Shore Power Connection

[THJeff]

Hopefully these aren't silly questions, but this is my first exposure to a boat this size with an electrical setup that is this complicated. The boat I just purchased is in warm storage and when I go to work on it I plug into an outlet in the warehouse using the appropriate adapter for the shore power cord so that I can turn the salon lights on. Trouble is, I can only figure out how to turn on the salon lights using the main battery solenoids on the DC panel. I do this by "energizing" the starboard battery and the salon lights go on once I turn on the appropriate switch on the DC panel. It appears as the the shore power is not providing the electricity because if I unplug, the lights remain on. Additionally, I need to change a navigation light which I see are connected to the running lights on the dash. I was able to turn these on by "energizing" the port battery. After having them on for a bit, they dimmed and went out, so I'm assuming I ran down the port battery? So my questions are:

1. Can I run salon lights off the shore power hookup? If so, how do I connect to the AC power? The AC panel only has switches for the big power consuming items (appliances, A/C etc) and nothing for salon lights etc.
2. Did I drain my port battery? If so, what's the best way to charge it before I put the boat in the water?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[alnav]

THJeff, your salon lights are operating off DC and therefore the batteries. The battery needs to get its power from the battery converter/charger on the AC side. You should have a charger/converter switch on the AC panel that you should turn on when you're connected to shore power. That will allow your DC lights to work while also charging up the batteries. So, I recommend you get the converter/charger working and see if it will charge the batteries back up. If you only ran down the port battery once, it will probably be OK after charging it back up.

 

[THJeff]

THJeff, your salon lights are operating off DC and therefore the batteries. The battery needs to get its power from the battery converter/charger on the AC side. You should have a charger/converter switch on the AC panel that you should turn on when you're connected to shore power. That will allow your DC lights to work while also charging up the batteries. So, I recommend you get the converter/charger working and see if it will charge the batteries back up. If you only ran down the port battery once, it will probably be OK after charging it back up.

Thanks so much Al...that did the trick!