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→Virtual House Bank
The exception is that you could put a separate battery in the Pilot House, for all instruments and emergency lights. Normally, it would be in the charging circuit for the house bank, but in an emergency it could be switched out and isolated using a fail-open relay with a manual bypass switch. In an emergency, this will preserve communications and navigation instrumentation independently of other demands.
The major disadvantage is having to run long heavy-duty cables from the engine room to the pilothouse. The distance will not be too long with a midships engine room, but an aft engine room could require 40-50 ft of cable. In this situation, you are strongly advised to plan for a 24-VDC or higher system. Or, you could trickle charge this battery locally using an AC source.
Bilge pumps may be wired directly to the batteries, and if so, are provided with in-line fuses. The battery banks are fully metered.
