Dusk To Dawn Light

I purchased a screw in dusk to dawn sensor and when it get dark the light comes on but continuously blinks. When I unscrew the sensor from the light and screw the light bulb directly into the liight socket the light stays on.
      

My lamppost bulb turns on a few hours after sunset. I use a cfl bulb which has worked fine. I attached a picture of the sensor that I bought which is just like the sensor I have now. Are these hard to install or should I hire a pro?
      

I bought a landscape light at a thrift store to play around with.  It is definitely a well light.  It has a black shell and a round, rather flat bulb.  The connections are exposed on the back of the bulb and the wires screw directly into the bulb.  Looks similar to this:







The only difference is the bulb frame has a little clip that hooks onto the black part to hold it in.  I am interested in what kind of light this is?  I'm assuming it's low voltage?  How can I tell?  Also, what are well lights good to light?  I believe the bulb may say GE.
      

I have a kind of strange question:  How many watts is a 2x40W incandescent bulb?  Is it 40W?  Why is there a '2x' before 40W?



One of the bulbs in my light fixture above the bathroom sink burned out.  The light fixture uses three bulbs (decorative globe type).  I uncrewed the bad bulb, and it says '2x40W' on the base of the bulb (the metal part).  I went to Home Depot and they have the bulb type in 40W and 60W but both say 1x (1x40W and 1x60W).  The electrician at Home Depot wasn't sure what 2x could refer to on my bulb and suggested it might be that my bad bulb was in a 2-pack package.  Is that it?
      

Hi everyone,



I'm pretty new to the whole homeowning/do it yourself lifestyle, and have a question about the light fixture in my kitchen.  Recently 2 twisted cfl bulbs went out, probably within 1-2 days of each other, and I am having a hard time figuring out how to replace the bulb.  I believe the lights in my kitchen are considered recessed lighting.



So when the first light went out, I hastily grabbed my step ladder and tried to twist the bulb out.  I should have looked more closely at the fixture because when I started to twist, the bulb popped in my hand.  No big deal, just a bunch of debris all over the place.  I looked at the fixture and it said I should pull straight down to remove.  Doh!  The second light went out a day or two later and this time I pulled straight down on the bulb to remove.  To my surprise the bulb came out, but at the ends of the bulb were 2 bare wires.  I had never seen this bulb in stores before.



Anyways here are some pictures I took of my fixture.  Can anyone tell me how I am to replace my busted bulbs?  Thanks!












      

In a previous thread (Wire suitable for underwater usage), I enquired about what cord types would be suitable for underwater usage because I was building a submersible fishing light to attract baitfish.  Well, the light is done, and the bulb "farthest away" from the battery is by far the brightest in the chain (I hesitate to say chain since they are wired in parallel). 



Attached image "photo 1" is a picture of the light I made.  Notice the bulb all the way to the left is far brighter than the rest.



All bulbs used are the same spec, and look like this:



To wire the bulbs, I cut the flange off with a Dremel tool so that they would fit in the tube.  Two pair of them have their terminals soldered together (neg to neg, pos to pos...that's the "gap" you see in the lighting), and the first bulb in line is upside down, with it's terminals facing the incoming wiring.  The first bulb receives the wiring from the main line, then hookup wire is used to jump from those terminals to the next set, etc. 



There IS one anomaly with the final/far left bulb.  When I was cutting off the flange, I accidentally cut too far on that piece, basically severing the terminals from the bulb.  So, when wiring it into the circuit, I had to improvise and soldered the hookup wire directly into the solder points located on the bulb itself (instead of the underside).  Hopefully you can see what I'm talking about in attached "photo 2."



I have no idea why this anomaly would make the bulb brighter though.  Can anyone think of any other reason the bulb would be brighter?  Unfortunately, I cannot do any readings on the individual bulbs because I did not notice this until everything was soldered into place and the lamp sealed/waterproofed).
      

Going through a crazy heat wave here in SoCal, and one of my tenants called to tell me that the electricity isn't on in some of his rooms. He turned on his portable AC unit that he has been using all summer and something may have happened.



Downstairs:The dining room light switch, downstairs light switch do not work. All outlets around them do work though, which is odd cause I would have thought they'd be on the same circuit.



Upstairs: The side bathroom light switch does not work, but outlets all work. In the master bedroom (where the AC unit is located), the master bathroom light switch does not work, nor does the master bedroom light switch. All of the outlets do not work either. I used my outlet tester and it gave me the hot/ground reversed lights. I think this means that the white/black wires are reversed on the outlets (has not changed recently).



I went over, checked all of the breakers. Switched them to off, then back on, did not fix the issue. All breakers stay in the on position without tripping, so no shorts?



Checked all GFCI's, hit test, then reset, did not solve the problem.



We unplugged everything from all outlets, and retried, but it didn't work.



I checked continuity between the main power lines, and the output of the circuit breakers, and all were fine. I did NOT check the voltages though, and will do so in the morning when I stop by again.



Is there anything else I should check?
      

I'm trying to fix a problem with a track light installment over the a bar I've just put in. I've done it before. never had issues. but this particular problem is driving me nuts. It just defies logic.  The electrician who actually installed the associated dimmer switches with this dining room area was called as it seems it may be a flaw with his wiring, but he's blown us off and I have to try and solve this myself.



This is how it's all set up. I've been rehabbing our home from top to bottom, and converted our old kitchen into a dining area. Within this dining area are four sets of lights, all controlled from one box containing four dimmer switches. I set up all the new wiring and installation of the lights in the ceiling, and we paid an electrician to come in, check everything out, set up the multiple switches, and connect it all to the board. It's all new copper wiring from beginning to end, as I didn't want to connect or splice in to the old aluminum wiring that was in place. All the new wiring and lights are on a dedicated 15 amp breaker. Three of the sets of lights were set up to be available from the day the electrician came around. The fourth, for the track light over the bar, was left hanging from the ceiling capped off and with the switch off, as I still had work to do installing an overhead wine rack, under which the track was going to be set.



Two days ago I finally got around to putting the track up, but after setting it in place and connecting the power up the lights wouldn't work. I took the lights out to our kitchen, where I installed another track light system some time ago, plugged one of the lights in, and it worked just fine. I then went back to the bar area and used a spare track, then a spare connector, to see if I could isolate the fault, yet neither of the items provided a solution. Now here's the weird bit - every time I tried checking the system out, I'd get 120 volts showing from the wiring and from the track when I'd test with the multimeter. But the second I'd put a light into the track, the multimeter would drop to zero on the voltage reading on either the wiring or the track. Take the light fixture back out, and the voltage would pop back up. Inserting the light was thus completing some kind of odd loop. It wasn't just one light - I double checked by grabbing working lights from the kitchen track and inserting them into the other track - the same problem would pop up. Finally, having come to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the track at all, I took the whole assembly over to a nearby wall outlet, used some spare electric cable to connect up to the appropriate slots - presto, the light came on! I even double checked all this by grabbing another light fixture destined for our bathroom, and tried connecting it to the wiring over the bar. Nothing. Yet as with the track light, the minute I took it over to the wall outlet and connected it, the light worked.



So everything logically points to the fact it has to be something to do with this individual circuit, right, because a) the light fixtures work when plugged into another circuit and b) the other three dimmers and lights hooked up in the same box work fine and draw power from the same wire cable/breaker combination. The only things left that I can think of is that the electrician has either wired the dimmer switch up incorrectly or that there's some kind of flaw inside the switch itself. Does this make sense?



A friend also told me to double-check to make sure that the black wire feeding power to the light was indeed the hot wire, and it is.  If I touch it with the black test lead from the multimeter and put the red one to the neutral I show 120 volts. If I keep the black test lead on the black wire and put the red test lead to the ground - I also show 120 volts.



A final point. I know I'm not overloading the circuit - not even close. With all four dimmers maxed and every light on - including the test light on the track - I'd only be drawing 8 amps on a 15 amp breaker, besides which I'm only using one set of lights while I'm working on this problem anyway. This is a dedicated circuit, so there's no additional power being drawn away by something else.



So how am I getting 120 volts from this wiring, according to my multimeter, yet it won't light up ANYTHING and keeps giving off the indication that some kind of loop or short is being created every time I actually plug a light into the track? It's got me totally stumped.



Anyone have any ideas?
      

I'm using very bright incandescent lights through chickens lamps to increase my metabolism. The reds and yellows that come out of incandescent bulbs do this. My question is how can I increase the production of reds and yellows? Is there anyway I could change the wiring in the chicken lamp to force it to produce more reds? I heard that putting a 130 volt bulb in a 120 watt socket will produce more reds? Any other ideas of mods I could do to the lamp? I was also wondering if red heat lamps produce more reds and yellows then regular incandescent light bulbs or do red heat light bulbs just have red coated paint which makes them appear like their producing more red?
      

Hello. I'm a new home owner and DIY-er. I have 3 fluorescent lights  in my basement. I just replaced the fixtures' older ballasts with new  T8 ballasts in the first two lights and they work fine. I am having  trouble with the third light's wiring to the ceiling. I cut and removed  the old ballast without paying much attention because I was able to wire  the first two lights without any problem. I connected the new ballast  to the bulb sockets in the fixture, just like I did with the first two  lights. When I went to connect the ballast's black and white power lines  to the ceiling lines, I was thrown off by a red wire, which I guess is  connected to the light switch.  In addition, this light is connected to  the one of the other fluorescent lights and both are controlled by the  switch. I have attached  pictures of how I have it wired.



The way I have it wired now,  the other light turns on and works fine when the switch is flipped.  However, this light has the bulb flicker and then not turn on. If anyone  can tell what I'm doing wrong from looking at the pictures, I'd  appreciate any help! Thanks!