Flashing LED light

   / Flashing LED light #1  
J

jmh1783

Silver Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2015
Messages
165
Location
Darlington, PA
Tractor
Mahindra 2555 HST
Looking for anyone who might have some insight. I replaced an old sodium light on the side of my barn with an LED fixture back in August. It's a dusk to dawn type. A few times now when it gets really cold (20F or below) the light starts flashing; on/off in about 1 second intervals. I have it on a switch in case I need to turn it off. Playing with the switch a few times doesn't seem to help. Occasionally I can get it to go into a strobe like mode where it flashes very fast. Originally I thought water had gotten into it. When it warmed up a bit a chalked the entire thing carefully. It seemed fine for awhile until the next cold snap then it happened again. Once it warms up the flashing goes away. Any idea? I figure I'm just going to have to replace it.
 
   / Flashing LED light #2  
Sounds like the dusk to dawn sensor might be temperature sensitive. Is there a way you could cover up the sensor to see if that stops the flashing?
 
   / Flashing LED light #3  
don't know if this could be related to your problem or not, but I put one of those screw in adapters into my outside door fixture so the porch light would come on at night (making a dust till dawn light out of my porch light) and installed an LED bulb. It would flash like this at times. I called the maker of the adapter and they told me the sensor ? in the adapter that turns the light on isn't compatible with an LED bulb. It will work correctly with a regular bulb. I had to buy a different adapter compatible with LED bulbs
 
   / Flashing LED light #4  
jmh1783 said:
Looking for anyone who might have some insight. I replaced an old sodium light on the side of my barn with an LED fixture back in August. It's a dusk to dawn type. A few times now when it gets really cold (20F or below) the light starts flashing; on/off in about 1 second intervals. I have it on a switch in case I need to turn it off. Playing with the switch a few times doesn't seem to help. Occasionally I can get it to go into a strobe like mode where it flashes very fast. Originally I thought water had gotten into it. When it warmed up a bit a chalked the entire thing carefully. It seemed fine for awhile until the next cold snap then it happened again. Once it warms up the flashing goes away. Any idea? I figure I'm just going to have to replace it.
Click to expand...

My :2cents: - take it back if you can, and try another one or a different model.

May be more choices down your way; outdoor LED fixtures here seem to fall into 2 categories - $25 range, or $200+. Low cost fixtures may have been cost optimized to the point where cold temperature performance suffers.

What is the manufacturer's spec for your fixture's Low Temperature Limit ?

Rgds, D.
 
   / Flashing LED light
  • Thread Starter
#5  
i'll have to try covering the sensor however today its working fine (warmer). I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get up on a ladder in the dark when its 20 degrees...or I'll just buy a different light. I'm leaning towards option two. I'm just concerned its something I'll see again with a different led light.
 
   / Flashing LED light #6  
Take an incandescent bulb and put it close to the sensor to keep it warm.
 
   / Flashing LED light #7  
joefromga said:
Take an incandescent bulb and put it close to the sensor to keep it warm.
Click to expand...
Huh!?
Those sensors are photoelectric and close the contact to turn on the light when there is a lack of ambient light. Putting another light source in the area will just shut the dusk to dawn sensor off completely.
The problem is more likely to be that his dusk to dawn sensor becomes too sensitive when cold so it shuts off when his LED light turns on in cold weather.
 
   / Flashing LED light #8  
It was a joke because using an incandescent defeats the whole purpose of going LED!
 
   / Flashing LED light #9  
kenmac said:
don't know if this could be related to your problem or not, but I put one of those screw in adapters into my outside door fixture so the porch light would come on at night (making a dust till dawn light out of my porch light) and installed an LED bulb. It would flash like this at times. I called the maker of the adapter and they told me the sensor ? in the adapter that turns the light on isn't compatible with an LED bulb. It will work correctly with a regular bulb. I had to buy a different adapter compatible with LED bulbs
Click to expand...


Bingo.


joefromga said:
It was a joke because using an incandescent defeats the whole purpose of going LED!
Click to expand...

I got it, Joe. Maybe we just both have a weird sense of humor? :laughing:
 
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