Can my R-27 OB survive a week not being on shore power ?

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baz

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Subject: Can my R-27 OB survive a week not being on shore power ?

I'm experiencing what I think is excessive zinc erosion at my marina. See my posting/thread here -> http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10724

With all the electrical load/draw minimized on my boat by switching most things off, will my boat survive being disconnected from shore power for a full week ? By "survive" I primarily mean will my batteries live through not being on a charge for a week ? This process would be easy for me to carry out as I live but a few minutes from my marina.

I do have a single solar panel and it's exposed to the south in my covered slip. From around 1 or 2pm with the sun out the solar panel would be 'lit up' so to speak for several hours. Would this be helpful during the week the shore power is disconnected ?

What other concerns would there be for doing the above ?

Thanks... 🙂
 
Absolutely, yes, maybe, possibly, no... it depends on what you are leaving 'ON' when you are not on the boat.
 
Hi Jim.... thanks for the "Absolutely, yes, maybe, possibly, no..." assurance. 😉 :lol:

I will adopt the on/off shore power process every other week as my diver service person has indicated this does lead to some benefit in reducing the zinc erosion. I'll post back in a few months to indicate if this procedure does in fact have a benefit.
 
Barry, If you leave either of your refrigerators on, then the batteries will not handle the load for a week. If you shut everything off but your bilge pumps, you will be okay as long as the pumps don't run much. If they do run too much, you need to figure out why.
 
ixlr8":16wcytu8 said:
Barry, If you leave either of your refrigerators on, then the batteries will not handle the load for a week. If you shut everything off but your bilge pumps, you will be okay as long as the pumps don't run much. If they do run too much, you need to figure out why.
Click to expand...

Thanks.... yes, I had already decided to shut off the refrigerators. As a precaution I will check the battery charge condition mid-week for the first few shore power on/off cycles.
 
Barry,
I will be keeping my boat on a trailer, inside a storage building with no power/solar available. I plan on turning off all the DC power switches and I am expecting batteries to be okay for weeks at a time. With little to no load on the batteries, they should be fine for a while. The boat will be close by and I will be able to check on it regularly.
 
Thanks Jim..... that's reassuring to know.... we can swap experiences... :lol:

Was down at boat for a few hours just now to run the engines. The kicker motor took a few starting cranks and started up just fine after not having used it since last Sep, 2017.

I've turn off all electrical load and flip the shore power breaker switch and the boat didn't 'yell' at me for doing it. 😉

I'll check mid-week to make sure all is AOK with the boat.
 
If you unplug the boat from shore at the boat connector, you can put a meter between the ground connector from the cable and the ground of the boat and see if there is a voltage potential. If there is, you have a hot marina and galvanic isolation would be beneficiary. Or, you could use a battery maintainer device which usually is not grounded to keep the batteries topped off. The acr should take care of the other batteries while you connect the maintainer to the house battery only.

Ground is technically not needed to keep the batteries topped of, but the shore connector also provides 110 to other devices which when in use benefit from the added safety.

Personally, I fail to see the benefit of that ground as the boat is made of fiber glas which is an insolater. Unless you flood the boat with water or have a metal sink I just don’t see the benefit. Need to dig out my voltage tester to prove my thoughts.
 
When wanting to disconnect shore power to the boat for purposes of saving on zinc erosion should I just flip the breaker switch at the shore power pedestal or should the plug connector to the pedestal be removed altogether as well as flipping the breaker switch ? Thanks.... I ask as it's unclear to me if just flipping the breaker switch to OFF would still allow residual grounding affect going to the boat.
 
Hi Barry,

You will need to disconnect the cord to disconnect the safety grounding wire from the boat and eliminate the possibility of stray current.
 
Barry,
Typically turning off the breaker will only disconnect the power leg, it will not disconnect the neutral leg or the ground. I don't know how Marina's are typically wired, in homes the ground and the neutral are connected at the breaker box. As Curt said, you need to unplug your shore power cable to disconnect the ground and neutral legs to prevent the stray ground loop currents that are helping to chew up your zincs.
 
Thanks Curt & Jim for such a quick response.... I'm glad I asked the question. 🙂
 
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