Steel hull - electrical ground

[Joao Penha-Lopes]

Hello everybody,
I have just upgraded from a GRP 30ft sloop to a steel hull 40ft sloop.
Everything is in excellent state except for the electrical wiring which will
certainly consume most of my winter weekends....

My main worry before everything else is to plan for electrical grounding and
I have read the most opposite opinions.

Can somebody share his experience with me, please ?

Cheers
Joao

 

[Andre L]

I have a 1967 aluminium boat with electrical negative bound to the hull as
well as the ground from the 110v. The boat has no visible sign of any
corrosion.

ANdré

 

[Jim]

Lee: snip
However, the good news is that any transformer is an isolation
transformer for our purposes --

snip

This is not correct. An autotransformer has a single winding and does
not provide isolation.
Jim

 

[Michael Porter]

AFAIK, there is only one that meets the ABYC specs, & that is made by
Charles Industries (www.charlesindustries.com). Something about
isolaitng the ground as well as the conductors.

Michael Porter

Jim,

Would you have a recommendation for an isolation transformer? The
only one that I have found so far ate up a lot of the power before it
could get into the boat. That seemed strange to me, but maybe I was
reading the specs incorrectly. Also the price seemed to be very high.
Of course, protecting my beloved boat from galvanic corrosion is
probably worth a lot if that is what is necessary.

By the way, you mentioned DC and AC ground fault alarms. Who makes
them and are they available to private individuals?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Lee

Michael Porter Naval Architect / Boatbuilder
mporter at mp-marine dot com
www.mp-marine.com