As time ran out yesterday I did not complete all the rewiring necessary to bring Hadar up to scratch. So this morning I completed it. Nothing major in terms of what physically had to be done but both were very important.
The first thing was to add a cable from a battery –ve terminal to the hull. Fortunately one of the cables I removed yesterday fitted perfectly, so now the –ve side of the 12v is now properly earthed to the hull.
The second item was to ensure the 240v Earth was also connected to the hull, which it wasn’t, but it is now. For some reason I had disconnected it at some previous time and I am not sure why I did it, probably because of some previous problem which I know have no recollection of. I do remember disconnecting at the switch box end, and left the generator end connected as it is easier to get to the switch box to reconnect if so desired, rather than having to get to the generator. Which has now proved to be a handy thing I did, I just can’t remember why I disconnected in the first place.
At least now I am happy that everything is as it should be electrically speaking.
As a consequence of the added load of the new freezer we had started to run the generator for a third time each day at about 3:00pm. Due to the improved performance of the charger and batteries we decided to revert back to our standard running of the generator twice today, and so far at 4:30pm everything is still ok. Tonight we will leave the new freezer running, which we had been turning off overnight, to see if the batteries will now cope with the new overnight load.
Fingers crossed.
I wonder if I can find a scrapyard to sell the old cables too, after all copper is very valuable!
Keith.
4 comments:
Keith,
I sold my old water cylinder and some copper pipe and got £45 much more Than i was expecting, no wonder it is being pinched so regularly,
Nev NB Waterlily
Happy New Year Nev, it is finding somewhere near the canals that we can get to easily, and somewhere that will actually buy it from us, what with the crackdown on selling scrap metals. Still worth a try though.
Welcome to Mason Bay. Noticed in your re-wiring you have connected your -ve to the hull! Im re-wiring M.B. completely 'above ground" All DC 2 wire and no connection to motor or hull and no "bonding" All that just gives you trouble! Gary
I checked the installation instructions for the Victron Invertor/Charger and it states in there that the negative should be connected to the hull. All wiring is 2 wire anyway, and not using earth return. I am going to check with suppliers when we get to them in March.
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