Dusk to Dawn

[Aaron Koehl]

Okay, so I bought new porch lamps from the blue box store, Portfolio brand or something. So, old lamps down, new back plate to mount against the siding, rewired, etc etc.

Open the box for the new lamp, unpack everything, only to realize it has some sort of automatic dusk-to-dawn setting and a photosensor.

Nowhere on the box does it mention this, and nowhere in the instructions! The only reason we noticed was it had a weird ballast and didn't take regular bulbs.

Are there replacement ballasts that can convert this into a regular socket? Is there such a beast?

In the software engineering world, we say "It's a feature not a bug!". I guess I'll give the dusk-to-dawn setting a try; but it's hard to test such an installation in broad daylight. Covering the photosensor only gave me a brief flicker.

Grr!

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Aaron, often you can identify the photocell and simply remove it from the circuit if you want to control the lamp with an external switch.

It doesn't normally have anything to do with the ballast.

Since it has a ballast I presume that you either have a fluorescent or HPS fixture?

Regards, Rod.

[Jim Rimmer]

There should be a SET or TEST mode for the photosensor so you can adjust range and sensitivity during daylight hours.

[David G Baker]

I have purchased several indoor light fixtures that have unusual sized bulbs with weird bases on them. If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, take it back and get what you want. Prior to purchasing some of my light fixtures I studied the outside of the boxes for information about the fixture and bulb size and couldn't find any information that told me what I needed to know. When I returned the fixtures the customer service person showed me some code numbers on the box that explained the information that I needed. When I replaced the fixtures that I returned I made sure that a store employee explained all of the details to me that were hidden in code on the box.