Richard Casady wrote in
:
On Wed, 6 Nov 2002 11:02:15 -0500 (EST), (Ron
Thornton) wrote:
Whenever I have shorted out an alternator, the diodes blow in about 2
nanoseconds. If the alternator output to the battery shorts, the source
for power becomes the battery. So it you are going to fuse it, fuse it
at the battery end cause the other end (diodes) opens up real quick.
A fuse can go anywhere in a wire, it makes no difference, the current
is the same everywhere along the length of it. And I will just bet the
diodes would protect any fuse by blowing faster.
Casady
Apart from the arguments against fusing the output of the alternator, I
believe that ABYC requires the fuse to be placed within 3 feet (I'm going
on memory here) from the source of the power output.
I assume that they require this to keep you from having long, unfused runs
of power lines that aren't protected. Placing a fuse at the end of the run
would protect the device in case of overload, but wouldn't protect the line
from a short.
-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org