Shorepower

[painters]

Found a older 33 c&c that needs a complete 110v system, how much do you think it would cost to have it done? Thanks

[sailingdog]

Are you paying someone to do it, or doing it yourself... it isn't that hard to do... and a lot less expensive to do yourself.

[Sailormann]

That's pretty well impossible to answer unless you state how much of a 110V system you have, and want to have when the work is done. Figure minimum 8 hours labour and average your wire costs around $3.50 a foot.

[painters]

Paying someone for sure Dog, of all the things I'm not good at electrical is at or near the top. Sailormann, good question. battery charger a few lights and some decent heat. Sailingdog, hope it's ok to just call you Dog, don't want to insult you.

[Hartley18]

Some places require the work to be certified by a Licensed Electrician or they won't allow you to hook up (for insurance reasons). You might like to check with a few marinas in your area first to be sure.

--Cameron

[sailingdog]

woof.

[PBzeer]

If you're just redoing the present electical system, the biggest cost factor will be pulling the old wiring, and running new. Something that you should be able to do. Then you can pay an electrican to hook it all up. If starting from scratch, running the new wires will still be the most labor intensive part. The distribution panel (if needed) and wire, will be major expenses.

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

Some places require the work to be certified by a Licensed Electrician or they won't allow you to hook up (for insurance reasons).

I wouldn't allow a "back yard electrician," like myself, to do it, anyway, unless I knew them personally--knew from close personal experience how well they really knew what they were doing and how conscientious they were. (Not that a licensed electrician is necessarily any guarantee of good work. I do better work than the electrician I hired to upgrade my homes primary service and distribution panel, for example.)

Jim

[rewell6]

When you price it out you might just change your mind about doing it yourself. Especially when they hear it's on a boat. Let's just guess 8 hours and $75/hr = $600/labor plus materials that they will charge you more than you could go buy them. If you budget $1k you will probably have some change left.

[sailingdog]

IF you're really all thumbs... do you have any friends that are decent at electrical work, that you could ask to help you with the project.

It isn't much different from wiring a house, except that you're not using ROMEX and WIRE NUTS, both of which have no place on a boat. You'd be using marine-grade stranded pre-tinned wiring and crimp connectors instead... but the basic principles are similar. One other major difference is that you have to secure the wiring about every 18" if not running it in a conduit, to help prevent the wire from fatiguing from vibration.

My crew often helps me with the major projects on my boat, like when we had to barrier coat and bottom paint the boat this past spring/summer. Another helped me fix the wiring nightmare that a "professional" electrician left on my boat.

Originally Posted by painters

Paying someone for sure Dog, of all the things I'm not good at electrical is at or near the top. Sailormann, good question. battery charger a few lights and some decent heat. Sailingdog, hope it's ok to just call you Dog, don't want to insult you.