Resources for S2 Owners
Electrical System
Eventually I'll update this page with photos, drawings, wiring info, etc.
For now, here's my description from a post to the S2Yachts club on Yahoo:Sent: Fri 4/18/08 4:02 PM
Reply-to: S2Yachts@yahoogroups.com
To: s2yachts@yahoogroups.com
Ed,
I'm pretty happy with my wiring setup.
The starting battery has its own switch, which is wired direct to the starter
and alternator. The output from the switch also goes to a parallel switch. The
house battery is wired direct to its own switch, then to the house loads, and
also the parallel switch.
In between the two batteries is a combiners that joins them together when it
detects a charge, and draws some very, very small milliamp current when not
charging.
So when I want to go sailing, I switch the start and the house batteries on,
start the engine, and go. When I'm done with the engine, I just kill it - the
battery stays in the on position, with nothing drawing down the engine battery.
When I restart the engine, both batteries get charged. If somehow the starting
battery is completely dead, I can leave the start battery in the off position,
house on, parallel on, and start the engine off the house load. The reverse
obviously works as well - house bank can be off, starting on, parallel on, and
the house feed is live. Or if both start and house switches are on, the parallel
switch combines them together.
I would like to add a third bank - a second house battery. For that, I'll add
one more switch to the house load/parallel switch and a second combiner that
will also be fed off the starting battery. Again, each battery will charge when
the engine is one, but each house battery can be used independently (one switch
on), together (both switches on) or on the motor (parallel switch on). Since I
already have the combiner (I bought it a few years ago on sale), I'm looking at
about $240 for wiring, mounts, and a new battery - I'm looking at a group 31,
140 AH battery, and I'll probably replace the 105 AH battery I have as bank 1,
so I'll have 280 AH in the house, 85 AH dual purpose on the starting.
I have the 9.2C - the batteries are stored under a seat in the aft cabin, next
to the aft berth, so I mounted the inverter under the aft berth, in the section
housing the steering gear. It's a dry, large locker that I can't use for much
because of the steering cables and quadrant, so there won't ever be anything
against it to block its ventilation, and it's a nice big box for it to heat up.
I used a 48" 4 gauge negative wire direct to the battery ground, and an 18" and
32" 4 gauge positive wires. Any longer of a run and I'd definitely need 2 gauge
wire. In between the positive wires is a 90 amp surface-mount breaker. Defender
carried the wires for about 40% less than West Marine. I chose to use Ancor
pre-made wires b/c they're very well done, the lengths worked out pretty well,
and the cost savings of doing it myself wasn't worth the time it would take to
figure out how to crimp something that large.
I don't plan to ever run the inverter for long or for large loads - I may use it
next year to supplement the generator we'll bring along for the Parade of
Lights. Also I may install a 600w microwave, but I don't know. If I were
microwaving something for 10 minutes I'd kick the engine on and let the
alternator take up some of the load. I really don't know what I'm going to use
the inverter for - I've just had it for several years and finally decided to
install it. I suppose if I mount the LCD TV it would be nice to be able to watch
that at anchor.
I've also spent the past week rewiring my instrument interconnections. 61 crimp,
solder/crimp, or insert wire and screw down fittings so far, and that's just the
back end. But now I have a very clean instrument backend connecting the NMEA
multiplexer, GPS, compass, SeaTalk interface, and transducer wires, leaving only
two wires running to the displays - power and data/transducer. I don't have pics
yet, but here's the electrical panel. What I installed is on the bulkhead
visible on the left, much of it below what's visible in this photo:
http://midatlantictech.com/bayretriever/photos/DSC00048.JPG
Eventually I'll build a box for the displays that sits above the companionway;
for my boat I think that's the best place between visibility and intrusiveness.
For right now I have a replacement drop board I use - it's fine when no one else
is in the cockpit, otherwise someone's foot is usually in the way ... I actually
hope to have that done by the end of May.
Kevin
S2 9.2C Bay Retriever
http://midatlantictech.com/bayretriever
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