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wiring bilge switches when using ACR and 1/2/Both/Off Switch

davisr

Member III
In doing the research and planning for the rewiring of my boat, I've frequently consulted Don Casey and Nigel Calder, but I've found Maine Sail's many pictures and postings to be especially helpful, especially when planning the main circuit. Maine often discusses the use of an Echo or ACR and urges folks to wire their banks through a 1/2/Both/Off switch as two separate entities - one as a house bank (that is also used for cranking) and the other a reserve bank (that's always held in reserve). I believe I've described this accurately. Here's a recent thread on this forum where he addresses these issues:

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoex...?10446-Installing-a-dedicated-starter-battery

At any rate, in all the various threads I've read I can't recall anyone asking any questions about how bilge switches should be wired in this set-up. They probably have, but I just can't seem to locate them. On that attached diagrams I've drawn the bilge switches by themselves without wires. It seems that if I wire them to the house bank I would be out of luck if the house bank dies and I must rely on the reserve bank to get me out of trouble.

I welcome any suggestions about the bilge switches or any other problems that I might have created or ignored.

Many thanks,
Roscoe

E25, #226
 

Attachments

  • E25WiringDiagramApr2012.pdf
    54.4 KB · Views: 74

Maine Sail

Member III
When I talk about the 1/2/BOTH it is usually in the context of not throwing away a perfectly good switch. There are many methods that work when starting from scratch.

As for the bilge switch they are usually direct wired to the house bank or the house banks bus. They are fused within 7" of this point and then get a second fuse to protect the pump in the switch (if were talking the basic Rule switches).

They are direct wired to avoid being turned off when the battery switch is turned off. If you are worried about losing a bank, it certainly can happen, then you can wire and A/B switch so the bilge pump can be powered from either bank but is normally left in the house bank position. Alternatively if you lose the house bank it takes all of a few seconds to move the bilge + to the start battery, if the lead is long enough.. The odds of losing the house bank and desperately needing the bilge pump at the same time are probably pretty rare, or if you do, then you likely have bigger problems to worry about like where are teh fire extinguishers or where are the life jackets and ditch box.....:)
 
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davisr

Member III
updated diagram

I really appreciate the advice Maine. In the updated diagram I added an A/B switch, and I guess, since I'm doing this from scratch, that I might include it in the actual installation as a precaution, primarily because it would not be easy for me with my setup to manually move the wire from the house bank to the reserve. At any rate, here's my updated diagram. Does it look like I've planned this properly?

Many thanks,
Roscoe
E25, #226


E25WiringDiagramApril2012JPEG.jpg
 
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