Narrowboat shore power setup - 16A or 32A hookup worth it for winter mooring?

Not my usual habitat — I'm more van and cabin than narrowboat — but the principles are pretty much identical to what I went through setting up winter power for my garden office.

The honest answer is: it depends entirely on what you're running.

16A gives you ~3.6kW which is plenty if you're just topping up batteries and running a small heater. But the moment you want to run a 2kW immersion and your Victron Multiplus is doing its thing, you'll be tripping the bollard constantly. Done it. Not fun at 6am in January.

32A hookup (7.2kW headroom) gives you proper breathing room for:

• Battery charging at full rate
• Immersion or electric panel heater
• Induction hob for cooking
• Washing machine if you've got one aboard

The catch with marina shore power is the quality of it. Some older marina pedestals are genuinely grim — voltage sag, dodgy earthing. A Victron Multiplus or Quattro with its PowerAssist feature handles this beautifully, drawing from both shore and battery bank simultaneously to cover demand spikes without tripping breakers.

If your marina charges a flat rate for electric regardless of amperage, absolutely go 32A. If it's metered and 32A costs significantly more per month, run the numbers on what you actually need.

What inverter/charger setup are you running currently? That'll probably shape the answer more than anything else. Also — which marina? Some have notoriously weak infrastructure.

@AndyButler makes a fair point about the crossover with other setups. One thing worth adding specifically for narrowboat folk though — check what your marina actually provides before sizing anything. A lot of older UK marinas are still running knackered 16A pedestals that can barely sustain 10A reliably, especially when the whole pontoon fills up over winter. I learned this the hard way with a friend's boat at a Midlands marina last January. 32A sounds great on paper but if the infrastructure isn't there, you're just tripping breakers and annoying your neighbours. Have a chat with the harbourmaster before you commit to any equipment decisions.