Cabin lights have become dim

[Bible9230]

My main cabin lights controlled by switch by the door have become half bright. It started after a vacuum was being operated inside and an air compressor was turned on outside. The air compressor was plugged into the outside RV outlets and the RV was plugged into shore power. The air compressor was actually not even able to completely run. It was only turning over slowly.

It was a very apparent power draw on the entire system. When the compressor was turned off, the vacuum was still running fine, but the cabins lights would only run at half brightness. Other independently switched lights still work properly.

I have checked the breakers and fuses by the door. Everything looks fine.

Matthew

[hankaye]

Bible9230, Howdy;

Generally the overhead lights are 12vdc and the cause of dimming lights
could be a few things. One, could be they are just aging. Do they have a
dark color when you look at the fixture with the light off? That would be
the problem. Do you hear the fan in the converter running constantly while
the lights are on? Could be that the batteries need tended to. Just a few
ideas to get ya started. I'm sure there will be some others contributing
soon with some other suggestions.

hankaye

[HANGAR]

Are these incandescent lamps or LED? Are they wired to a switch that is (on/off) only, or can they dimmed? Are these lamps running on the 12VDC or 120VAC circuit? If they're incandescent running on 12VDC, then it could be a low battery issue like hankaye said. If these lights are connected to a dimmer-switch, the dimmer itself might be fried and needs to be replaced. My suggestion to start: Replace one of the lamps with a new one and see what happens. If it's as bright as it should be, then replace all of them with new lamps. If the new one is still dim, then you know that you have other issues and need to trouble-shoot a little more.

[hankpage]

Test the dc voltage at the lamp or the switch. If all other lamps are good, as you say, you most likely have loose connection in that circuit. Start at the fuse panel and work your way back. While you are in the panel tighten ALL grounds as it seems the assemblers save their energy for going home and working the farm. BE SAFE ... DISCONNECT SHORE POWER AND BATTERY BEFORE WORKING IN THE PANEL

[Bible9230]

When I switch off one of the 12v lights, the others get brighter. From the suggestions, it seems that the battery might be the source of the problem. I'll have to check it out when it stops raining.

Thanks for the help.


Matthew

[denverpilot]

Thought: You said this started when 120 VAC high current loads were browning out the whole local 120V system.

Have you checked to see if your battery is even charging? Perhaps the voltage spikes and brownout damaged your converter. (Which charges your battery and also provides plenty of amps of 12VDC to the lighting and other 12VDC accessories.)

I'm suspicious that maybe you're just running off of battery power and the converter is gone, the AC feeding the converter isn't getting there, or similar.

There aren't too many heavy power draws on the 12VDC bus, other than the furnace fan, in most setups... So if you have only been using the lights that require 12VDC you may be just slowly discharging your battery, and nothing it charging it.

You said you checked breakers and fuses, but I'd check again. Or see if the 12 VDC system voltage is slowly dropping over time. With AC powering the converter, when it's in charging mode you should see something above 12V anywhere 12VDC is used. If you're seeing less than 12V, start hunting for why the converter isn't charging the battery.

Just a thought.

[Bob Landry]

There are outlets wired to the output of the breaker that is marked converter, so if the vacuum, etc, work, the breaker is probably good. I assume that you are plugged into shore power, and if so, the converter overrides the battery for the operation of everything 12V and you don't even need a battery to run 12V components.
Disconnect the battery and you will probably still have dim lights, you have a bad converter. The reason the other lights get brighter when you turn one off is because the converter is running at reduced output and you are reducing the load on it, making the other lights brighter. Converters aren't rocket science.