Yard Light dont turn on in Cold weather

[alvinamorey]

I have a mercury vapor (farm) yard light on a pole. It always works fine in warm weather, but once the temperature gets below about 40deg., it dont always turn on. However if I flip the circuit breaker off and back on, the light works. Last winter it started doing this most irritating thing. I bought a new bulb thinking the bulb was failing. Before I got the bulb replaced, the weather warmed up and it has worked non-stop all spring and summer, so I never replaced the bulb. Now the weather is getting cool and it's once again not working every night, until I flip the breaker. Last night we barely had frost and the light would not come on till I flipped the breaker. What the heck is causing this? I know there are only 3 parts, the bulb, ballast, and sensor. But which would be affected by temperature?

[willshak]

on 10/12/2007 6:07 PM [e-mail] said the following:

The MV lamp itself. Require a maximum warm-up period of five to seven minutes before giving full light output, depending on lamp type, ballast and ambient temperature. They can be used only where this delay is acceptable

[The Daring Dufas]

You could have a bad or wrong value capacitor. Here's a link to a PDF file on troubleshooting HID fixtures:

TDD