Port Side Sail Locker Bulkhead

[PeteW]

I've never seen any images of the wiring that is found on the port side sail locker bulkhead. After years a cleaning up the rats nest that was my Pearson 365, it has evolved into this which is actually a huge improvement over what it was.



Starting from the upper left is the bilge pump time delay relay board, the reefer solid state thermostat, house current meter, bilge pump switch panel (rear views) and a Raymarine ITC-5.  The ITC-5 puts the depth sounder transducer, knot meter, water temp, and masthead wind vane data onto the SeatalkNG backbone.  Bottom center is the Pro-split R battery bank isolator and the 150 amp Alternator fuse.  3 battery bank switches (rear view) are at the upper right along with the LNG relay switch panel.

Gone is the Pearson installed neutral buss. What remains is the bonding wire busses. One is above the water line (rigging) and the other is below the waterline bonding. This is where any single point of contact between Bonding, Isolated AC ground and DC ground is made.

Pete,   SV Tartanic

[PeteW]

Here's what's on the inside of my bulkheads.



3 SPST Battery Switches offer a lot more versatility than the old AB Both type rotary switch. This set-up gives me 4 battery configurations to get current to start the motor and 7 ways to power the house load.



The panel on the left has a meter for total house current, the bilge pump controller, the reefer thermostat, breaker and compressor speed control. The small current meter allows me to dial the compressor speed in for ambient conditions. Generally I crank id down (slower and lower current) when the suction line starts to ice up.

The MPPT charge controller is a $50 unit that you can get on EBay. I evaluated it to operate up to 40 volts input. This allows you to connect 2 panels in series. This is desirable, it gives the controller half the current at twice the voltage. This is more efficient.  What is important on this controller is to connect the house load, not to the battery bank, but instead to the load terminal on the charge controller. There is a separate terminal for the battery bank. This way, the dedicated load current shunt in the controller ramps up the charge current output to respond to an increase in load as opposed to a drop in battery voltage. Way more efficient operation this way. Battery float voltage is maintained while the controller supplies maximum current to the house load demand.

Pete