekpb.com). Today’s big, bright displays often draw more juice than older units. A new Furuno NavNet 3D plotter and 12-inch display draw double that of a NavNet system of just three years ago. An added AIS system draws just one amp when receiving. “But when you’re turning in a heavy traffic area, that’s like a VHF constantly transmitting,” and uses up to eight amps, Gratton says.

Amps add up quickly. For a recent electronics upgrade on a 2004 Sea Ray 55, Gratton says, “We ended up with a net increase of 41 amps of DC current draw. He wanted all this new stuff, but we actually had to first see if he could have it.” That boat could handle the added equipment with existing panel, charging, and battery capacity. For boats that can’t, there are always solutions. Adding batteries beneath the helm, for example, increases DC capacity, incorporates a subpanel with added breakers, and also provides the kind of redundancy and flooding protection often required on commercial vessels. “Power for the things you’re using to scream for help and give your position shouldn’t end up under water,” Gratton says. “[With batteries beneath the helm], every flipping thing can go wrong and you’ll still have power to that essential equipment.”

Alternating-current inadequacies also come aboard when adding or replacing equipment. High-def satellite TV receivers, for example, draw more current than older models—three or four amps of 120-volt AC power each, whether they’re in use or not. With three receivers, that’s a tenth of a 50-amp, 240-volt shore cord. Galley upgrades can also tax breakers or generators.

It’s tempting just to add a shore cord, but marinas typically offer only two 50- or a single 100-amp shore connection at each slip. “The first thing we’re going to try is moving loads around to change the balance,” says Gregg Scrudders of Seatech Marine Electric in West Palm Beach (seatechllc@bellsouth.net). It isn’t uncommon for one shore cord to draw too much while the other is loafing or imbalances within a cord to trip breakers early.

Switching from two 50-amp cords to a single 100-amp cord eliminates these imbalances, as do isolation transformers, such as those from Charles Industries, but problems often run deep. “You get to a point where I’ll recommend replacing the panel,” Scrudders says. “We’re going to address every electrical issue at its core.” New panels also look sharp. “On an older boat, the labels may have been changed 20 times, the knobs are chipped and cracked, breakers are mismatched, analog meters are dated. Cosmetics may be the number-one priority from the owner’s perspective,” he says.

Today, replacing a panel typically means cutting back and numbering all wires and then installing labor-saving terminal blocks and bus bars. Scrudders builds and wires panels beforehand in the shop. “Everything is new. Terminal blocks, metering, breakers, bus bars, all the physical connections, those are the things that fail [over time].”