This topic appears in archived posts but has not found an answer. Has anyone found a two-pole ELCI or RCD main circuit breaker that will work on both European and North American voltages?
I am trying to set up my boat to operate in different parts of the world. Although in practice I rarely plug in to shore power, I would like to have the ability to do so. My current main breaker is rated for 120 VAC 30 amps and does not have ELCI.
Blue Sea have a 50 amp ELCI breaker that looks like it may work, but my boat needs 30 amps max. TheBlue Sea 30 amp ELCI solutions are rated for North America only - 240 V but only 120 V per pole.
There are very inexpensive (not marine) China? made devices that claim to be suitable for both systems. I don’t know whether these can be trusted? Does anybody here use such a thing? It seems to be just what I’m looking for. But at this price, it also seems a little sketchy. No UL certification.
The only other solution that I can think of is to carry devices for both systems and change them out of the panel as necessary. This seems expensive and a bit unwieldy.
Any UL rated ELCI device that’s rated for 240V SHOULD also work on 120V.
But. By looking a bit further into the matter, the ABYC and the manufacturers forgot to take world travelers into account. So single phase 240V is not yet available it would seem. And the problem would lie in the opening capacity of a single pole of the device.
My advice would be to contact Blue Sea and ask for their opinion. I would imagine you’re not the first owner who has run into this.
I would stay away from the Chinese brands. If anything happens on your vessel, and even if it hasn’t got anything to do with the ELCI, you’ll be in trouble for not using UL listed materials. Next to that, the device you’ve linked is NOT an ELCI. It’s a surge protection device. Different ball game.
I’ve been reading some more. General consensus on various forums in the US is: build your vessel like in Europe. Especially when your yacht has a metal hull, following the ABYC rules will have you changing a lot of zincs.
Like I said in my previous post; any proper RC-device should always work independent of the applied voltage.
And here is another example of an applicable RCBO made by ABB. UL listed, but not marine grade. 277Vac, both 50 and 60Hz. Haven’t found a shop Stateside yet, but that might be because of the steaming pile of doodoo al the search engines have become lately. Shops on this side of the pond sell it for about €80.
@toddster
Why don‘t you use the Victron 3600W isolation transformer with auto voltage switching and keep your boats AC network on 240V?
Are all AC loads also able to work on both voltages and frequencies?
I would not put a “native” socket in front of the isolating transformer as it would curse galvanic corrosion.
