Marine Ac/Dc

A couple of days ago, we received a confused reader’s question about the operation of his boat’s battery switch. Kevin’s detailed explanation of this far too complicated procedure brought to mind a clever new solution to a related boat wiring issue.

For many years, boat builders have had to choose between locating a battery-disconnect either conveniently close to the helm or inconveniently close to the batteries. Convenience, in this case, being a measure of the relative accessibility of the switch to their consumer.

This seemingly simple choice was complicated by the fact that putting a battery switch where it should go – close to the helm – almost always entailed a considerable increase in the amount of heavy (and expensive) cabling required for the job.

A new offering from BEP now allows builders to mount the battery switch very close to the battery, reducing cable lengths, while enabling the boater to remotely operate the switch right from the helm. Connecting or disconnecting the boat’s power can be accomplished with the twist of a key switch or the flipping of a simple on-off rocker or toggle.

With “ease-of-use” and “automotive simplicity” becoming mantras for the best and, not surprisingly, most successful boat builders, expect to see this innovative unit on many production boats next season.

The clever new VSR/Emergency Parallel box from BEP is a great solution to an age-old boating problem. It covers your dual battery charging requirements and emergency parallel operation in one unit.

The unit’s VSR works to combine the boater’s start and house battery so both are being charged when sufficient voltage is available. That is, it Will engage when the voltage on either start or house battery reaches 13.7 volts.

But, if the combined battery voltage drops below 13.0 volts and the engine is not running, after 5 seconds the contacts will open and stay open until the start or house battery voltage is greater than 13.7 volts.

So far, so good, but what makes the new unit from BEP especially useful is the addition of an emergency parallel override switch. It can be operated through a momentary button on the dash and will instigate a preset time of 10 minutes. Once this 10 minutes has passed, if the voltage is up high enough for the voltage sensitive relay to operate, it will stay engaged. If not, it will disengage.

Congratulations to BEP on a very clever and well executed design!