Electrical Connections pt3

Today has been a good day for Liberty Call. For a while now, I have been wanting to change out the old, dated electrical distribution panels with something a bit more modern and that has all working bits.

This "works". But its a freaking nightmare behind that panel. Whoever wired it up didnt know, or obviously care, about what they were doing.  The DC Meter as well as the old battery select switch don't work, So obviously, these need replacing.

I've always liked Blue Sea Systems. Their products are top notch and are well designed. Its for this reason I was drawn to their traditional metal panels. They are REALLY nice. Unfortunately, they are also REALLY expensive. A simple 8 breaker panel runs around $200. If you need two of these and an AC panel as well as a guage or two. Things begin to skyrocket pretty quick.

A couple of months back, I priced my ideal setup for my new Electrical Distribution System and it was close to a $1000. Nope...  So I put that away in my "nice to have, but keep dreaming" column of my project book.

Fast forward to today as I walk into a Marine consignment store and what do I see sitting in the bottom of a rubbermaid bin? Almost exactly what I have been looking for. Holy Cow!

Now of course, I try to remain calm, and ask the store manager what they want for it. He doesn't know as it just came in, so he gives a call to his partner. They come back with a price for $200. That is a steal in and of itself, but I tried talking them down. After a little bit of haggling. I walked out with this sweet piece of tech for $150. When I got back to the boat, I checked West Marine and they're website has this exact same panel listed at over $700!!! Talk about bargain of the year. I couldn't be happier.

Now the panel does have some cosmetic issues that I will try to address. It also has a couple spots of corrosion on the back and sides of the panel that need to be cleaned up as well. But all in all, its in excellent shape.

Here's the backside of the panel.

It may look imposing, but its actually quite simple and logical once you inderstand what you're looking at. I can't wait to get this installed, but first, I will remove every item from the panel and clean the panel the best I can. I'm also going to call Blue Sea Systems and see if they refurbish old panels. That might be the way to go.

UPDATE: Blue Sea Systems cant refurbish the panel unfortunately. It appears that they get the parts offsite and build the panels at their factory. The Customer Service Rep was shocked when I told her how much I paid for it though. :)

Electrical Connections pt2

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that I want to upgrade the electrical systems on board Liberty Call. Its been a slow process, but its starting to taking shape. I've installed a new House Bank, new Battery charger, and just last month I installed Solar panels - 2 100 watt panels with a Blue Sea Systems MPPT Controller. (There are two styles of controller MPPT and PWM. MPPT controllers are a bit more pricey than PWM controllers, but they are more feature rich and boast up to 30% better charging than the older PWM style.)

Here it is installed.

The display is currently showing the amount of amps being sent out to the batteries by the panels.
You'll notice that the Aux Out light as well as the Float light are lit. This indicates that the batteries
are full and all power being produced by the panels is being used by the fans and lights on the boat.
FREE Energy! cool :)

I decided to install it underneath the Nav table as it does generate a bit of heat when its cranking out a lot of amps to the batteries. Its working so well with my solar panels that I can turn off my battery charger during the day and the batteries are still topped off by the time the sun sets that evening.

Happy Memorial Day

I've always enjoyed what the Navy did on special holidays like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Its a tradition known as Full Dress Ship. It involves using every single code flag a ship has and constructing a "Rainbow of Colors" that is flown from the bow to the stern draping the whole ship in a parade of colorful flags. It always looks really sharp and when the whole fleet is in port, it is really something to behold. A lot of yacht clubs and individual sailors also perform Full Dress Ship for these holidays and other special events and its just as pretty.

Last night I downloaded the NTP13b, the Navy's Flags, Pennants and Customs procedures manual and followed the code flags as best I could (The Navy uses some flags that normal sailors dont have access to, nor need). Here's the result. I did add a Pirate flag. Why not? I'm former Navy, I could consider myself a Privateer of some sort... ;)

I hope on this Memorial Day weekend, we all take a moment to remember those that did not return home to celebrate this special day. May we always remember the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen that gave their lives so that we as Americans can still live free.