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leaking amperage from shore power - i'm stumped

jid

Contributing Member
I'm stumped on this one. Any help would be greatly appreciated! This problem may have existed for a long time. But now that I know about it, i need to do something about it.

Issue: 2 125v 30amp services feed my houseboat. With ONE shore power connection in place, i have no amperage leaking. With both connected (doesn't matter which one), i'm leaking amperage (presumably into the lake...)

Connections:

2 30amp feeds come into a breaker box. 2 30 amp breakers feed a 30 foot run to a subpanel with 2 dual-20 amp breakers (only 3 of the 20's are in use).

I've been rewiring and reconnecting wires and i cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Primary panel has grounds connected, neutrals connected (not to the grounds) and hots feeding the breakers. On the sub-panel, the grounds are connected, the neutrals connected to the neutral bus, and the hots go to the left and right side.

I must be missing something disgustingly obvious. Any ideas?

Thank you!

Joseph
 
based on the little bit of data you provided, its had to say what's going on....exactly what do you mean when you say "I'm leaking amperage..."?

Is the panel on the boat setup for only 120VAC service? are both of the 30amps feeds independent? Do you know the phase relationship between the two outlets you are connecting to? Does the "leakage" occur with or without any of the loads connected and turned on?
 
My first thought is hire a marine electrician. If you do not know what your doing dont do it. Wire fires on a boat is the number one killer get a second opinion.
 
Resistance equals heat if a wire or component is getting hot it may be under wired or faulty. Weak connections will also draw alot of amps. Say your refrigerator pulls 10 amps and the breaker has a poor connection the fridge will still pull 10 amps plus resistance the actual load will be higher. A good amp probe is a nice tool for diagnosing faulty components or a indirect short. What you call a leak i call a short. There is a difference between negative and ground (neg earth)
 
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