Lee wrote:
Hi Norm,
I see all of praise of your electrical setup. But I frankly am
scared to death of it. Do you have any circuit breaker protection in
the event of a dead short. From what you have listed in your setup a
dead short would affect every electrical component connected to the
two feeds on each side of the boat. It could also short out
everything connected to it (if you had a problem, everything would be
dead). I totally understand the concept of your setup but the risk
could totally fry everything on your boat not to mention the fire
hazard of the setup. Am I missing something here? This is not an
attack of your setup but rather some clarification of it.
REPLY
This is a concern I have also encountered when proposing such a system
as Norm has.
Frankly I do not understand it!
Norm is using a system concept that has been in use for decades in
industrial and commercial ship applications. It is well proven and is
reliable. I built my first such system back in 1996 and it performed
flawlessly. As does Norm's system.
From where does this inordinate fear of a short circuit come from?
If the fear is based on what happens in poorly installed boat wiring
found on other boats, well how do you compare a Rolls Royce with a
Ford Pinto? Norm once described the system to me and he has got a
Rolls Royce system not a ford system.
( FoRD = Fix or Repair Daily)
Properly installed large diameter power cables that are protected from
chafe and soaking in water do not suddenly short out.
As for a single point of failure taking down the whole electrical
system. A battery bank failure will also do that.
I have seen countless battery banks abused on a daily basis and poorly
maintained; and risking being fried by constant trickle charging. I
don't hear people going around in fear of a battery explosion on every
boat. In fact there is a greater risk of such battery failures. But in
reality how often do you see a battery fire or explosion? Not that
often.
Norm has a marvellous system. Widespread adoption of the concept would
be less expensive than present designs and also make servicing easier
if something did malfunction. And I am willing to bet that
malfunction would be in a piece of equipment, not in the main supply
wiring.
cheers
Arild
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