24v house system
 

The sprinkler valve thread got me thinking.

The initial cost would be more but the performance of the system would generate large benefits.

Proposed system:
One house bank of a pair of series 31 (or whatever) batteries in series for 24vdc. One stand alone starting battery.
24 V stereo system. Normal gear is rated 12-40 odd volts anyway.
24 volt pumps and valves.
24 volt alternator with a DC / DC converter to charge the starting battery. Todays E engines may not tolerate higher voltages so it's best we leave them alone.

No isolators or ACR needed because of the converter, so that cost balances.

More volts = less amps = more efficient power
Totally isolated systems with never a dead starting battery.
All this stuff is available right over the counter. Even bilge pumps and navigation lights can be had at 24v.

Just thinking out loud because I'm shopping early model wake machines and will likely wind up in the middle of a major re-fit and salty conversion anyway.

Your thoughts please.

It's definitely an interesting idea and wouldn't be that hard to pull off. Doing it during a major rebuild would make sense. The dc/dc converter would have to have built in voltage regulation but after a brief search it looks like most do (~$260), a simple step down transformer wouldn't work. Being able to go a little smaller on all of your wiring like you already mentioned could provide you with some pretty decent savings as copper is so expensive these days. It may still be a good idea to run a 12v circuit up to the dash just for devices that may not be able to handle 24v (depth sounders, gps posibly) and a couple of 12v outlets

Resale might be effected a bit as it may confuse your average buyer but if this is a project boat you probably aren't too worried about that.

I think another interesting project would be adding a belt drive water pump with a magnetic clutch to run off of the engine, you could have one heck of a ballast sytem build around that baby.