Forum Discussion

Explorer

Feb 12, 2014

Electricity/inverter cycle at night time

Over the last 3 weeks the electricity in our RV has begun cycling and it seems to only occur at night and oddly enough since we came into Florida. We arrived in Pensacola about 3 weeks ago and at night I started noticed that the electricity in the rv began cycling up and down. The lights dim down really low (the inverter is not running), then the lights flicker back up and the inverter starts up (I can hear the fan running). Does this about every 10 to 20 seconds: the lights dim down, the inverter goes quite, the lights suddenly become bright and at the same time the inverter fan kicks back on. This only seems to occur in the evenings (after about 6:00pm in the evening) but I don't notice this happening any other time during the day. I have to turn off all but a few lights in the rv to prevent this from occurring as I'm afraid of burning up the inverter. As mentioned above I notice this for the first time once we came into Florida. The whole time on this journey (last 10 months) we have been west of Florida and this never occurred.

Not sure if anyone has any insight or experience with this. The batteries are about 11 months old, but I haven't checked their fluid levels since installing them.

Seeking Advice

23 Replies

ScottG
Nomad
Feb 12, 2014
If your talking about the 12V lights then thats the classic symptoms of a dying converter.
Flinx777
Explorer
Feb 12, 2014
enblethen wrote:
Is your an inverter/charger? Does your rig have a converter?
If you have an inverter/charger or a converter it sounds as though a battery is shorting out. The charge system energizes, shoots a charge to the battery and then shuts down. Battery drops a little and it cycles again.

Good question. Not completely sure. I have pulled the fuse box once in the rv and taken a look at what I assumed was the inverter sitting behind the fuse box. It looks like this:

http://www.tripplite.com/shared/other/features/RV1012ULHW-features.jpg

I definitely won't pretend I'm electrician (b/c I definitely am not), but the one time I looked it, it looked like the above image.

If you're assumption about the battery is correct, what would be the next step? Check the batteries? What typically causes this issue and why would it happen at night?
enblethen
Nomad
Feb 12, 2014
Is your an inverter/charger? Does your rig have a converter?
If you have an inverter/charger or a converter it sounds as though a battery is shorting out. The charge system energizes, shoots a charge to the battery and then shuts down. Battery drops a little and it cycles again.