Shore Power Question

[Sadey]

Obviously there are two shore power outlets on our boat. My question is this, do both outlets have to be powered to power everything on the boat? Outlets, battery chargers etc... or is one of the outlets for those items and the other outlet is strictly for the air conditioning units? We bought this boat in October and it’s our first big boat. I’m in a heated storage so I spend at least one day or so a week out there customizing and just getting intimate with the boat. While I’m there I plug into shore power and I’m curious if both battery chargers are being powered with one connection.

[Midnightsun]

Most boats are set up with AC on one inlet and everything else on the other. You can easily verify this by looking at your breaker panel where it should be identified and sometimes there is a label below the exterior connector with "Main" and "AC" identifying which is which.

[Sadey]

It seems that one outlet powers everything and the other one powers the AC. My main concern was that both battery chargers are powered when I plug-in. I don’t see much movement on the amp meter which of course is because the batteries are fully charged. I hadn’t thought to look at the connections himself and see how they’re labeled. When I head out there next week I’ll check it out. Thanks again for the help.

[Txcruiser]

My boat has the two shore power cords. Shore 1 feeds the top section of the panel - the smaller loads like refrigerator, battery chargers. In my case these are all 110V loads. The upper panel shows a line 1 and a line 2, but these are all feed by shore cord 1.

Shore cord 2 supplies the larger loads like A/C. In my case these larger loads are 220 V.

You should have two master breaker switches on your panel. Just experiment with then - off and on - to confirm which power cord powers what.

[Cooler]

Hi Sadey, your 356 is equipped with 2 shore power plugs. Shore 1 is for all AC ( 110V ) equipment - fridge, electric stove, plug in outlets, charger(s). Shore 2 is for air cond/heat system only. Shore 1 can be on by itself, but if you run shore 2 for air, shore 1 also needs to be on. The meters in your power panel show you how much power you are using on each plug.

Keep asking any questions you have, but I am curious. Did you get an owner's manual with the boat? Carver is good with defining and provides diagrams of all these systems. I am only asking this because some boats were built with certain OEM and system configurations, and some of the same models were built with slight changes. If you did not get an owners manual, you could contact Carver. They can look up the construction log for your specific vessel, and they may have an owner's manual for you. Those are also available on the Carver website, but for some reason, the 2003 model year is not functioning properly. Carver also loves to know who the current owner's of their boats are. Let me know if you need a contact point. If you have email access in your profile, I will send you a contact. Did you figure out your refrigerator noise? Finally, check with your storage facility on keeping power cords plugged in. Most facilities have a rule that the boat should not be plugged in unless you are on site. Good Luck. er

[Cliffm]

Hello Sadey,
We had exactly the same question, read the manuals, still didn't get it? (I'm a visual comprehension guy) so I plugged in one cord, then the other, to a single 30 amp shore power outlet, while my wife noted which one powered the main AC power input.
Then we applied different colored duck tape tabs to the cords for future reference until we could apply labels on the cords.
We got shore power and A/C power labels (one of the office label makers) and applied to cords and then applied "clear" duct tape over the top for future protection (Gorilla tape makes clear UV resistant)
We also applied "boat name" labels to our 2-1 and 30A-50A adapters, using same steps.
Now we know exactly which cable to unravel/hookup to shore power.
As others have said #1 is all ship power/battery chargers, etc... #2 is A/C heat units

[mjk1040]

Sadey; U have 2 battery chargers on ur boat? I'm thinking u only have one, but I could be wrong, but most charges do multiple banks of batteries!

[Midnightsun]

Mine came with 2 chargers. The main 60a 3 bank does house and each engine. The generator gets charged via a single bank 10a. Never seen a 4 bank charger that does more than 10a per bank which is a little on the small side on a decent size house bank. .

[Sadey]

Yes. One 80 amp for the house and each engine battery. The other charger is, I believe, a 10am for the genny. Carver says I have four switches but I can’t or haven’t located the switch for the genny battery. Just haven’t looked close enough yet. Won’t get to the boat until kids head back to college. I miss her already. Oh and I don’t leave the boat plugged in when I’m gone. I think I can but don’t want my cords to go missing.

[Cliffm]

Our boat, a 2006 36 MY has (2) charger switches on the AC panel, however, there is only (1) charger, which floats (3) batteries, the house, stbd engine, port engine. The "extra" Batt charger switch does nothing. The generator battery is isolated, charged when running generator only, as far as I can tell, confirmed by our boat yard mechanic/Carver guru.
We have second batery charger now, but's for the twin 12V bow thruster batteries, charged when on AC power only.