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24-Volt Electrical Systems |
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Written by Staff of Quadrant Marine Institute
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Q. New boats are arriving with 24-volt electrical systems. If I need new batteries anyway, is there an advantage in changing to 24-volt?
A. There are advantages and disadvantages to higher and lower DC voltages on board a boat. Higher voltages get by with lighter wiring but must be better insulated. The 12-volt system is almost universally standard for most marine and automotive applications. Almost all appliances, electronics and other electrical gear are standard 12 volt DC.
For applications on large yachts, 24 or 32-volt DC systems are typically used. These systems take advantage of higher voltage in order to use less current to operate heavy loads, such as motors, cranes and hoists—without requiring very heavy gauge wiring. A brief study of “voltage drop” for heavy loads on the end of long lengths of cable will tell the story just as well as we can here. Changing an existing 12-volt system to 24 volt would require changes throughout the entire boat, be very costly and probably wouldn’t be necessary unless you had a very large vessel.
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