My AC 120v Panel Has a Green Light and a Red Light - Do These Bulbs Fade and What Does the Red Light
Transcript is auto-generated.
hi youtubers jeff cote here with pacific yacht systems we've got a question from a fellow boater pat and pack has a question regarding uh the little lights on our ac panels okay here goes jeff my ac 120 volt panel has a light which is green and another light which is red first up what is this for great question so um let's talk with the green light green is good right that's probably why they chose it and that's why it's there uh green means that you're sensing and that light is basically wired to the neutral and the hot so when you connect to shore power uh you're going to have two line in you're going to most likely be 120 and you're going to have um a hot and a neutral and so they're putting a light literally in between those two lines the hot and the neutral and if that light has enough voltage 120 volts it's going to light up pretty bright and that tells you that they're sensing ac before even the breaker is turned on so it's a way for you to know especially on the input breaker that your ac is being sensed before the breaker is on so it's a good way to just so visually know that i have ac being sensed at my panel so because that light is on a lot of time over time it dies you know that light is going to be every time you connect to shore power that light is bright and shining and so over time that green light might die uh because it's simply being not overused but it's being used a lot because every time you're plugged in that light is energized there's another little light beside it and that light is called reverse polarity light and that light is red red is bad bad reverse polarity happens when the neutral and the hot light are actually swapped and this is very critical on land generally that never happens or pretty rare but in marinas it does happen because there's a lot unfortunately a lot of macgyver's at marinas and there's a lot of things that leave the world of common sense at a marina so it is possible it is possible that you're going to go to a destination marina and someone is going to have basically not properly connected the shore power receptacle at the dock and instead of putting hot on hot and neutral on neutral they actually swapped it and that can lead to very very very serious problems that's a separate video but i have tons of articles on this and that is called reverse polarity and that light is energized between neutral and ground now remember neutral and ground should be tied they should be common and if you measure a voltage differential between neutral and ground you're basically going to have a light show up because that's how voltage works right voltage is simply a differential of two points and so that red light is energized and can be very bright if you have 120 volts on the neutral when it should be zero so if ever that light is energized you need to disconnect your boat from shore power yes things do work but you're it can be very dangerous so disconnect and bring it to the intention of the marina and tell them by the way i'm sensing reverse polarity at my panel and then that's where you want to bring an electrician to troubleshoot that issue thank you for watching this pys video if you've got further questions ask them down below or go on our website to fill one of the forms don't forget to subscribe and thanks for watching you
