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E38-200 Electrical Panel Replacement

Joliba

1988 E38-200 Contributing Member
We became fed up with trying to deal with the virtually inaccessible rat's nest of wiring behind our electrical panel. As when we bought the boat 2 years ago, the original Newmar breaker panel was working, but in poor condition. The breaker panel along with the VHF, stereo, main AC outlet with ground fault, DC outlet, Raytheon instrument repeater, and Link 10 battery monitor were all mounted (crammed) onto the same wooden surface on the starboard side over the chart table. Behind this was a chaotic tangle of wiring which was unserviceable, incomprehensible, and probably dangerous.
This winter, we tore it out and rebuilt it into a cabinet with a nice opening door and a new Blue Sea breaker panel, which we set up to better suit our needs. We moved the AC and DC outlets, along with the instrument repeater to the wall over the aft side of the aft facing chart table (which has a small hanging locker on the other side.) This uncluttered the panel face to starboard. We sorted out and rewired any bad wiring in a very organized and well-labeled fashion. We are very pleased with the result. I am including a few pictures. If anyone has questions, I would be happy to supply details of the project.
 

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footrope

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Nice work. Indubitably easier to follow and likely safer without the tangle. The PO of my boat replaced a lot of wire and when he did he added marking numbers at each end under clear heatshrink. Very helpful when I replaced a rusty barrier strip on the underside of the cabin top.

Your flag type labels are probably what I would do.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Dang that's nice!
I have made some past upgrades to our panel area, but I like your set up a lot more. The way you organized the wire looms is awesome.
Mas Kudus.
:egrin:

LB
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
Very nice work. It reminds me that one of the few things about the Pacific Seacraft version of our E38 that I really preferred was the beautiful wiring job and ready access to the back of the electrical panel that they added.
 

Keiffer

Member II
Blue Sea Panel

Joliba,

I am in the planning phase of replacing my AC and DC panel, both are original to my Ericson Independence 31.

Both panels are located on the port side, the DC panel is above the sink and the AC panel is under the sink. I am going to move them both to the Nav. station on the starboard side - there is no water over there:egrin:

Is your panel model number 8084 AC+6 DC +15?
 

Joliba

1988 E38-200 Contributing Member
Blue Sea 8084

Yes, this is that panel. It worked out very well for us. If your present panels use a similar breaker style, you can move the old breakers onto the new panel. Blue Sea includes a shunt for the ammeter and a basic package of labels. Jamestown Distributors had a good price when we got ours this winter.
It is a nice panel with good backlighting.
It will be nice for you to have everything together in a sensible dry location.
Good luck.
Mike Jacker
 

Ryan L

s/v Naoma
Another example inspired by Joliba

Finally (almost) finished! But enough finished to post the results. Thank you Joliba for the inspiration and information! I hope someday we get the chance to pay it forward. If anyone has any questions about this project we're happy to share what we learned. This was a major PITA but so far in our opinion it was worth it. By the way, the wood is not veneer. We did it with stain and polyurethane on plywood.

dc panel inside.jpgdc panel outside.jpg
 

Ryan L

s/v Naoma
P.S. I know this is an old thread but it's the one that inspired the project and I thought another post with pics might help someone down the road. Plus I'm stoked and wanna show off my new toy!
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Very nice work. The cable bundling makes things very neat.
I wonder if it is worth bringing up, merely as a point for discussion, heat build-up in those bundles. I had the cables entering the main panel in my house bundled up, and the inspector made me re-do it. He claimed that it would generate so much heat that insulation in the middle of the bundle would melt. (They weren't THAT big...) But, 1. I suspect that the inspector was just being an ash-hat and 2. I would think that since the total wattage going through our DC panels at any given time is relatively low, there might not be that much heat to dissipate. Normally.

(Regarding point 1 above, our local inspector had retired just before I built my house, so we had guys from nearby districts, trading off on alternate weeks. Neither of them liked DIYers. Numerous times, I would re-do something as per one guys instructions, then the other guy would make me put it back the way it was :rolleyes_d: The above installation being a case in point. But since then, Home Despot et al have started carrying plastic cable-guides that hold 6 romex-style cables with a bit of an air-gap between them.)
 

Ryan L

s/v Naoma
Very nice work. The cable bundling makes things very neat.
I wonder if it is worth bringing up, merely as a point for discussion, heat build-up in those bundles. I had the cables entering the main panel in my house bundled up, and the inspector made me re-do it. He claimed that it would generate so much heat that insulation in the middle of the bundle would melt. (They weren't THAT big...) But, 1. I suspect that the inspector was just being an ash-hat and 2. I would think that since the total wattage going through our DC panels at any given time is relatively low, there might not be that much heat to dissipate. Normally.

(Regarding point 1 above, our local inspector had retired just before I built my house, so we had guys from nearby districts, trading off on alternate weeks. Neither of them liked DIYers. Numerous times, I would re-do something as per one guys instructions, then the other guy would make me put it back the way it was :rolleyes_d: The above installation being a case in point. But since then, Home Despot et al have started carrying plastic cable-guides that hold 6 romex-style cables with a bit of an air-gap between them.)

You bring up an excellent point and it's one we considered carefully. You're right that the wattage in your home is often far greater than what will be in the bundles in our boat but even with that we agree heat is something worth considering. Since heat is largely generated from resistance we used AWG 12 for all the leads coming off the panel. This far exceeds the indicated maximum ampacity for 105 degree insulated conductors in a bundle (even for bundles in an engine space). Even though our bundles have more than 3 conductors there will rarely be more than 1/2 the rated max amperage on any given wire and very rarely a majority of the wires carrying current at once so we feel comfortable with the arrangement.

Besides, the original wires from the OEM panel ran aft in a tight bundle in a small space without any problems. Doesn't mean it's ideal but I don't know not many (if any) other options other than running a few heavy gauge cable and having breakers spread out all over the boat...

Finally, the bundles off the panel are in a relatively "open" space behind the panel. And theres a smoke detector immediately adjacent to the wires.

All that said we will monitor temp carefully. Maybe even run an experiment with high loads and post the results? If you don't see that post please call the fire department... :)

Our biggest concern regarding heat is the impacts it will have on the solar charge controller. Apparently that device can get kinda hot. We may run a small muffin fan with ducting or something if it's an issue.

Thank you for your post, we are extremely grateful for any and all feedback! Especially related to safety... I'm an amateur (this is my first panel installation) so if I'm missing anything in my reply please don't hesitate to bring it up.
 

Joliba

1988 E38-200 Contributing Member
I concur with Ryan. With oversized wires for the DC circuits there should be no appreciable heating and the bundles could not get dangerously hot unless the circuits are overloaded and the breakers don't function. I would be interested in Ryan's experiment to prove this. On our boat it would mean taking a long shower on a hot and rainy night so that the refrigeration compressor, the bilge pump, the shower sump pump, the water pressure pump, and all the lights would be running continually at the same time. I still don't think the wire bundles would cause a hazard.
Mike Jacker
 
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