circuit breakers vs fuse panel

[corky.bailey]

Looking at some marine rocker switches I got to thinking, why do I have to put in a fuse block for all my accessories, why not just wire to a circuit breaker on each rock switch? The marine industry has some nice rocker switch panels with an individual circuit breaker located below each rocker. Everything is water proof, I don't have to mount a fuse panel.

Seems like a no brainer sooooo, what am I missing? BTW, running a dedicated 12V accessory battery for lights, stereo, lighter receptacle, dome light, and other "stuff" I haven't thought of yet but it will hit me when I have everything else done and have to go back and add

Appreciate any thoughts from the elec gurus since I am challenge in that area (along with many other areas)

Corky

[todo_brane_ded]

Originally Posted by corky.bailey

Looking at some marine rocker switches I got to thinking, why do I have to put in a fuse block for all my accessories, why not just wire to a circuit breaker on each rock switch? The marine industry has some nice rocker switch panels with an individual circuit breaker located below each rocker. Everything is water proof, I don't have to mount a fuse panel.

Seems like a no brainer sooooo, what am I missing? BTW, running a dedicated 12V accessory battery for lights, stereo, lighter receptacle, dome light, and other "stuff" I haven't thought of yet but it will hit me when I have everything else done and have to go back and add

Appreciate any thoughts from the elec gurus since I am challenge in that area (along with many other areas)

Corky

In my opinion you need neither a fuse panel or a circuit breaker panel. I have but three fuses in my cart and that's all that's necessary; after all it's just a golf cart with few heavy hitting circuits...if any!

I have a 20 amp for a power outlet on the dash (12 V Aux), a 15 amp for "accessories" such as radio and dash meters (combined only a couple amps), and another 15 amp for the headlights that was supplied by the manufacturer as part of a harness with the light kit for an EZ-GO.....


More than that is wastefull and overkill.

[corky.bailey]

so if I have 5 different circuits, I thought I should have 5 fuses or breakers. Either way, 3, 4 , 5 I need to find a place to put the protection.

Under the seat requires more wire from a fuse panel to dash switch(s) than say running 2 heavy wires (10 ga) from the 12V battery(with in-line fuse) to the dash rocker panel with individual rocker switch circuit breakers is my thought right now.

Just seems simple so I am guessing I've overlooked something.

[langstonjones]

Originally Posted by corky.bailey

so if I have 5 different circuits, I thought I should have 5 fuses or breakers. Either way, 3, 4 , 5 I need to find a place to put the protection.

Under the seat requires more wire from a fuse panel to dash switch(s) than say running 2 heavy wires (10 ga) from the 12V battery(with in-line fuse) to the dash rocker panel with individual rocker switch circuit breakers is my thought right now.

Just seems simple so I am guessing I've overlooked something.

As long as you're fusing the circuit It doesn't matter. Everyone will give you their thoughts, but in the end it doesn't really matter how you get there as long as you end up in the same place. If we all did the same thing it wouldn't be custom. I think you're OK in your thinking.

[langstonjones]

OK I just re-read Todo's post. He is pulling several circuits off of one fuse in his fuse panel. So all of his circuits are protected, just in a more efficient way. You can correlate "over protecting" with the "tooth fairy" and "under protecting" with "paying taxes"...one is real and one not so much.

[todo_brane_ded]

I have three of these connected to my 12 v aux battery as I described above. You biggest draw will likely be the headlights unless you're one of those guys that's going to install a 200 watt stereo system.

Everything else draws just a couple of amps apiece. We don't have all the stuff that a car has that would require fusing; no power doorlocks, heater fans, defroster, cooling fans, igniton system and fuel injection components, etc.....

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...ier=32420_0_0_