Home – Refit – Refit 2021 -AC System

When we bought the boat we found what was likely the original 110VAC electrical panel that had 4 circuits for the boat – 2 that ran off the inverter (Outlets) and 2 that were GenSet/Shore Power only (Hot Water Heater & Air Conditioner, we later learned that the Water Maker power bypassed this panel)

In early work that we did, after switching off batteries and turning off breakers, we were still finding hot circuits. This was cause for concern and I really wanted to get to the bottom of why there was still power after shutting everything off.

We knew we needed to add the Scuba Compressor and likely some other things from a boat automation perspective so while we were working on the DC system, we chose to also redo the AC panel.

We had this panel custom made by Blue Sea Systems with the help of PKYS. It’s setup with a Shore Power/ Genset lockout switch on the left with a multimeter below. The center column is for the circuits that will be powered only when the GenSet or we are connected to Shore power. At the top is a breaker that controls AC power going to the inverter/charger. On the right hand side are the circuits that are powered by the Inverter. There is also a breaker at the top that is the master input from the inverter. All AC power on the boat now flows through this panel.

NOTE: during the 2022 lithium upgrade we moved some circuits from the non-inverted to the inverted side and added several circuits to this panel.

As an interesting side comment, we finally traced the source of the always on power to the battery that was powering the windless at the front of the boat – it was back feeding the old inverter and allowing it to stay on even though it was disconnected from the house batteries and any shore power sources.