About to rewire... what about the ground??

[Aphers]

My boat has a pretty basic shore power system with a 16A connection, a breaker, and then a few 240v sockets around the cabins. I don't believe there is any sort of ground to any part of the boat itself.

I've also got a Victron Phoenix inverter (not an inverter charger) which currently just has one socket as its outlet, completely separate to the other 240v system.

I don't have a permanent charger- I use an IP22 on the rare occasions that I'm in a marina. 99% of the time we just use solar.

I was thinking about wiring the existing 240v circuit up to the inverter. I have a 20A AC changeover switch which I could use to switch between shore and inverter power.

If I go ahead, is there anything I need to be careful about? In particular, what should I be doing, if anything, about the ground?

 

[Rednecktek]

I don't have much experience with small boat electrical but on the large ships we have ground wires going to the hull and if there is anything on the ground detection meter it means there's a problem I need to track down.

My gut would tell me, and my roommate the other electrician, says that the ground wire from the shore power connection, if it's there, should be attached to the hull or the ground terminal of the inverter if you have a fiberglass or wood hull.

The big thing is to make sure thete is NO Neutral-Ground bond. That will send current through the hull and eat away the zincs and hull.

Does that make sense?

 

[Aphers]

Thanks. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing. It's a fibreglass boat and I'm not really a big fan of bonding stuff together unless necessary.