Hey DDW,
Thanks! That was a fun read.
In my own estimation, I think ABYC got this one right. I agree that the pluggagble nature of boats exposes them to hot-neutral reversals in a way that hard-wires fixed structures are not exposed, changing the balance of risks, and making a dual pole breaker worth the tiny risk of a neutral disconnect at exactly the breaker, especially since that would be apparent really fast by nothing working.
I've had no nuisance trips in about 4 years of ELCI usage on my boat and regularly run power tools and vacuums, etc. Maybe because itbtakes 6x as much current to trip one as a household style GFCI.
The only thing I've noticed is that the curve for my 30A Blue Seas ELCI is blows faster than my old school 30A main. It will tolerate a modest overload for less time before popping, e.g. 2 AC units + Microwave.
Cheers -- and thanks again!
-Greg
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