Exterior sealed LED entrance lights with dusk to dawn,,, where?.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Our house was built 4 years ago and Mrs. hates the exterior entrance lights on both sides of the front door. We have a 8 foot deep porch the whole way across the front of the house and there are also exterior recessed lights in that porch ceiling. Because one or the other of us often gets home after dark, we leave the two entrance lights on pretty much 24-7. I would prefer a dusk to dawn light that looks like one of the entrance lights, but no where hear even carries such a thing. Everything is either on or off, or comes with a motion detector. We have barn cats that occasionally come onto the porch. it the light goes on, the dogs will go crazy and wake the entire household. I just want sealed LED entrance light with a dusk to dawn feature, NO motion detector. Been to Lowes, Home Depot and two other local places. Nothing. Every other outdoor light we have is sealed LED, and the fact that there are no bulbs to go bad every 5 months is nice, as well as the savings in electric. I am about ready to pay an electrician to custom build something.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Couldn't you add a light sensor that turns lights of and on? Some bulbs have this feature built in. Put lights on a digital timer that is battery powered and corrects for length of day, including the shift to daylight savings time.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Since it gets so damp and humid here, standard light bulb sockets corrode and light bulbs end up stuck in the sockets and the corrosion seems to shorten bulb life. I know I can get a duck to dawn adapter to screw in a standard socket, but the fixture itself then needs to have enough length for the extra inch and a half of the adapter without exposing the bulb out the bottom. A sealed LED by passes all that socket and corrosion issue.

[Patrick Walsh]

Try Rab Lighting. They make nice stuff. I don’t know if they have what you want but being they do exterior lighting and nice stuff I would think they might.

[Paul F Franklin]

I could never get the screw in adapters to work reliably in the two carriage style lights flanking my garage. The sensor ends up pointing different ways depending on where the threads of the socket start/end. Plus I had a couple fail after time.

So I replaced the inside switch with an astronomic timer switch. Rather than sense dusk and dawn by light level, it calculates sunrise and sunset based on time of day and your longitude and latitude, and turns the lights on and off at the appropriate times each day. Plus there's a fudge factor in case you want them to come on/turn off earlier or later than sunset/sunrise. A bit fussy to do the initial programming, but I've never had to touch it since. Also has the typical paddle on the front for manual control which temporarily overrides the automatic function.

[Doug Garson]

I'm curious where you are that light bulb sockets corrode, I'm on the wet coast, 20 metres from the Fraser River and my outdoor light sockets are fine after 25 years. I recently installed a WEMO WIFI programmable switch which I program with my smart phone to turn the lights on from dusk until dawn. https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-WLS040/?_ga=2.127536141.1629498997.1592112919-1426656564.1592112919

[Jim Becker]

I use photoelectric light sensors on our outdoor lighting...you can buy them at the borg. You will need a box on the circuit(s) that is exposed to light levels as these sensors are separate from the lighting fixture. They do screw into a tapped hole in common outdoor boxes which can also have things like flood lighting on them. Example here from Home Depot:

https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/7438d9df-49a2-4cff-a3a2-58d3f17a2e4a/svn/gray-woods-lighting-sensors-59411wd-64_1000.jpg

[John K Jordan]

Since it gets so damp and humid here, standard light bulb sockets corrode and light bulbs end up stuck in the sockets and the corrosion seems to shorten bulb life. I know I can get a duck to dawn adapter to screw in a standard socket, but the fixture itself then needs to have enough length for the extra inch and a half of the adapter without exposing the bulb out the bottom. A sealed LED by passes all that socket and corrosion issue.

I can't help with your "duck to dawn" question (sorry, couldn't resist!) but my solution for corrosion in light bulb sockets is to coat them with dielectric grease.

I use industrial LED dusk-to-dawn (no motion sensing) fixtures at my barn and shop but they would not be appropriate for a porch, too big and way too bright. I attach them to the sides of buildings but I think they are also used on poles.

Check with your local commercial/industrial electrical supplier. Those here carry fixtures and bulbs that I've never seen in a consumer hardware or big box store.

Also, if you haven't, try searching Amazon for dusk to dawn sensor for outdoor light. I see lots of options for LED bulbs with built-in sensors, hard-wired sensors, and adaptors.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

Since it gets so damp and humid here, standard light bulb sockets corrode and light bulbs end up stuck in the sockets and the corrosion seems to shorten bulb life.


my solution for corrosion in light bulb sockets is to coat them with dielectric grease.

This is also sold as bulb grease in some packages.

Some older sockets are made of brass while the newer bulb bases are made of aluminum. There is a bi-metal interaction between the two. Bulb grease or other dielectric lubricants help to prevent this.

jtk

[Bruce Page]

I could never get the screw in adapters to work reliably in the two carriage style lights flanking my garage. The sensor ends up pointing different ways depending on where the threads of the socket start/end. Plus I had a couple fail after time.

So I replaced the inside switch with an astronomic timer switch. Rather than sense dusk and dawn by light level, it calculates sunrise and sunset based on time of day and your longitude and latitude, and turns the lights on and off at the appropriate times each day. Plus there's a fudge factor in case you want them to come on/turn off earlier or later than sunset/sunrise. A bit fussy to do the initial programming, but I've never had to touch it since. Also has the typical paddle on the front for manual control which temporarily overrides the automatic function.
Paul, that sounds interesting. Could you post a ink?

[Paul F Franklin]

Paul, that sounds interesting. Could you post a ink?

Here's one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intermatic-15-Amp-7-Day-Indoor-In-Wall-Astronomic-Digital-Timer-White-ST01K/205478792

and this one is a newer model of the one I have I think: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-In-Wall-3-Way-Daylight-Adjusting-Digital-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-32648/300524126?MERCH=REC-_-pipinstock-_-205478792-_-300524126-_-N

[Doug Garson]

Here's one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intermatic-15-Amp-7-Day-Indoor-In-Wall-Astronomic-Digital-Timer-White-ST01K/205478792

and this one is a newer model of the one I have I think: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-In-Wall-3-Way-Daylight-Adjusting-Digital-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-32648/300524126?MERCH=REC-_-pipinstock-_-205478792-_-300524126-_-N

I had one similar to that and found it a pain to program and it did not adjust the sun rise/sun set times for the season very well, the one I linked to is much easier to program using your smartphone rather than the tiny screen on the timer. It has the added advantage that you can override the program any time and turn it off or on using your phone from anywhere. https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-WLS040/?_ga=2.127536141.1629498997.1592112919-1426656564.1592112919

[Bill Dufour]

I belive he lives in Germany on a road from a salt mine so lots of salt and they water the road to keep down the dust.
Bill D

[Bruce Page]

Here's one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intermatic-15-Amp-7-Day-Indoor-In-Wall-Astronomic-Digital-Timer-White-ST01K/205478792

and this one is a newer model of the one I have I think: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-In-Wall-3-Way-Daylight-Adjusting-Digital-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-32648/300524126?MERCH=REC-_-pipinstock-_-205478792-_-300524126-_-N

Thanks!

...

[Ralph Okonieski]

I bought an LED bulb That is dusk to dawn from Amazon. It has been in use for a year. I am completely happy with it. I bought a regular porch lamp that holds it so you want to consider that approach.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KFML3CH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I have a number of switches that I need to have using astronomic timers.
For my heavy duty stuff (motors etc.) I use the Intermatic 90000 series; theyr'e expensive and for these purposes, overkill, but I also use Aube (now part of Honeywell) and they work great.
Leviton also make switches using wifi signal timer switches.
Find an electrician and they'll be able to help.