Anyone know of a photocell light adapter (to implement dusk-to-dawn on/off on an existing light fixture) that doesn't cut the light output of the bulb (at least not significantly)?
I've tried these screw-in adapters from the hardware stores and they work, but they bring the light output of a 100-watt bulb down to about that of a
60-watt bulb (or maybe even less). I've tried using a 150-watt utility bulb and that didn't make any difference.
While I have not looked for it, I don't recall ever noticing any such dimming?
Hardwire or screw in? If hardwire, get one that says it's for fluorescent fixtures. What you have is the cheap screw in type that is basically a resistor to the lamp, which causes dimming.
The higher end sensors that you wire into the light are actual on/off relays.
--Mike
I was about to post a similar question about 4 or 7 watt night lites that come on automatically.
I find that the 4 watt old style nite lite where you SWITCH it on and off is MUCH BRIGHTER than the 7 watt automatic on nite lite.
Any reason why ? Obviously there is a resistor of some kind.
Long ago I measured the voltage at the bulb terminals and it was DEFINITELY LOWER on the automatic vs the manual switch type of nite lite.
Forgot what the readings were.
TIA
Use an external sensor with a relay-operated output (rather than the triac that is used in the lower cost "no relay" sensors).
I hope you have better luck with X.10 than I did. Since it is an unsupervised protocol there is never any way for the tranmitter to know for sure what state the receiver is in. I once had motion detector / dusk-to-dawn lights all around my home. In my area we have a lot of power fluctuations (brief interrruptions) and I was always coming home to find some or all of the security lights on in the middle of the day. YMMV.
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