Glossary
On-board electrical system
What is On-board electrical system?
The entire electrical installation of a vehicle or boat: storage, charging sources, distribution, protection, cables and loads. It runs on direct current from a limited store of energy — hence its own rules.
What matters about On-board electrical system in practice?
The decisive difference from a household installation: for the same power, currents about twenty times higher flow, and the storage is finite. A 1000-watt load draws just over 4 amps from the 230-volt mains, and over 80 from a 12-volt on-board system.
This leads to larger cross-sections, different protection and the need to actually know the consumption. And: the return cable is run separately, with the same cross-section as the feed.
Related terms
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