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Gary from Muleshoe
Well-known Member
Replace the bulb.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Enjoy the dark. Wire up a pole light on a switch. If you need lights on all night move to Time Square.
Paul Janke
Member
My guess is the bulb as was already stated.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Mine was the Bulb when it cycled like that.
Tom Looney
Member
According to algore you should leave it off. But I bet if you go over to his place there's more lights on than an operating room after a full moon.
For a few dollars more you can buy a new fixture and problem will be solved.
For a few dollars more you can buy a new fixture and problem will be solved.
Pale Rider
Member
As an electrician I can attest that it is most likely the photo eye. Start with that if you want to play the odds and try changing out only one component. If the cost doesn't bother you, or access is inconvenient, change out the bulb too. Make the ballast the last component to change assuming you can safely shut off the circuit and feel capable.
Ralph wd45
Member
I went in to Home Depot, last week to buy a new mercury vapor light, and 2 new bulbs and one photo eye, for my pole lights. They had the bulbs, and photo eye, but told me that I would have to buy a sodium unit, about $80.00, as opposed to $30.00, for the old mercury vapor units that I used to buy. They said you can no longer get the mercury vapor ballast's, and therefore no new units! Something about EPA rules. I don't know if this only applies to Washington state, or if it's nation wide.
Tom Looney
Member
Pale Rider you're a fake. The first thing you test is the wiring and circuit breaker.
buickanddeere
Well-known Member
Likely the lamp. A photo eye usually shorts internally and the lamp stays lit 24/7.
Odds are however after 12 years. The capacitor inside is on it's last legs.
Depending on how long the fixture has been cycling a failing lamp. The ballast maybe half scorched as well.
By the time you change a lamp and a capacitor.You are in the price of a 100% new fixture. With a new photo eye, new lamp, new ballast and new cap.
As many new mercury vapour or metal halide ballast as you want to purchase up here. I would go with the metal halide as a plan B.
Can't stand even a colour corrected high pressure sodium.
For my last yard light I bought a 70W sodium vapour just to get the fixture, socket and photocell. I wired direct from the photocell to the lamp socket leaving the ballast/cap out of the circuit. Then threaded in a "day light" colour 150W equivalent compact fluorescent.
In your situation I would find a big honking mogul base compact fluorescent or a mogul to edison base adapter. And connect direct from the photo cell and toss the ballast and cap away.
If you look on ebay and online. There are huge compact fluorecents up to 500W equivalent.
Odds are however after 12 years. The capacitor inside is on it's last legs.
Depending on how long the fixture has been cycling a failing lamp. The ballast maybe half scorched as well.
By the time you change a lamp and a capacitor.You are in the price of a 100% new fixture. With a new photo eye, new lamp, new ballast and new cap.
As many new mercury vapour or metal halide ballast as you want to purchase up here. I would go with the metal halide as a plan B.
Can't stand even a colour corrected high pressure sodium.
For my last yard light I bought a 70W sodium vapour just to get the fixture, socket and photocell. I wired direct from the photocell to the lamp socket leaving the ballast/cap out of the circuit. Then threaded in a "day light" colour 150W equivalent compact fluorescent.
In your situation I would find a big honking mogul base compact fluorescent or a mogul to edison base adapter. And connect direct from the photo cell and toss the ballast and cap away.
If you look on ebay and online. There are huge compact fluorecents up to 500W equivalent.
buickanddeere
Well-known Member
A couple of minutes and they seem to brighten up. If there is a lense or shade around the lamp to reduce wind contact, that helps.
Adirondack case guy
Well-known Member
Buy a new Solar powered yard light. No more grid consumption, no wiring from breaker box.
Pale Rider
Member
You can bet whatever you want. I'm not interested in your coffee. What I find in the vast majority of cases is that it is in fact the photo sensor. Experience demonstrates I can play the odds and fix the problem or like yourself I could bet cups of coffee and waste time and money. The decision is a rather easy one to make.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Change the bulb, If it was the eye it would not light or stay on.But while your there you might as well change the eye also,their only a 3 prong 1/4 turn and then your good for years again.If you don't you know " murphy's law ". I deal with this stuff every day, I maintain over 1000 steet lights. Good Luck Mike
Pale Rider
Member
And you're not much of an electrician. Go right ahead and test that breaker if it makes you feel like you know what you're doing. If the light is cycling on and off it would be pretty clear to me that there is power getting to it. Do yourself a favor and stop embarrassing yourself.
Not sure where you received your training Pale Rider but your claim of the photo cell causing the problem is not your first task in trouble shooting the faulty fixture.
As mentioned by others the first symptom of a lamp beginning to fail is short cycling which is very hard on the other components of the fixture, the quicker you remedy the problem the better.
As far as your claim of being an "electrician" I have my doubts. I dont claim to be an expert cause I only have a five year apprenticeship with the IBEW and over thirty years experience in the trade and I will be the fist to tell you I dont know it all, you learn new things every day.
As mentioned by others the first symptom of a lamp beginning to fail is short cycling which is very hard on the other components of the fixture, the quicker you remedy the problem the better.
As far as your claim of being an "electrician" I have my doubts. I dont claim to be an expert cause I only have a five year apprenticeship with the IBEW and over thirty years experience in the trade and I will be the fist to tell you I dont know it all, you learn new things every day.
I would bet on the bulb.
Here is a little information on that from Wikipedia
At the end of life, many types of high-intensity discharge lamps exhibit a phenomenon known as cycling. These lamps can be started at a relatively low voltage. As they heat up during operation, however, the internal gas pressure within the arc tube rises and a higher voltage is required to maintain the arc discharge. As a lamp gets older, the voltage necessary to maintain the arc eventually rises to exceed the voltage provided by the electrical ballast. As the lamp heats to this point, the arc fails and the lamp goes out. Eventually, with the arc extinguished, the lamp cools down again, the gas pressure in the arc tube is reduced, and the ballast can once again cause the arc to strike. The effect of this is that the lamp glows for a while and then goes out, repeatedly.
More sophisticated ballast designs detect cycling and give up attempting to start the lamp after a few cycles. If power is removed and reapplied, the ballast will make a new series of startup attempts.
Here is a little information on that from Wikipedia
At the end of life, many types of high-intensity discharge lamps exhibit a phenomenon known as cycling. These lamps can be started at a relatively low voltage. As they heat up during operation, however, the internal gas pressure within the arc tube rises and a higher voltage is required to maintain the arc discharge. As a lamp gets older, the voltage necessary to maintain the arc eventually rises to exceed the voltage provided by the electrical ballast. As the lamp heats to this point, the arc fails and the lamp goes out. Eventually, with the arc extinguished, the lamp cools down again, the gas pressure in the arc tube is reduced, and the ballast can once again cause the arc to strike. The effect of this is that the lamp glows for a while and then goes out, repeatedly.
More sophisticated ballast designs detect cycling and give up attempting to start the lamp after a few cycles. If power is removed and reapplied, the ballast will make a new series of startup attempts.
Bus Driver
Well-known Member
Mercury vapor has just one redeeming characteristic- the lamp lasts a long time. Yes, they are being phased out. New complete fixtures are no longer manufactured. The ballast uses more power than does the lamp, very wasteful and expensive to operate. As the lamp ages, the light output declines while the current flow increases.
greenbeanman in Kansas
Well-known Member
Ah, that is why many street lights cycle. Thanks for that information as I've always wondered.
greenbeanman,
At the factory where I worked before I retired they had many of those high bay sodium lights. We would replace the lights as they started blinking but then after so long on a Saturday we would replace every bulb and start over again. Those bulbs were expensive and some of the earlier bulbs we replaced didn't have many hours on them and would get thrown away with the rest of them. That is the way things go in a large operation.
I never did like the orangish light given off by those sodium vapor lights. I think that they have since replaced them all with a different type. It is an expensive deal just to keep the lighting going.
Another energy thing is to turn the lights off when not needed. They used to have energy management panels with a relay for each light so they could turn the lights off when they wanted to. Then they gave up on that and tore them all out. I liked that system with the individual relays because it was easy trouble shooting when a light ballast shorted and caused all of the lights on that breaker to go out. Otherwise a person has to take a guess at which light fixture was shorted and go up 30' and check if that was the bad one if not move over to the next light and check that one until you found the shorted one. All of this with work stations booths etc in the way below you.
At the factory where I worked before I retired they had many of those high bay sodium lights. We would replace the lights as they started blinking but then after so long on a Saturday we would replace every bulb and start over again. Those bulbs were expensive and some of the earlier bulbs we replaced didn't have many hours on them and would get thrown away with the rest of them. That is the way things go in a large operation.
I never did like the orangish light given off by those sodium vapor lights. I think that they have since replaced them all with a different type. It is an expensive deal just to keep the lighting going.
Another energy thing is to turn the lights off when not needed. They used to have energy management panels with a relay for each light so they could turn the lights off when they wanted to. Then they gave up on that and tore them all out. I liked that system with the individual relays because it was easy trouble shooting when a light ballast shorted and caused all of the lights on that breaker to go out. Otherwise a person has to take a guess at which light fixture was shorted and go up 30' and check if that was the bad one if not move over to the next light and check that one until you found the shorted one. All of this with work stations booths etc in the way below you.
Tom Looney
Member
You're the one that made an a$$ of yourself. Electricity for Dummies has been up dated, I suggest you get a copy.
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