When you had a bunch of halogens on 24v dc circuits, they would dim and brighten on their own as the battery charger goes through various modes of charging, or other dc loads kick on, that's why they used a transformer so the lights stayed on at an even brightness. A lot of yacht manufacturers do this.
But ACv lights don't need a battery charger? ACv halogen lamps will blink, even thru those lil hatteras transformers when some Air units cycle on or DCv halogens change while on charger or mains alternators. Our fix, Replace the ACv transformers with ACv to DCv power supplies and run DCv LED lamps. These power supplies or drivers keep the LEDs at a constant level and still use very little current.
12v LED have better dimming qualities than 24v LED. Also, best to still run the dc power through a transformer designed for the LED bulbs by the manufacturer. Third party dimmers , like those made by Blue Sea, don't provide quality dimming control. At low setting the darn things flicker. There's actually a science here that needs to be followed...
The boat has combination of dimmers.the guest rooms had small dimmers modules called I-something that were not working with LEds We just removed them as nobody was using them anyway and rewired the boxes. The master and all other areas have an older Lutron system which works fine with LEDs. it s always a bit hit or miss. problem with an 24 VAC system is that you need compatible bulbs which are harder to find. When I replaced the antique halogen stern floodlights I had to use DC - AC converters for the Lumitec fixtures to work
Quick update on this. Rewired the emergency generator as a secondary generator. Simply relocated the existing transfer switch and upgraded the breakers in it accordingly. New location is in a new box that shares the main breaker. Just over a year now and I couldn’t be happier. Turns out the 13k is a great choice for cruising
I served the circuits with 24v DC. My next step was to swap to 12v bulbs and install a small sept down 24-12 for the circuits. The Vimar momentary rocker switches control the driver. Next step is to experiment with a different driver. I haven't gone there yet. Need to research options. Blue Seas is not the answer for the LED...
I've gotten useful LED info from marinebeam. And some (all?) of their "bulbs" are for 10-30VDC so relatively versatile. We have some low-voltage AC lighting circuits with Vimar dimmers (no clue why somebody thought AC lighting was a good idea) and the marinebeam LEDs a) work, even though it's 24VAC, and b) dim, to a certain extent. Latter not perfect, good enough for us. -Chris
It's kinda crazy to think that I need to step power up from DC to AC with a transformer just so that the led bulbs can properly dim...
Didn't mean that. I think. The three 120VAC lighting circuits were built for incandescent bulbs. No clue why 120VAC lighting. No clue why the 120VAC-to-24VAC step-down, since both 120VAC and 12VDC (and also 24VDC?) dimmers exist. I simply switched all boat "bulbs" to LED. Didn't even understand the step-down at the time... but it works (well enough) with the LEDs so I live with it. -Chris