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Old 09-11-2019, 06:44   #1
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Switch off but lights still glow

Boat is an '84 sloop with a 13 hp yanmar and the standard 2 bank, house/start battery system. Batteries are less than a year old. Previous work/installations seem to have been competent and to ABYC specs according to the survey. I've had the boat a year.

I'm in the habit of leaving one light switch in the on position when I turn off the battery selector switch when leaving the boat. That way, I reach in, turn the selector switch and I get light to go down the stairs without needing to find the breaker in the dark. In the past this has always worked fine.

This is no longer works fine. If I turn off the battery switch with the cabin and or cockpit light breaker panel switch on, I still get dimly glowing lights. It was really late with a dog that needed food and walking so I turned off everything at the panel and went home.


Switch is the regular old Perko 1,2,both, off type with no auto field disconnect. Finding missing voltage seems intuitive. Figuring out why voltage is going around a supposedly disconnected switch is less so. Besides tighten/clean connections, where do I start? How do I test the switch? Can I use the "com" terminal to test for infinite resistance in the off position or do I have to go terminal one or two to a battery ground? I'd bet $50 bucks on a new switch but I read that they rarely go bad and if that doesn't fix it, I'm still right where I am now at a loss on where to begin and hoping for your tender mercies.


Any and all tips appreciated,


Kurt
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Old 09-11-2019, 07:00   #2
rom
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

Could it be that a charger (batt charger, solar, whatever) is still connected to the DC network when your main switch is OFF ?
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Old 09-11-2019, 07:30   #3
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

Agree with Rom. Some of these things have a lot of capacitance and can drive a low power item for a while. We’ve seen this on computer fans that continue to run. Figure it out but this may turn out to be not a problem. Think about any electronic items you added or procedures you changed. The rotary battery selectors are heavy, durable. Look at the back of one at a store.
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Old 09-11-2019, 08:47   #4
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

Look at whatever is bypassing the battery switch. In addition, if the battery switch or the light switch should be in the ground and not in the +DC, you could have a stray current issue from moisture.
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Old 09-11-2019, 08:55   #5
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

See both posts above. You could connect your multimeter to the com + terminal and battery minus. Turn off the main switch, take a voltage reading and watch it for a while. If the voltage slowly drops, it's most likely something with a big capacitor.
If you have solar, the voltage may even rise and fall with cloud conditions. It could be powering your panel directly.
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Old 09-11-2019, 09:21   #6
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

Turn off your battery switch and turn on one light. I'll bet the light goes off.
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Old 10-11-2019, 12:42   #7
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

I had a similar problem. Voltmeter plugged into 12volt outlet. Battery switch OFF. Expect voltage of 0. But voltage showed like 17 volts!

Long story short...it was the voltage from a small solar panel, which was plugged directly into another 12 volt outlet.

The problem resolved itself a few days later when the solar panel was stolen.
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Old 10-11-2019, 14:42   #8
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

If your lights are of the LED variety they emit some light even at very low voltage.
Again if the light switch is on the neutral side of the circuit the led's have a potential 12 volts. Any leakage causes them to glow.

Just higher humidity has shown a difference on my spreader lights.
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Old 10-11-2019, 15:15   #9
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Re: Switch off but lights still glow

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