Mystery Electric Thing

[bluelapsing]

Hi all, 

 

I have an electrician friend coming over tomorrow to read through the mega-thread on battery maintenance because I think mine are shot to pieces and I have zero competence with anything to do with electrics which was fine before but is now a problem. Batteries are now completely flat, I’m guessing, because nothing works except the plug sockets. 

 

I’ll leave him to poke around with the alternator and shoreline etc. but one mystery I can’t get to the bottom of is this Proteus thing. 
 

Does anyone have any idea what it could be? and if so, what it does…

cheers 

 

[agg221]

That looks to be a standard 240V domestic fusebox, with three circuit breakers - one for sockets, one for the immersion and one master switch. It is probably wired between your inverter/shoreline and your sockets and immersion. If you want to check that this is what it is, try pulling the immersion switch to the down position and then turning the immersion on - the little light should no longer come on. Then put it back to the up position and try the immersion again - the light should then come on and the heater work.

 

You can try the same with the sockets but if nothing else is working I am guessing you are using the sockets for lighting, so have a torch handy before you throw that switch!

 

Alec

[bluelapsing]

Brilliant - with that information I may now be able to find the inverter that apparently is on-board the boat somewhere. 
 

I was scratching my head before but for some reason the penny has just dropped that immersion refers to the calorifier and not some other system whose existence I’m oblivious to.

 

Thanks 🙏 

also if anyone knows where an inverter might be hidden for maximum inconvenience pls lmk your best/worst guesses…

 

for context, my switchboard and all wiring runs through the bilge where it’s housed under a step leading directly up to the stern. my surveyor was a bit mortified, so I’m guessing the worst place that you could possibly put an inverter is the place where it will be 

[Rob-M]

Check in the cupboards, there should be some reasonably thick cables from the batteries to the inverter so if you have a couple of thick cables disappearing from your batteries try tracking where they go.