flickering house lights

[teleman2]

The house lights are flickering(like a fluorescent)real fast. Doesn't matter if on shore power, generator or battery.

[SCVJeff]

What we need now is additional info from the OP

[filadelfia]

AS pusherpilot mentioned in his reply, it may be the 12 volt cut off relay aka salesman switch that is causing the lights to flicker. A quick and easy test to determine if the cutoff relay is the problem is to place a jumper between the two large red wires attached to the relay and see if the lights stop flic
Good Luck Don

[Dale_Traveling]

wolfe10 wrote:
Wonder if a bad/poor quality converter can cause a 60 HZ ripple in its 12 VDC output?

Easy to tell-- disconnect from shore power/generator and see if it changes.

My first thought also but as Bob posted you can't see a 60 Hz flicker. Now if the coach has LEDs that changes everything.

[cbr46]

You wouldn't see 60Hz. Maybe a harmonic subset, like maybe 20 Hz, but not 60. The eyes / brain don't process that fast. Just sayin'

Still could be the converter . . . . .

Best,
- bob

[wolfe10]

Wonder if a bad/poor quality converter can cause a 60 HZ ripple in its 12 VDC output?

Easy to tell-- disconnect from shore power/generator and see if it changes.

[cbr46]

My daughter's pop-up flickered with 12V LED lamps. This was on shore power and I don't remember if she had a battery in her pop-up. The converter may have been part of the problem.

Didn't have time to play with it. We simply put incandescent lamps back in.

If the OP has LEDs he might try and incandescent in a lamp or two.

Best,
- bob

[SCVJeff]

hanko wrote:
Ok let the arguments begin. Will you define flickering, one could mean dimming as flickering. Jeff an incandescent light bulb certainly can appear to flicker as you say. In my 40 years as an electrical contractor, I've seen many different situations that could be considered flickering. An inductive load starting can makes bulbs appear to flicker, bad connections, In this case I thing the OP should isolate the converter charger first

When he describes and compares a flicker to a florescent, thats pretty specific. He said "like a florescent", not that it is one. And we both know incandescent simply cannot flicker at 60Hz

[hanko]

Ok let the arguments begin. Will you define flickering, one could mean dimming as flickering. Jeff an incandescent light bulb certainly can appear to flicker as you say. In my 40 years as an electrical contractor, I've seen many different situations that could be considered flickering. An inductive load starting can makes bulbs appear to flicker, bad connections, In this case I thing the OP should isolate the converter charger first

[SCVJeff]

teleman2 wrote:
The house lights are flickering(like a fluorescent)real fast. Doesn't matter if on shore power, generator or battery.

Incandescent lamps cannot flicker like a florescent simply because they cannot switch on and off that fast. Are these LED's you are talking about? THEY certainly CAN flicker that fast.

Either way I would check the battery and see if it's disconnected, or electrically open.

[JimM68]

hanko wrote:
Thats the standard response for electrical issues, Bad Ground. I assume your lights are 12 volt. I think maybe the issue might be in the converter charger. All the lights or a few?

Agreed.

If you ensure your batteries are fully charged, then disconnect from shore power, do the lights still flicker?

[RoyB]

In my somewhat more simplified POPUP trailer my lights will dim sometimes especially when I have been off shore power and have run down the batteries some. When I first turn on shore power the lights sometime dim (not flicker) until the batteries get some charge back in them...

My BATTERIES always demand maximum current when first hit with DC charging voltages.

Not sure if this is what you are are seeing or not...

Roy Ken

[pusherpilot]

Similar behaviour was observed when the house 12vdc battery shutoff switch failed in our coach. I also saw this when I tried to run the 12vdc for the house on the Inverter only. I had removed the batteries to take them in for replacement and saw this then.
Ron

[hanko]

Thats the standard response for electrical issues, Bad Ground. I assume your lights are 12 volt. I think maybe the issue might be in the converter charger. All the lights or a few?

[MountainAir05]

Check for a loose ground wire. Then positive.