Looking though your list of eletricals I dont see anything re. marina hookups? This is one ( other) thing that I dont really understand. We have 240v 50Hz systems in the UK whilst your 110v 60hz in the US and I think may be even different elsewhere. How do you get these to function in different parts of the world? Am i better getting a USA wired boat and then having to buy all 110v appliances or do I specify a 240v system but then find I cant hook up to 110v marinas?

Jaime

1. Washer/Dryer
2. Air Conditioning
3. Heat
4. Hot Water
5. Refrigeration (x3 on a 43)
6. Other AC (TV, small appliances)
7. Various Lights
8. Various Pumps

Systems 1 through 4 require generator or shore power. Systems 5 through 8 requires battery power that needs to be replaced daily with generator or shore power or running the main engine. Number 5 is variable on a Nordhavn 43 because there are 3 separate refrigeration units (1 all fridge, 1 fridge/freezer combo, 1 freezer). With enough solar in good conditions we can handle 1/3 refrigeration systems without daily generator or shore power.

Number 3 and 4 can be handled without generator or shore power using a diesel powered system, and that can change the dynamics of the problem.

With reasonable use 6 through 8 can run for several days without recharge.

Given that background here are three solutions to the shore power interface problem:

A. Ignore shore power and run off on board systems. Yet if we cannot run the generator daily, as in some marinas, then we will have to live without many systems. Of course the noise from a Northern Lights generator in a sound enclosure, inside the insulated Nordhavn engine room might be below the ambient noise level depending on where we are, so it might be possible to be an exception.
B. Use an adaptable battery charger. The core of this is a charger that can handle different voltages and frequencies to charge your house battery banks. Then we wire in different shore connectors depending on where you are. This handles systems 5-8 nicely.
C. Use transformer to convert shore power to the native boat voltage. This also requires the different connectors. This will handle systems 1-8. Note that reasonable size and cost transformers cannot change the frequency of the power, thus we can do 240V to 120V, but we cannot do 50hz to 60hz. The systems that really care about frequency are 1 and 2, and on the 43 they can take 50hz or 60hz.

So what are we going to do? Our current equipment means solution A. At least the first year we will probably not be connected to shore power outside the USA. We are still debating B and/or C and when to install. We may wait until we get to Europe and have the option to dock in a full service marina. One thought is go with B and get a diesel water heater. The diesel water heater is part of a larger thought to remove the daily dependence on running the generator. Either way B or C can get expensive.

We are getting solar, enough to handle 6-8, and maybe partial 5. More on solar later.

Overall my advice is if you plan to be at one place more than others, then go for that as your native system.