Looking for speculation/opinions on what might be going on here....
It all started when the HW heater blew its fuse. I determined the cause and fixed it. Not having any spare fuses, I pulled a fuse from a spot marked "SPARE" in the panel. I suspected it wasn't really a spare because there was a red wire attached to the lug that disappeared into the wall. But, removing the fuse didn't really seem to affect anything - at least at first.
So I'm replacing my toilet. Another long, boring story about a project that should take 15 minutes but is dragging on into days. But I digress. While working in the RV I noticed that the lights were flickering and eventually went out. Upon closer inspection, the lights that were "out" were very dimly lit - they were getting a tiny bit of power from somewhere. The other light circuit - powering the other half of the RV - was fine. I unplugged the shore power and plugged it back in and everything was fine again.
Well, it did it again this morning so I thought about what might be different. That fuse. I yanked the fuse from the WH spot and touched it to the "SPARE" spot. All the lights turned back on. But get this - I didn't install the fuse - just touched the contacts momentarily. WTH? Because it was obvious that this fuse is of great importance to the balance of my lighting universe, I reinstalled it. But the question is - what is it powering that has this effect on just one lighting circuit?
Ideas?
It all started when the HW heater blew its fuse. I determined the cause and fixed it. Not having any spare fuses, I pulled a fuse from a spot marked "SPARE" in the panel. I suspected it wasn't really a spare because there was a red wire attached to the lug that disappeared into the wall. But, removing the fuse didn't really seem to affect anything - at least at first.
So I'm replacing my toilet. Another long, boring story about a project that should take 15 minutes but is dragging on into days. But I digress. While working in the RV I noticed that the lights were flickering and eventually went out. Upon closer inspection, the lights that were "out" were very dimly lit - they were getting a tiny bit of power from somewhere. The other light circuit - powering the other half of the RV - was fine. I unplugged the shore power and plugged it back in and everything was fine again.
Well, it did it again this morning so I thought about what might be different. That fuse. I yanked the fuse from the WH spot and touched it to the "SPARE" spot. All the lights turned back on. But get this - I didn't install the fuse - just touched the contacts momentarily. WTH? Because it was obvious that this fuse is of great importance to the balance of my lighting universe, I reinstalled it. But the question is - what is it powering that has this effect on just one lighting circuit?
Ideas?
Thanks!
The two circuits, since my modification, are now separate. When I first started on this debacle one "LIGHTS" circuit was getting some juice from the "SPARE" circuit. I don't know why, but apparently one of the two "LIGHTS" circuits was split in the past by using the "SPARE" slot via the red wire and custom conduit. I suspect that whatever happened recently is related to whatever the original problem was.
I now have 3 separate "LIGHTS" circuits. Hopefully I won't have to mess with it anymore.
The two circuits, since my modification, are now separate. When I first started on this debacle one "LIGHTS" circuit was getting some juice from the "SPARE" circuit. I don't know why, but apparently one of the two "LIGHTS" circuits was split in the past by using the "SPARE" slot via the red wire and custom conduit. I suspect that whatever happened recently is related to whatever the original problem was.
I now have 3 separate "LIGHTS" circuits. Hopefully I won't have to mess with it anymore.
Finally all put back together. I can't explain the wacky behavior (like how the lights would work just by touching the fuse but not installing it) but it's functioning properly now. I'm thinking the fuse spot for the red wire was indeed a spare at one point in time. There's a suspicious surface-mounted conduit that runs along the shower ceiling and houses the red wire. First, the red wire isn't consistent with the rest of the rig's black/white wiring scheme. Second, all other wires run through the ceiling. The wire exits the conduit up into the ceiling and into the roof vent. This is the wire that was feeding the shorted out circuit. I added another wire to the conduit to bypass the shorted wire.
I'm thinking there has been trouble in the past with this circuit. Counting the "spare" fuse, there are 2 fuses feeding the circuit. There's a second one labeled "LIGHTS" that when removed causes the lights to go out. So who knows? With that dead short on one path, it was somehow back feeding enough juice to dimly light up the lights.
Not how I wanted to spend my morning but I'm glad it's fixed.
I'm thinking there has been trouble in the past with this circuit. Counting the "spare" fuse, there are 2 fuses feeding the circuit. There's a second one labeled "LIGHTS" that when removed causes the lights to go out. So who knows? With that dead short on one path, it was somehow back feeding enough juice to dimly light up the lights.
Not how I wanted to spend my morning but I'm glad it's fixed.
I did see that thanks. The wire was still shorted to ground with the fan disconnected. I isolated that one wire and verified it was grounded with my multimeter.
Found it.
This is the electrical box in the shower. The black wire circled (yes, that's my attempt at a circle and an arrow) is shorted to ground somewhere. You can see it goes into the ceiling framework and vanishes. I figured that logically the next stop in the circuit is the light in the shower. It is. I took the light out and disconnected the wiring. No more short. So the short is between the box and the first light in the circuit. I ran my own red wire (arrow) to the shower light. I now have all lights and fans working!
I got lucky, sort of, in that the existing red wire runs through an accessible conduit right by the light. I can run my new wire in there to bypass the shorted wire.
It's still disconcerting that that wire shorted out on its own somewhere. I would have been happier if it was a mistake I had made in wiring the fans.
And the moral of the story is don't always trust the labels on the fuse box. It was NOT a spare fuse, and the circuit marked "LIGHTS" isn't.
This is the electrical box in the shower. The black wire circled (yes, that's my attempt at a circle and an arrow) is shorted to ground somewhere. You can see it goes into the ceiling framework and vanishes. I figured that logically the next stop in the circuit is the light in the shower. It is. I took the light out and disconnected the wiring. No more short. So the short is between the box and the first light in the circuit. I ran my own red wire (arrow) to the shower light. I now have all lights and fans working!
I got lucky, sort of, in that the existing red wire runs through an accessible conduit right by the light. I can run my new wire in there to bypass the shorted wire.
It's still disconcerting that that wire shorted out on its own somewhere. I would have been happier if it was a mistake I had made in wiring the fans.
And the moral of the story is don't always trust the labels on the fuse box. It was NOT a spare fuse, and the circuit marked "LIGHTS" isn't.
Okay - I'm getting warmer.
I went to replace the blown fuse and POW! dead short. Scared the bejeezus out of me. In disconnecting the shower fan I saw a red wire! Sure enough, it's the "mystery" red wire. The vent fan box is a distribution point. I unhooked the red wire from the distribution box and installed the fuse. No short - so it's good between the panel and the distribution point. The red wire is tied together with 2 big black wires. I unhooked one black wire. POW! Still a dead short. I unhooked the OTHER black wire and the fuse is good. So - whatever that one black wire is feeding has a dead short somewhere.
Now that I have half the circuit hooked up, I can see what is working and what isn't. The bedroom lights came back on but not the shower, hall or bathroom lights. They're all pretty much parallel to each other and I'm sure fed by the wire in question. Oh yeah - the other thing that doesn't work is the bathroom fan. Guess who replaced that switch last week?
I'm headed out to pull that one apart now.
I went to replace the blown fuse and POW! dead short. Scared the bejeezus out of me. In disconnecting the shower fan I saw a red wire! Sure enough, it's the "mystery" red wire. The vent fan box is a distribution point. I unhooked the red wire from the distribution box and installed the fuse. No short - so it's good between the panel and the distribution point. The red wire is tied together with 2 big black wires. I unhooked one black wire. POW! Still a dead short. I unhooked the OTHER black wire and the fuse is good. So - whatever that one black wire is feeding has a dead short somewhere.
Now that I have half the circuit hooked up, I can see what is working and what isn't. The bedroom lights came back on but not the shower, hall or bathroom lights. They're all pretty much parallel to each other and I'm sure fed by the wire in question. Oh yeah - the other thing that doesn't work is the bathroom fan. Guess who replaced that switch last week?
I'm headed out to pull that one apart now.
The plot thickens....
Went out there today and the mystery fuse is blown. No lights in the back. But that's not the circuit they're supposedly on.
The "spare" is hand-written on the box. I'm thinking it's not really a spare. But there are 2 circuits involved in illuminating those back lights for some reason.
I've had the rig since December of last year, plugged in pretty much continuously. Never had this problem. I'm thinking it's the shower fan. I recently replaced the motor and fan blade. But the fan blade spun the wrong way. I reversed polarity on the motor. But the switch is bad and runs at random. I'm thinking there's some resistance through the switch. Gonna clip the wires and see.
But I'm out of 20A fuses for now....
Went out there today and the mystery fuse is blown. No lights in the back. But that's not the circuit they're supposedly on.
The "spare" is hand-written on the box. I'm thinking it's not really a spare. But there are 2 circuits involved in illuminating those back lights for some reason.
I've had the rig since December of last year, plugged in pretty much continuously. Never had this problem. I'm thinking it's the shower fan. I recently replaced the motor and fan blade. But the fan blade spun the wrong way. I reversed polarity on the motor. But the switch is bad and runs at random. I'm thinking there's some resistance through the switch. Gonna clip the wires and see.
But I'm out of 20A fuses for now....
