Grounding a wood boat

[rasorinc]

I need some help. How to ground all AC and DC systems when you have a
OUTBOARD engine. 2 house batteries 1 starter battery.
Do I ground all systems to the starter battery negitive?

[Ike]

The out biard engine is your ground, through the connection to the battery negative. So yes, the AC grounding (green wire would be connected to the batterynegative ground.

[rasorinc]

Thank you Ike. I have owned inboards but not an outboard boat. So if I run all ground leads for DC to a negative bus bar and all leads AC to a seperate ground bus bar then connect those 2 negitive wires to the starter battery negative, I'm good to go.

[Ike]

Basically everything is the same as in your inboards, where the engine block is the ground point.

[gonzo]

Yes, it the engine is the common ground. Electrically it is the same to ground everything at the negative in the battery or a negative buss bar.

[Wavewacker]

I see how you are terminating a circuit and calling it a ground but I'm not understanding how you have an electrical ground with outboards when the engine(s) are up. What about a grounding strap?

[DCockey]

I have no experience with AC on a boat. When you talk about grounding the AC circut, do you mean the third, protective ground wire as used in US domestic AC wiring, or the nominally "neutral" wire?

[rasorinc]

Yes, I will run marine 3 wire AC to lights, couple of plugs and air conditioner with the ground wires to a negitive bus bar then a cable from the bus bar back to the starting battery negitive post.

Thank you all.

[Ike]

Y

I have no experience with AC on a boat. When you talk about grounding the AC circut, do you mean the third, protective ground wire as used in US domestic AC wiring, or the nominally "neutral" wire?

Yes, the third wire. Unfortunately the terminology can be confusing. The third wire is the "grounding" wire. That is the green wire.

The white or "neutral" wire is the "grounded" wire. But it is not grounded on the boat. It is grounded back at the source of power, which in the case of a boat without an isolation or polarization transformer, is back at the power station. If you have a transformer it is "grounded" at the transformer.

[michael pierzga]

For AC best to review regulations...Particularly Ground Fault Interrupters on the wall outlet circuit.

AC is dangerous when the boat is out of the water and you no longer have a seawater earth. The green earth cable must contact a shore earth.

[Ike]

Absolutely. Never power tools off your boat's AC when on the hard. There is no longer a ground path. Run an extension cord from the marina's out let to keep the ground path.

But best to review standards for AC. See http://www.kroescorp.com/Other/e-11.pdf
It's an older version but still better than none. Or ISO 13297 if that's your flavor http://newboatbuilders.com/docs/N863...al_systems.pdf