240v power

[Guest]

hi

can sombody please tell me how many watts can be drawn from a shore power point? not the inverter on the boat

we are holidaying over christmas on fair commodor and need some exta heat.

thanks mgman

[Pete]

Hi mgman, welcome to the forum.

Someone may well be along to correct me, but as I understand it, you pull amps from the charging posts, not watts. The posts are either rated to 16amps or 32 amps.

Assuming a 32Amp post, at 240 V and no losses, the total power you can pull from that is 32amps * 0.240volts = 7.68 kW (P = IV). So that is more than enough to power a small electric/oil heater, which tend to be around the 1-2kWatt mark.

[Pete]

And some more info on electic posts: http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/boat ... oints.html

[kfurbank]

Unless you are planning on bringing your own shorepower lead, distribution unit and sockets etc, then you need to bear in mind that few hire boats are fitted with shore power, and even then you maybe limited by the current ratings of the breakers on board, so worth checking with your hire yard first.

[Antares_9]

Assuming the hire craft you have is equipped with shore hook up it will be the standard 16a smaller one. That is capable in my experience of easily running in excess of 2kw without issues. All this will be dependant on the internal capabilities of the boats distribution system of course.

edit to conceed a lakesailor to Keith & Pete.

[goodall_m1]

hi

we are holidaying over christmas on fair commodore and need some exta heat.

Looking at the specification of Fair Commodore on the web-sites, she is obviously set up to use a lot of power,

microwave oven, two tv's etc, etc, so getting close to the "power tower" may be important.

Please remember though that (as far as I understand it) the broad moorings are not set up like marinas,

its not one tower for each pair of mooring berths but usually one tower per location

so it will be important to get a mooring close to the tower.

I agree with you about possibly needing extra heat!

Take a look at the "The New Year Freeze" threads in the Holiday Tales and shiver at the Ranworth ice breaker.

Perhaps "Happy Jax II" could give you some hints, as they were obviously out over the last New Year

and were making use of shore-power facilities...

For a warm waters sailor like me, coming up in August is adventurous enough,

but the rivers should be quieter in December.

Martin

[Mowjo]

As someone mentioned shore power towers, I was at the Wroxham moorings last weekend and noticed the towers only have one power outlet, I could have sworn they used to have two on each side, have they changed it or am I imagining things???

[mbird]

I think most of the shore power towers have one 32a and one 16a outlet. Seems a bit daft if you ask me as the things are obviously designed for at least 4 outlets. A standard caravan type hook-up lead will only fit the 16a socket.

[Poppy]

This may be OT, but it would appear that mains electrical circuits do not come under the remit of the BSS.

The only reference (on the BSS web site) appears to be this;

'If your boat has a 240V supply it's strongly recommended that you fit a residual

current device (RCD) to automatically disconnect the supply. This will prevent

an earth leakage current flowing through a faulty appliance, and protects

someone inadvertently touching a live circuit and getting an electric shock.'

Somewhat surprising, considering how excited they get about the explosion risk associated with my small diesel fuel tank!

[kfurbank]

Poppy,

Considering fires need a source of ignition, which on a boat is most likely to be electrical 12V or 240V, the issue of cabling 12V or 240V is appallingly covered by the BSS.

[Guest]

hi

can sombody please tell me how many watts can be drawn from a shore power point? not the inverter on the boat

we are holidaying over christmas on fair commodor and need some exta heat.

thanks mgman

I have hired fair commodore, last October to be precise, if memory serves me right she does come with a shore power lead, or at least did, but the shore power is only for charging. Even if you are hooked up to shore power any 240v stuff you use will still be run by the inverter. so it really doesn't matter how much juice the shore points can supply its the size of the inverter and how long the batteries will last, because you wont charge them as fast as the inverter will drain them! She has got a decent diesel fired heating hot air heating system which kept us nice and warm, but she is a big boat with a lot of open space to heat.