electro7
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern CA, US
- Occupation
- Electrician, Solar and Electrical Contractor
Hi,
I was planning on taking on a house boat solar project but have been a little cautious about it after reading all of the water drowning electrocution death articles. I was wondering if somebody could give me some pointers on how to properly ground or bond a boat?
First, I was talking to a guy today who said to use a "galvanic isolater". Is this what I should use? I guess it acts like a type of capacitor. From the incoming shore power the EGC is broken and lands on two of its terminals. The house boat currently does not have this installed. The rest of the wiring system is in place and I was going to add the solar to it with a new inverter etc.
They said that there has been a lot of electrolysis around the dock causing a lot of boat pontoon corrosion. One guys said he measured half a volt in the water. Should I be concerned with this at all? In order to wire in the solar I was told I may need to swim under the boat. I am a little concerned with that knowing there is voltage in the water. I still may try to keep it so I would not have to get in the water to wire it.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
I was planning on taking on a house boat solar project but have been a little cautious about it after reading all of the water drowning electrocution death articles. I was wondering if somebody could give me some pointers on how to properly ground or bond a boat?
First, I was talking to a guy today who said to use a "galvanic isolater". Is this what I should use? I guess it acts like a type of capacitor. From the incoming shore power the EGC is broken and lands on two of its terminals. The house boat currently does not have this installed. The rest of the wiring system is in place and I was going to add the solar to it with a new inverter etc.
They said that there has been a lot of electrolysis around the dock causing a lot of boat pontoon corrosion. One guys said he measured half a volt in the water. Should I be concerned with this at all? In order to wire in the solar I was told I may need to swim under the boat. I am a little concerned with that knowing there is voltage in the water. I still may try to keep it so I would not have to get in the water to wire it.
Thanks for any help you can offer!