[C320-list] new subject: overcurrent protection

[chester carson]

Jamie
You are correct. I had a fire on the charger wire to the battery. Very
scary. Catilina has a diagram for the fuse required which is placed as close
to the battery as feasible(3 or 4 inches). The older boats did not have this
fuse.
The branch circuits are protected by the circuit breakers at the panel.
Kit Carson
#223

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Jamie Pett <JPett at jp2architects.com> wrote:

>
> I have been following the 'battery box' discussion, and have a
> tangential question for the list - I recently installed a new Xantrex 40
> amp charger, and in the course of learning a bit about 12 v. dc systems
> have discovered that overcurrent protection (fused connections) should
> be used on virtually all DC circuits to  prevent a dead ground which can
> start a fire.
>
> My battery set-up does not appear to have any in-line fuses anywhere.
>
> Does the panel act as a 'breaker' in any way for the dc circuits ? Even
> if it does, it seems there should be fuses at the batteries in any event
> - I have a house bank of (4) group 27's in parallel on the #1 switch
> (about 360 aH total) and a group 24 starting on the #2
>
> I understand the original setup was (2) 4-d batteries, and the PO
> presumably changed this.  I do not know how to install fuses, or where
> they should be in my setup - at each battery positive (5 fuses?), at the
> beginning and end of each bank only, etc. ?  Also, how do you size the
> fuse  ?
>
> Any input appreciated.
>
> Jamie Pett
> Bella Luna
> #614
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