AC to Bilge for Heater

[Flightplan]

Hi everyone! I would like to use an Xtreme Heater (medium or large) this winter to provide additional protection for my 2004 Sea Ray 280 Sundancer. I'm open to either permanent or temporary installation, but prefer permanent on a dedicated breaker.

Permanent installation: The AC panel is full.
Temporary installation: It's not clear to me how to route AC power to the engine compartment.

Have any of you solved this or a similar problem before on this or like model?

Thank you!

 

[Stee6043]

Though I think it's possible to do this safely, most will raise an eyebrow seeing an AC outlet inside an engine room of a gas powered boat. It's far more common on diesels.

If you do a search here there are some examples available. Tiara I believe offers this as an option even in some of their gas powered boats. But I think they have a certain type of enclosure around the outlet.

I'd vote for temporary. Route a cord through your engine room vent for the winter...

 

[Fill Ess]

Where are you and where will you be storing for the winter? (in water, on land, indoors, etc)

I would run a heavy-duty extension cord from the bilge to the outside. There are a few different places to run it.

If you meant adding an AC outlet, the issue is that it won't be ignition-protected inside the bilge.

 

[JimG]

Yes, I would simply run a temporary extension cord through the side vent.

Some reading for you:
http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/official-280-sundancer-thread.10064/

Best of luck and welcome to CSR!

 

[bbwhitejr]

I installed an outlet in my bilge on the front bulkhead(diesels). Until I could get that done, a very convenient route for the extension cord was through the round deck plates in the transom locker that allow access to the pins on the hatch actuators.

Bennett

 

[Skybolt]

I also have an outlet in the bilge. It's taken off of one of the cockpits GFCI outlets. I have diesels though, not sure I would put an outlet in the bilge of a gas boat. You might want to think about that one. Also any heater you use must be ignition protected.

 

[mrsrobinson]

Though I think it's possible to do this safely, most will raise an eyebrow seeing an AC outlet inside an engine room of a gas powered boat. It's far more common on diesels.

If you do a search here there are some examples available. Tiara I believe offers this as an option even in some of their gas powered boats. But I think they have a certain type of enclosure around the outlet.

I'd vote for temporary. Route a cord through your engine room vent for the winter...

Where's @foursuns/Gary, he beat the crap out of me 14 years ago on here for doing this for my bilge heater. Shop added a breaker to the panel and an exterior outlet with a rectangle plastic weatherproof electrical box cover in the bilge on my 330DA. I got/understood his point, I was happy with the solution though. If in doubt though, hard wire it or use an outlet that is not in the engine compartment.

I hard wired a Boatsafe heater in my Maxum 2400SCR.

 

[Flightplan]

Hi everyone.

I wanted to update this thread with the solution I implemented now that I have used it for two years without issue. As depicted in the image, I installed a porthole under the cockpit "entertainment center." For winter, I simply route the bilge heater's plug to the cockpit's receptacle. Thank you again to all for the suggestions.

 

[Stee6043]

Looks good!