Back to Australia......-gctid347549

[Guest]

Hey guys,

Well its been a chaotic last 18 months moving from Australia to the U.S, first Atlanta and then Boston the past 8 months, but it seems chaos follows us where ever we go. We're heading back to Australia in a few weeks time. I'll still be back in the U.S regularly for work but we'll be living back in Aus, for now at least. The good news however is that our 3258 will be moving to Australia with us. It gets picked up from the Marina next week and will then begin its long journey across. I couldnt bare to sell it after putting in hours and hours of work to get it back to its best.

I'll make sure i keep you all updated with the progress and post pics once its back in the water down under. One thing that i will need to do at some stage is change over to 240v power. Well, either that or buy a transformer and install it after the house power plug. Any recommendations?

Cheers

Mike

[Uncle_Bob]

Hmmm...I wonder if 220V uses the same gauge wire as 110V. That would help you decide whether to step down to 110V from you power box.

[Guest]

Uncle Bob wrote:
Hmmm...I wonder if 220V uses the same gauge wire as 110V. That would help you decide whether to step down to 110V from you power box.

yeh, i think thats the question. I was under the impression that the gauge of the wire is more dependent on amps not voltage, but take that with a grain of salt, i am not an electrician.

[Guest]

Bayliner3258 wrote:
yeh, i think thats the question. I was under the impression that the gauge of the wire is more dependent on amps not voltage, but take that with a grain of salt, i am not an electrician.

You may not be an electrician but you are right. If the boat wiring works with 120V it will surly work with 240V so long as the insulation is adequate and the devices that you are running will work on 240V. Similar 240V equipment normally draw less current then 120V devices.

[HughfromOz]

I had to alter the wiring when I bought the 3888 to Sydney Australia. I am an electrician and the existing wiring is good, at least on my boat, for 1000 volts, the only problem is the black wire is the hot or live wire which a definate "no no" for us as the black is always the neutral wire here, so I swapped that over. The other problem you have is the US work with 60 Hertz we have 50 Hertz, which means that electric motors like refrigerators and air conditioning will work 20% slower and they don't like it. Newer appliances are adaptable. I found that the aircconditioner worked OK on 50 hertz the Norcold would not, so you may have to keep that on 12 volts. Resistive loads are OK such as stove and hotwater which I run off a transformer but the size of your transformer should be minimum 4KVA. The more obvious things such as power points you will have to change unless all you are bring all the US appliances with you. I also swapped the generator over to 230 volts as well. Some generators have a switch to do this mine didn't. I had to drop the revs from 1800rpm to 1500rpm which will give you the 50 Hertz and then used a voltage regulator card to get the 230 volts. Any good luck with the move and welcome back.

Hugh

[Jeffw]

Hope you enjoyed your stay in the States! If you're headed to the Brisbane area, watch out for that cagey bastard PeterW! He'll steal your women AND your liquor...:kidding He's a friend and BOC member too.

[MerlinV]

This is a good thread, and I am sure that as folks have imported US spec boats to Australia, UK, and other 220VAC jurisdictions, who have had the daunting realization that there's lots of electrical considerations.

Thinking about the issues, electrical gurus in the group will no doubt offer advice on the ability of the main panel to handle the power increase, but that then begs further questions on existing boat systems. There are fairly costly components to replace or upgrade (if possible) such as battery charger, inverter, microwave and water heater, and then if a generator is installed, the puzzle is even further complicated.

Initially, would it be worth considering a tranformer right at the inlet stage and run the boat systems on that, and using this, can the frequency be changed from 50 to 60 cycle?

There are a few BOC members that have gone through this and can advise on the best approach, and Pilothouseking has shipped quite a few boats down under - he could probably offer a decent opinion.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

The boat will come over with all U.S appliances. So it has a coffee machine, toaster, kettle, hair dryer for the wife, the rest of the accessories are 12v i am pretty sure. I think i'd like to convert it over to 240v and based on what Hugh had to say it doesnt sound like a big deal. The boat currently isnt fitted with a generator but i'd like to get one upon returning to Oz. I also think that initially i'll just had a transformer like Merlin mentioned.

Really enjoyed the states, it was great to come back and live here for awhile. It wont be goodbye as i'll be back for about 12-14 weeks every year.

Heading back to Perth where we still own a house. We were lucky enough to find a Pen quite close to home. Available pens in Perth are near on impossible to find.

[Guest]

All we did was install transformers. As we have 2 sides to the boats power system, we installed 2 x 4 kvas. Hugh is right, the fridges dont like the 50 Hertz, but everything else does. We left the jenny as is, as all the equipment on board is 110 v. That is a fairly inexpensive way to do it. You will nedd to revisit this, if you ever think of selling, as this is noncompliant.

Ignore advice/comments from Jeffw. He is an escapee from a local institution.

Cheers

[Guest]

I went the oher way, I brought my European appliances when I moved to the US in 1996. Most of them worked fine with a transformer, including the microwave. The vacuum wanted to overheat at 60Hz, but it sure sucked.

When I sold my 2355 I shipped it to a buyer in Norway and he installed an Isoguard transformer which apparently has worked well.

[Guest]

I exported a 3488 to New Zealand a few years ago and converted to 230V without issue. As far as I'm aware most gensets can be converted to 230V although you half their output as a result. I cut the 110v feed to the fridge and ran it exclusively off 12v without issue. The standard promariner charger takes a range of Volts up to 230V. I purchased a 230V element which fitted straight into the standard water heater. I ditched the aircon as its not needed in New Zealand climate. The cooktop had a canister meths burner so it was oK. Overall the cost was no more than a thousand or two

[hargsnz]

I brought my 3288 into NZ & Ive done some things to the wiring & the main panel - none of which would be compliant. The big issue & cost is if you want to hook up to shore power - legally.

I have twin 110v air cons on board plus the normal other 110v stuff.

Mine doesn't have a gen set.

If was to do this again, I'd install a 110v genset in the USA before shipping. I think they are cheaper & the installers tend to understand gensets better - certainly than here.

It's only when you are using the boat that you want all the 110v appliances working and with the genset - you're all good out on the water. The fridge should also run off 12v auto-sense which is the only thing I have running on shore-power in advance of push-off.

I run a legal marina lead to a smart-charger permanently connected to the house battery bank & that's it.

Don't use the aircons, water heater. Microwave runs off an inverter / 110v transformer wired up to the panel. Inverter runs 240v through all the power sockets - again wired up to the main panel.

The post about amps - not volts in terms of heat were right - the hair-dryer is the biggest power draw & no fires yet.

[Guest]

Hi Mike

I brought in a 4788 last year and just fitted a transformer. The only things we run in the marina are the Battery charger and the refrigerator's. While out on the water we retained all the 110 volt stuff all seems to go ok. The beer is always cold.

Good Luck

Ian

No More Dreamin

Manly Brisbane

Australia

[AndrewF]

We have a large transformer supplying 110 to all existing 110 points. This will run air con one at a time and most everything else but not hot water at the same time. You just manage the load as required or you trip the breaker. 240 volt is split at the start so it supplies 240 to 2500 true wave inverter this supplies the fridge which is a 240 volt domestic two door fridge and all 240 volt power points. I have both 110 and alongside each 240 volt Aussie power outlets. When you are on shore power you have both voltages available when you pull the plug inverter charger switches to inverter so 240 volt is uninterrupted. 110 volt is then only available from genset.

The genset then supplies power to inverter so it charges the batteries and 240 volt is maintained from the inverter. 240 volt runs fridge,tv in saloon sat tv(foxtel) etc all run uninterrupted whether or not shore power is available or not. Ice maker is a240 volt unit as well it runs happily on inverter or loop through when on shore power.

Batteries I have three 200 amp batteries all on house bank all charging together and all providing power to the inverter they can run at least 12 hours before falling below 12 volt then run genset they come pretty quick as the inverter and the existing boat charger are charging them at the same time.

finally to boil the kettle we got a cordless 240 low wattage kettle from UK it draws 1000 watts not the usual 2400 so inverter boils kettle effortlessly so we don't need genset to just boil kettle.

This setup works seamlessly and really well both at the dock and on the hook. You don't need to have the genset running that often mainly when you cook or want air con or hot water and charge batts but you can do that when it suits you.

Good luck

[Guest]

This is a great thread. Thanks guys. Very glad i started it and asked the question. It seems that the transformer is the best way to go, for now

I'll post up some photos of it being loaded onto the new trailer and leaving Boston.