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A Practical Power Solution
draws require larger battery banks and more inverter and
charger equipment.
Yet another method of solving the shore power conundrum
is simply having equipment that has the ability
to run on different voltages and frequencies. This can
work with items such as some laptop computers and
small electronics supplied with a small transformer.
Other equipment and appliances can be trickier. Equipment
with motors may or may not be able to work on
either 50Hz or 60Hz, but if they can, they still have the
possibility of running slower and less efficiently. Making
sure the non-compliant equipment is unplugged or
disconnected can be difficult, and if equipment is accidentally
turned on, the result could be damaging and
dangerous. If this option were seriously considered, a
transformer would be required (and would be useful
equipment to have aboard for many reasons… more on
that in another article). This would change the incoming
voltage to the required shipboard voltage but would
not convert the frequency.
Shore power converters can be the best overall solution
to power supply and conversion issues for many mid-to
larger-sized vessels. There was a time when they were
only practical for much larger yachts and ships because
of their physical size and cost. However, as technology
has improved, the footprint of these converters has
shrunk, as has the cost of purchasing one.
74 YACHT ESSENTIALS
ShorPower
frequency converters
Shore power converters can be
the best overall solution to power
supply and conversion issues.
Put simply, the shore power from the dock or utility enters
the converter, where it passes through a specialized inverter.
It’s at this point that the AC current is converted to
a DC current where it, in turn, gets converted back to the
required AC voltage and frequency. The result is clean, efficient,
surge-free voltage that can supply electricity to all
onboard equipment while providing isolation from shore
power issues and galvanic corrosion protection.
Shore power converters have the ability to handle voltages
starting at around 170V all the way to almost 500V.
They can receive and convert frequencies from as low
as 40Hz to 60Hz with the output factory pre-set at a
selected frequency, and they can handle one to three
phases of input (depending on model). Smaller models
tend to be in the 8kVA range, with larger models going
all the way up to and beyond 500kVA, with everything
in between. There’s the option of air- or water-cooled
converters, water-cooled being the optimum system in
applications where ambient air temperatures would be
high, or air supply limited.
Recent technology has improved not just the size and cost
of these converters but also has improved their intelligence
and efficiency. Some have a power failure feature that can
seamlessly switch over to alternate power sources when
shore power is lost and then switch back when power is
restored. There are safety features built in that will not allow
them to power up if there is an issue of incompatibility with