"Doug Dotson" wrote in
:

I guess I had better move my entire breaker panel into the
battery compartment then. All my equipment is protected with breakers.
I only have inline fuses where the manufacturer pre-installed
them in a power cable. If you chooses to mount fuses near the
battery then you better get moisture-proof ones. The atmosphere
near a battery can get pretty corrosive, especially when using the
old liquid lead-acid type batteries. If a fuse is intended to be
placed near the batteries, the why do the pre-made cables for things
like VHF and GPS come with the fuse just a few inched from the
radio? In any case, connecting anything directly to the battery is
gennerally only accepted for a bilge pump.


Doug
s/v Callista


No, actually you need to fuse the batteries to the lowest value of amperage
either the batteries can tolerate without boiling the electrolyte
(exploding) or the ****ty, half-assed wiring the boat manufacturer has
buried in the bulkheads from the batteries TO the breaker panel....

Boats with #10 house wiring from the batteries to the panel need a 30A fuse
AT THE BATTERY. You know the ones I'm talking about. Boats with starter
cable to the house breaker panel should be fused AT THE BATTERY for 150% of
the maximum planned load, not 350A just because the wires will "take it for
a few minutes". 350A will boil boat batteries in no time through heavy
wiring which won't catch fire before the batteries explode.

God it's awful stupid what you see in boats people are SLEEPING at SEA in.
I've seen a 2KW inverter hooked to the house panel main DC input. Math and
common sense have nothing to do with it. The inverter, loaded, over 150A
through that #6 wire that goes between the bent wood panel and explosive
fiberglass hull. That's ok, right?

Here....try this destructive test....

Short the battery supply cables together in the house breaker panel and
let's see how safe it is. Short the starter battery cable to the starter
case right next to it. Short the alternator battery terminal to the case
of the alternator. Think it can't happen to you?.....

Larry
It ain't rocket science, folks....