josephc
Aug 18, 2018Explorer
Some lights blow fuse, others dim, afterwards polarity mixup
When hooking up my battery, I accidentally reversed the polarity by attaching the wires to the wrong terminals. I didn't notice for 3 hours since we went out to dinner right afterwards. We were plugged into AC, but when we got back nothing was runnung. I checked the AC connection and then the battery and noticed it was backwards. As expected (which I now know) the converter 40A fuses had blown.
However, we still have an issue on one circuit that includes the outdoor and two (out of several) indoor lights. When we came home, the indoor lights would only turn on dimly. If we turned on the outdoor LED light strip they'd go off (and the LEDs wouldn't go on). I replaced the fuse and the indoor lights started working fine. The moment I turn on the outdoor lights though, the fuse blows again.
I took off the switch panel and didn't see any obvious issues. What seems weird to me is that the indoor lights don't stop working completely, but only dim when the fuse is blown. I'd expect them to stop working entirely. Is it possible that the indoor lights are fed from two circuits, only one of which is shared with the outdoor lights? Or is there likely something miswired or damaged?
As far as the outdoor lights go, is it possible we caused a short with the reversed battery? Anything to do besides just replacing them? I don't think they were turned on when we left but it's possible they were since I wouldn't have noticed in the daylight.
However, we still have an issue on one circuit that includes the outdoor and two (out of several) indoor lights. When we came home, the indoor lights would only turn on dimly. If we turned on the outdoor LED light strip they'd go off (and the LEDs wouldn't go on). I replaced the fuse and the indoor lights started working fine. The moment I turn on the outdoor lights though, the fuse blows again.
I took off the switch panel and didn't see any obvious issues. What seems weird to me is that the indoor lights don't stop working completely, but only dim when the fuse is blown. I'd expect them to stop working entirely. Is it possible that the indoor lights are fed from two circuits, only one of which is shared with the outdoor lights? Or is there likely something miswired or damaged?
As far as the outdoor lights go, is it possible we caused a short with the reversed battery? Anything to do besides just replacing them? I don't think they were turned on when we left but it's possible they were since I wouldn't have noticed in the daylight.