Dusk to dawn outdoor lights turning on and off, why?

[pete6032]

Here is a mystery for you all. I have two outdoor lights on my house. One is on the front of house, one is on the side of house. I put dusk-to-dawn LEDs in each light a few months ago. I used two different brand bulbs. One was GE, the other was HD house brand (forget the name). The housings for each light are different. One housing is brand new that I installed a few months ago, the other one on the side door is old, maybe 5-10 years old. Anyway for the first couple of weeks the dusk to dawn lights worked great and turned on a dusk and off at dawn without issue. Now several months later BOTH lights are turning on and off intermittently at night. They will be on for 10-20 seconds, shut off for 1 second, then turn back on, and repeat and repeat and repeat. I thought maybe it was car lights hitting the sensors, or a dirty sensor, but I took both bulbs out and cleaned the sensors and nothing happened. What could be the cause of this behavior with the lights? Is it faulty wiring? LED having trouble with old house wiring?

 

[PowerEngineer]

It would,be interesting to know if the two outdoor lights are turning on and off in unison?

But assuming they are not, one possibility that springs to mind is that light from the LEDs might be reflecting off of the lamp housing and back onto the sensors. Perhaps the housing glass has gotten dirty?

I doubt it is a house wiring issue, but perhaps you could put tape over the sensors and then see if they stay on? If they do then it would indicate that the sensors are responsible.

Good luck! 🍀

 

[Jimminy]

I have several outside lights that behave about the same. They are powered by an internal 18650 Liion battery and have a solar cell for recharging during day time. They come on a dusk and off at dawn. Cost less than $20. The internal components appear to be the cheapest of the cheap.

They worked OK for a few weeks/months. Then they started turning on and off with a period of a second or two, variable at first. No amount of cleaning or fiddling around helped at all. They had other weird symptoms, and each was a little different, but all were RUBBISH. Some don't even come on at all now.

I just figured they were a complete waste of money. But maybe the super expensive lights actually work?

I subscribed to this thread ... maybe I'll work on them again if I learn something.

 

[mindless1]

Probably heat related, *long* term damage where either a diode or transistor in the driver circuit or a bond wire on an LED, is going open circuit for a moment till it cools down a bit.

If the lights don't have all the LEDs in a single series then it implicate the driver because an LED bond wire fault would only take out one of the series.

Are the housings trapping heat in? Does your climate have hot summers? Both can cause permanent lifespan reduction.

 

[JTsyo]

I tried a light sensor on lamp when we were away on vacation but the light was bright enough to trip the sensor. Though if that was the case, it's odd that the issue is cropping up now.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Late to the thread, but sounds like bad sensors. I can't make out your set up from your description. Separate lamp and sensor or some kind of combination? Not all sensors are rated for LED. Most new ones for sale are, but you have to read the package.

None should flicker as you seem to describe. There should be a delay of several seconds or minutes before turning on or off. That's to avoid false switching due to headlights or other intermittent sources. I just added two post lamps with sensors and positioned them to be pointed away from known light sources.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wait, so the bulbs themselves have the dusk/dawn circuitry and sensor? Is it an enclosed fixture, like with glass? The light is probably reflecting back to the sensor and then turning itself off.

 

[BoomerD]

Late to the thread, but sounds like bad sensors. I can't make out your set up from your description. Separate lamp and sensor or some kind of combination? Not all sensors are rated for LED. Most new ones for sale are, but you have to read the package.

None should flicker as you seem to describe. There should be a delay of several seconds or minutes before turning on or off. That's to avoid false switching due to headlights or other intermittent sources. I just added two post lamps with sensors and positioned them to be pointed away from known light sources.

Several of the various solar outside lights I've had over the years did what the OP described when it just wasn't quite dark enough to fully turn them on.