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Wiring cabin lights in Serial

20K views 59 replies 16 participants last post by  Rockter 
#1 ·
I am starting a project to rewire my boat. I understand the ideal is to wire everything in parallel. Is there a reason I should not wire my cabin lights in parallel?

I would have two runs down each side of the boat. I would use wire for each rated for the max amp draw for all lights at the full distance.

Other components like VHF and GPS would all be wired in parallel with their own fuses etc. through a fuse block.

Is there any reason I should not do the lights in parallel? It just seems to make more sense rather than having bundles of 3-4 duplex wires starting out from the beginning on each side.

Thanks.
 
#52 ·
I hate in-line fuses as a practical matter; they're a pain to secure properly with the wire and then easily access their contents. I much preferred it when most components came with the fuse incased in the back panel of the component,

That being said, it should be emphasized that they, or a suitable replacement for them are necessary. You can install a breaker or fuse for each circuit not to exceed that required by the wire and thus protect the wire, while doing nothing to protect the component. If you have a seperate circuit for each component, there is nothing wrong with having 12 gg wire with a 1 amp fuse reflective of the component's requirements. If, as is common, you're to have multiple components coming off the same circuit, the fuse should be of a size reflecting that of the lowest rated component. Since that practise results in the lowering of the utility of that circuit, ie..how many things you can place on it, it's perhaps best to fuse or size the breaker for the wire and fuse each component seperately at the component.

Anotherwords, Don't cut off those in-line fuses and throw them away without planning for adding similar fusing capability elsewise in their replacement! Remember that the tendency will be, when confronted with a single fused circuit, to apply a larger fuse at some future date, thus jeopardizing all unfused componnents down line.
 
#53 ·
One other thing you should do... if you're going to use in-line fuse holders, you really should make all the in-line fuse holders use the same type of fuse so that you don't have to carry different types of fuses on-board. I prefer to use the ATO/ATG type mini-blade fuses.

Anotherwords, Don't cut off those in-line fuses and throw them away without planning for adding similar fusing capability elsewise in their replacement! Remember that the tendency will be, when confronted with a single fused circuit, to apply a larger fuse at some future date, thus jeopardizing all unfused componnents down line.
 
#58 ·
TB-

This only works if you've got enough space to have individual circuits for each piece of equipment. If you have to gang multiple pieces of equipment on a single breaker, which is often the case... you really want to have fuses in-line for each piece of equipment.
 
#55 ·
Another thing to bear in mind (and something most people forget) when dealing with 12V circuits on a boat is that batteries can deliver *large* amounts of current under short-circuit conditions - many hundreds of amps for a very short time. This is far more than you'll ever get out of a shore power connection without tripping something on-shore first.

Apart from the risk of fire on board from melting wire insulation (the obvious one), a more insidious problem is that high DC currents cause magnetic fields that will tend to push +ve and -ve wires apart (usually seen as "wire jump"). These forces are pretty impressive and can crack bulkheads wires pass through, force wires partly out of terminal blocks and damage the batteries themselves, so it's wise to check the entire run back to the battery if ever you accidentally short something out.

To stop this, a good practice is to fit a fuse or circuit breaker to the battery itself (like those fitted to cars for the same reason). These fit on one of the battery terminals and, rated to the maximum current of your house power, will limit the amount of accidental welding you'll do whilst fiddling with the wiring with the power switched on... ;)
 
#56 ·
To stop this, a good practice is to fit a fuse or circuit breaker to the battery itself (like those fitted to cars for the same reason). These fit on one of the battery terminals and, rated to the maximum current of your house power, will limit the amount of accidental welding you'll do whilst fiddling with the wiring with the power switched on...
Do you have a link to show what it looks like ?
 
#57 ·
They look like this, but this one is some bizzaro 3-way thingy. For this type, you specify what fuse rating you want from about 50 amps up.

I know I've seen single resettable circuit-breaker ones around someplace (I thought Whitworths used to sell them) but in this case Google has failed me. :(
 
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