Shore Power Hookup at Marina

chuck1

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This was such an interesting thread thought it need to be posted here to get more input. Has any body dealt with this??

Hotlanta said:
Has anyone elso had this issue?

Also I got a call from my marina today,they said the Army corp specs that I have to put my trickle charger in 10 Gage extention and a GFI between the cord and the trickle charger.
Sounds extreme. $$$$$ :smt100

Dave M. said:
Wire should be sized so that it is protected by the circuit breaker that feeds it.
A 15 amp breaker will protect #14 or larger wire.
A 20 amp breaker will protect #12 or larger wire.
A 30 amp breaker will protect #10 or larger wire.

So if you are plugged in to a 30 amp breaker, you need 10 gauge wire to make sure the breaker protects the wire from over current.

When connected to shore power, you would normally have the boat end plugged into the shore power connector of your boat, which will have the safety protections built in.

If you are just plugging in an extension cord to shore power, with a normal outlet on the other end, then you don't have that protection. If you plug a defective charger with some current leakage to the case into the end of an extension cord, and hand it to your friend Joe standing in his aluminum fishing boat, you could both get fried on the spot. The GFI protects you in this case, same as it does with you and your hair dryer by the bathroom sink.

Not sure my above situations are what you are really doing, but if so, I think what they are asking for is warranted.

chuck1 said:
Hotlanta, That is one of the reasons I had true shore power added to my 240. Was told by Bald Ridge that the CORE and their insurance would not allow any power plug ins unless it was with a standard shore power setup.

Dave M. said:
Hotlanta, what I posted above is just why I think they are asking for those requirements. I don't mean to imply it will work for you. Depending on your trickle charger (whether the safety ground has any connection to the charger output) and any stray currents that may occur from time to time at the marina, it may be possible that ground current would flow that would trip the GFI. Then you would be without power.

Before I invested in such an endeavor, I would try and find out if it is working for others at that location, or whether there is any history of it working.

Let me try and be a bit more specific. The charger output current that goes to the battery should be provided by the hot and neutral leads into the charger. But if it has a third safety ground on the plug, and it is not totally isolated from the DC output, then when the boat becomes part of a current path in the marina with other boats, that current could go through the ground safety wire and trip the GFI. I don't have real life experience with this situation, but tripping the GFI would not surprise me. I think that the way the GFI units are built, it will normally only sense an imbalance of AC current, not DC. So maybe I am being a bit alarmist here, as I think most marina current flow problems are DC. Just a heads up, something to consider.
 
I did not intially grasp the full impact of the issue when I first posted this topic.
I also have a shore power adapter which takes the three pronged circular plug (30 amp) and converts it to conventional groung plug 10 Amp service.
A GFI device I now understand is a very important addition.
Thanks for the help Guys!
 
I'm surprised they will still let you use the 30 to 15 adapter. Bald Ridge would not let anybody use them anymore. It was my understanding that when you went to the full sure power setup it has the GFI, Grounding and breakers the CORE and the marina was requiring. I know the outlets they installed on my 240 are GFI outlets. With the marina fires and electrocutions in the past couple years I figured it would not be long before all marina ban the 30 to 15 adapters.
 

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