Mid cabin galley fridge - battery wiring
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:18 pm
Now that I have my inverter installed, I wanted to take care of one thing that's been bugging me. The factory setup has the galley fridge running off the Stb side battery. That's been fine for 95% of the boating we do but for multiple days on the hook it runs too low. Even though I have a big house bank now, I wanted to save those amp hours for my inverter.
Since the port battery stays almost fully charged, I wanted a way to manually "toggle" between the two batteries. I was originally going to install a mini battery switch and run a new feed back to the battery box. I started looking at the DC panel and realized that I already had the fridge and both battery feeds right in front of me. I removed the "wash down" breaker to free up some room and finally verified that nothing was hooked up to it. Using a SPDT switch, I connected it to the fridge feed going to the panel, each battery feed and then to the Refrig breaker connected at the "Standby Main" switches. Now I can switch up or down and the fridge will be connected to whatever battery I want. And, by wiring it this way still have the original 12v fridge breaker protecting the circuit. Basically I'm using the toggle switch as a battery selector switch. Since its a 25a switch only switching 3 amps there's no issue doing it this way.
It took a while to figure it out but I can tell anyone else how to do it now.
Bob
Since the port battery stays almost fully charged, I wanted a way to manually "toggle" between the two batteries. I was originally going to install a mini battery switch and run a new feed back to the battery box. I started looking at the DC panel and realized that I already had the fridge and both battery feeds right in front of me. I removed the "wash down" breaker to free up some room and finally verified that nothing was hooked up to it. Using a SPDT switch, I connected it to the fridge feed going to the panel, each battery feed and then to the Refrig breaker connected at the "Standby Main" switches. Now I can switch up or down and the fridge will be connected to whatever battery I want. And, by wiring it this way still have the original 12v fridge breaker protecting the circuit. Basically I'm using the toggle switch as a battery selector switch. Since its a 25a switch only switching 3 amps there's no issue doing it this way.
It took a while to figure it out but I can tell anyone else how to do it now.
Bob
