Between some Christmas shopping, making bread and darkness setting in I managed to get in a couple of hours work on the wiring. The task for this afternoon was the (re)installation of the switch boxes and controllers so that the wiring itself may begin.
This involved a lot of getting into and out of the boat and repeated trips to the workshop for various tools, screws and wot-not. I won’t bore you with too many details except to say that I had to juggle the rack on the outside that was screwed on from the inside and the switch boxes and controller that were fixed to the inside but screwed on from the outside. Needless to say, it was important that the various screws didn’t end up under one or other of the items.
This is the result. The new wiring will utilise what I believe are known as lever connectors.
They look like this and I have some inline single connectors as well and for my purposes, they have two main advantages over the normal connector blocks. You don’t need a screwdriver to use them and they don’t rust.
The connector blocks have steel screws to hold the wires and these have a tendency to rust in a marine environment.
The lever blocks do not use screws but a nickle-plated spring on the inside of the connector that is opened by lifting the lever. They can take up to 32A and this is more than sufficient for Shoal Waters.
I will be able to proceed with the wiring and although I’ll be wiring in the solar panel, this will be temporary as the coachroof needs to be dealt with and repainted before the panel is securely fixed in place.
So, the next tasks are to wire in the battery, making sure that there is enough cable to place the battery outside the cabin, wire the controller output to the switchbox, wire in the solar panel and then check that the panel is charging the battery.
But that’s for another day.
Time for a cup of tea.