Monday 14 November 2016

A question for the electrically competent people out there .....

I have read on a few forums recently about damage done by not having  galvanic protection. 

I know they are an essential piece of kit for those boats that sit with shore power in marinas. How about the boats that are moored on line, but with people running inverters and in a few cases on board gennys?

Do we need to worry about galvanic processes or is it just when connected to a hook up (which none of our boats are?)


TIA

4 comments:

Ralph Shephard said...

Big Clive explains what the galvanic isolator is all about. https://youtu.be/EjQb26juVYo

Halfie said...

Nev, I believe galvanic corrosion can occur when small currents flow through the water to/from the hull when the hull is also connected to mains earth through the shore line. If a boat is not connected to mains earth (either because there is no shore line or because there is a form of galvanic isolation) then these potentially damaging currents cannot flow. If a boat is in a marina among other boats with "unprotected" shore lines then I understand that it could suffer, but in your situation, where no boat has a shore line, then you should be all right as there should be no "galvanic" currents flowing through the water.

This is how I understand things, but I would like confirmation from others!

Unknown said...

Hi Nev, I seem to recall in a past edition of "Canal boat" magazine 'back cabin' someone had asked the very same question and the answer was your boat is not affected by galvanic corrosion if your boats shoreline is not connected, we keep Rock n Roll in our Marina over winter but don't have our shoreline connected preferring to keep our batteries 'topped up' using our Solar panels

Nev Wells said...

Many thanks for all of your helpful comments and advice. For now I think it's one less thing to concern myself about. Thanks again