Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

baffled with this 12v issue

Here are the pieces of the puzzle. My 12v factory panel has 10 switches/breakers. They are push buttons that act as both on-off switches and breakers. There was no way to tell if a circuit was energized so I ordered and added LED indicator lights to each circuit as well as one to remind me that I left the battery switch ON. The LEDs have color coded leads, I wired the red to the individual circuits, blacks were bundled together and attached via a ring terminal to the negative buss bar. I have two new Attwood battery chargers, solid state, self contained, waterproof. The 12 volt sides are individually wired to the batteries, 110 volt side to a breaker on the factory 110v panel. I have added a new Attwood bilge pump and float switch with an off-on-auto switch that is hard wired directly to the house battery. The batteries have individual positive cables to the battery switch but share a common ground cable to the engine block. There is a separate cable to the negative buss bar. The mast is down, the anchor and steaming lights, VHF antenna and wind speed sensor are disconnectd at the mast step.

Here is the issue. The main battery switch is in the OFF position. With the 110v panel energized and battery chargers on, I get a very faint glow from 4 of the 11 LED indicator lights. It does not matter if those breakers/switches are on or not, I still get the glow. It is maybe 1% as bright as when they are actually switched on, just enopugh to see the glow. The circuits are #2 the NAV lights, and numbers 9 & 10 Instruments, CD player and main power on battery indicator. If I switch off the main AC breaker or disconnect the shore power cord, no glow.

So the questions are, what is going on? Also were these current bleeds always there and now that I have added the LED's have become obvious? Or, was it something I changed over the winter?

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