Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Plugpoints - up or down

One of the issues in a boat is wiring neatness. Fitting out a boat gives you the opportunity to put plug points EXACTLY where you might want them. If you ever intend selling your boat, then getting too "arty" with your plug point locations, could be an issue, as most people would prefer a standard placement. The easiest, would be to put a wiring "skirting box" all along the floor level, and put plug points on the outside of that skirting box. I dont think this is ideal, but it may be the way I do it. I could then run a normal 1metre multiplug box, from the skirting area...inside the ply walling, and up to waist height, perfect for things like bedside lamps, kids desks, kitchen appliances etc. I could run the 220V electrics in a skirting box just under the gunwale, and fit the plug points at that height. I'll run 2 "feeds" , one down each side of the boat, from 16Amp trip switches. I'll run a seperate one for kitchen appliances, from it's own trip switch. This should stop things tripping out when the kettle, toaster, and vacuum cleaner are all going at the same time. The thought process is as follows:

Bedroom - side lamps. Fed at floor level.
Kids desks - fed at waist level.
Vacuum cleaner - fed at floor level.
Kitchen appliances - fed from waist/table top level.
TV in saloon - fed from waist high.
Lamps in saloon - fed from ceiling height.
Lamps in kids rooms - fed from ceiling height.
Spot lamps in kids rooms - fed from waist high (sits on desks or wired as reading lights)
Hair drier plug - waist high
Laptop plugs in all rooms - floor height.
Printer plug - waist high.
TV in kids rooms - waist high
TV in main bedroom - waist high.

So basically, in short....it looks like I'm going to have to have plug points at foot level AND waist level, for appliances, and hardwire lights from head height. If you buy a fully fitted boat, you have to live with where the previous owner had plug points. I'm hoping that part of fitting a boat ourselves, means plug points will be EXACTLY where we need them...and cut down on too many wires hanging, re-routing, and getting in knots. Cutting the supply cable for every appliance to a half metre, sounds like a great idea.

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