September 01-10, 2001 -- DC Electrical Panels

September 1-10, 2001 -- DC Electrical Panels Today, we worked on varnish again. The teak trim by the door and around the aft seating area is starting to look pretty good! The flag pole is almost done as well! On Sunday, September 2, it rained for most of the day so we started working on getting the new breaker panels loaded with the correct breakers for our DC systems. We also installed the back lighting panels and the led indicator lights. On Monday, September 3, we continued working on the panel layout. By the end of the day, we had completed all of the new panels. We configured 14 panels and approximately 100 breakers. On Tuesday, September 4, we took a break and went into town for a few groceries. We took it easy for the rest of the day knowing that we would be entering electrical hell in the morning when we started replacing breaker panels. On Wednesday, September 5, we embarked on what we naively thought would be a 3 day project. We started replacing the DC breaker panels. The first thing we had to do was to straighten out the wiring from the original panels that had already been installed. So, we dressed in the existing wires and made them look neater; anything is an improvement over a rat's nest!. In the process we also managed to be able to get the electrical panel open further. By mid afternoon, we were ready to install our first breaker panels. We tried to keep the layout fairly simple, and selected a breaker panel set that would make sense with the existing new panels, but would also remove the bulk of the connections from the far right panel. We were about 70% successful. By about 6:00 or so, we packed it in and had installed 2 new panels. We had 12 more to go. On Thursday, September 6, we dressed in the 2 panels that we installed yesterday. Jackobyte, Tahoe and Jolly Moon stopped by to say hello. They had been up at the Rendezvous Beach Resort pool swimming. After they left, we got back to work. Instead of installing another panel today, we made sure that everything would be set up for continuing to work tomorrow. On Friday, September 7, we went into town for perishables, then came back and, big surprise, went to work on the electrical panels again. We were now in the position of having to do everything at the same time. We were about to remove the last set of breakers. So, We measured up the panel door, and made our cuts. Since the old breakers were segmented 2/3 of the way across, we knew that, while would need to leave the door open, we could install two panels of breakers without too much concern. We undid and labeled all of the remaining breakers on the far right bank of breakers and proceeded to start working. By about 8:00 PM AST, we were finally in a position where we could stop working for the evening. We had lights, that was the most important thing. On Saturday September 8, we got up early, and worked late on breakers! Seriously, we knew at this point that we would have to do a thorough cut over to the new system, so that is what we did. We installed the remaining 6 panels, then unplugged and labeled the remaining wires from the old breaker system. We spent the rest of the day extending wires and hooking things up to the new breaker system. We finally called it quits at about 8:00 PM AST. It had been a long day! On Sunday, September 9, we completed the last of the work on the new electrical panel. All of the old stuff was removed! We finished dressing in the existing wires, and made note of the wires not yet connected. We made our list of supplies we would need to finish hooking up the remaining wires. Just as we were closing the panel door, the door almost fell off in our hands! Fortunately, a quick survey told us what happened. The screws holding the door were too short for the added load. So, while I held the door, Mike scrounged for new, bigger, better screws. We put the door back up and finally managed to get it closed comfortably. On Monday, September 10, we found a bus bar that we had forgotten we had. Mike glued it to the panel door and we used it to supply power for the back lighting. We spent an hour or so wiring this up, and then spent the rest of the day basking in the warm glow of back lit electrical panels