Comments below:
"Capt. Neal®" wrote in message
...

"Ken Heaton" wrote in message
news:lmk3e.125730$ZO2.43212@edtnps84...

Why don't you just plug your shore power cord into your inverter? This
would provide power throughout the boat with no danger of exposed live
prongs and no chance of forgetting to unplug the inverter before
plugging
into shore power.

Not advisable unless ground fault interrupts are installed on the outlets
.. . .

Without those, the damned inverter, if powerful enough, might go right on
its merry way electrocuting you.

CN

This is good advice. Actually, as you will find marinas don't have ground
faults on their shore power feeds, this is good advice for shore power use
as well. Ground fault outlets are inexpensive, easy to install and as only
the first outlet on any one circuit has to be ground fault (the others can
be fed through the first, see the instructions that come with the outlet)
there is no excuse for not having them on your boat.
--
Ken Heaton & Anne Tobin
Cape Breton Island, Canada
kenheaton AT ess wye dee DOT eastlink DOT ca

"Ken Heaton" wrote in
news:96v3e.158120$fc4.3505@edtnps89:

This is good advice. Actually, as you will find marinas don't have
ground faults on their shore power feeds, this is good advice for
shore power use as well. Ground fault outlets are inexpensive, easy
to install and as only the first outlet on any one circuit has to be
ground fault (the others can be fed through the first, see the
instructions that come with the outlet) there is no excuse for not
having them on your boat. --


I doubt many boats would ever have power if the marinas used ground fault
interrupters. They'd trip every time the boat was plugged in. Most GFIs
are set to something like 6-10ma of leakage. Same is true for washing
machines at home. A little corrosion from the humidity around the
motor....click, no power.....

Aside from screwing up which leads go where, once it's connected a transfer
switch is idiot-proof - one or the other source, but not both. The biggest
problem is size, though Cooper (recently was Eagle) makes a 30 A AC DPDT
toggle switch, #3036V, that is commonly used to double-feed water heaters or
deep wells. Though that would be overrated for your app, it could handle
shore power faults.
Padeen


"J" wrote in message
...
Similar issue to using a generator at home.
Before the electric utility (util) will allow you to connect a home
generator to your house wiring, you must install an approved gen/util
switch. That gen/util switch will connect your house wiring to EITHER the
gen or the util, never both together. You might install such a switch on
your boat to make the Inverter/ShorePower selection. Because, in this
case, the consenquences of switch failure or wrong wiring are severe, the
job is for professional electricians, not a high school grade hobbyist.
There is more involved that just "figuring out the circuit".


J





Tamaroak wrote in news:gI6dndTnPc4n2tDfRVn-
:

The inverter I am interested in only has regular 110V outlets, not a
hardwire option. Why couldn't I make up a cord with male plugs on each
end to go from the inverter to my A/C system? This would wire up my
whole system from the inverter, right?

And what happens when I forget to unplug it and hook up to shore pwer?

Capt. Jeff

On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 21:54:56 GMT, "Padeen"
wrote:

Aside from screwing up which leads go where, once it's connected a transfer
switch is idiot-proof - one or the other source, but not both. The biggest
problem is size, though Cooper (recently was Eagle) makes a 30 A AC DPDT
toggle switch, #3036V, that is commonly used to double-feed water heaters or
deep wells. Though that would be overrated for your app, it could handle
shore power faults.

==============================================

What you really want is a rotary cam selector switch.

For example:

http://www.cmsquick.com/prod_17_Ele.html

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On 2005-04-01 said:
Slambram wrote:
I've heard those male-male cords called "stingers". I've only
used them for temporarily connecting a generator to a house's
electrical system.
I call them "Deadman Cords", cause if you don't kill yourself using
them, the local Lineman will come beat you to a pulp, when you
backfeed the grid and shock the crap out of him......Classic Darwin
Award material.
I always called them suicide cords and tried to avoid having them
anywhere near my kit especially when doing live sound provider stuff
because I don't want some moron using them.

ON a related note I worked with a guy who wanted to borrow his heavy
yellow extension cables to do the job of speaker cabling so he rigged
up connectors to go from quarter inch male to the usual Edison male.
HE had one lying around connected to an amp rack and I had to stop a
drummer from plugging it into a wall socket. tHen I went to the guy
whose rig it was and told him I ought to kick his behind for being so
stupid.



Richard Webb, amateur radio callsign nf5b
active on the Maritime Mobile service network, 14.300 mhz
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--



Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get