Blinking exterior home lighting is driving me crazy?
salsa_usa asked:
I have three light on my rear garage that blink like they are on some sort of timer. They go on for about 10 sec and then off for 10, never varies. There is apparently no switch for these lights either. I’m going to install a switch, but I would first like to know what is causing them to flash. I have access to the rear of the lights, but don’t see anything that might be the cause. I’ve changed out the bulbs. From what I can see by tracing the wires in the attic, there is nothing there either.
They are coach lights. I’ve looked at them pretty close and I do not believe they are triggered by motion or dusk/dawn, but since there seems not to be a switch that would make sense. I have put in standard incandesent 40W and 18W compact flouesents bulbs and they both turn off and on the same way. The garage has its own breaker box, and they still do this even with everything turned off. They three light turn off and on together. Thanks for all your suggestions.
Great! I found the sensor. It was located near an eave on the back of the garage, and I can hear it cycling. Adjusting it didn’t do anything, but I’m going to swap in a new one and see if that does the trick.
I have three light on my rear garage that blink like they are on some sort of timer. They go on for about 10 sec and then off for 10, never varies. There is apparently no switch for these lights either. I’m going to install a switch, but I would first like to know what is causing them to flash. I have access to the rear of the lights, but don’t see anything that might be the cause. I’ve changed out the bulbs. From what I can see by tracing the wires in the attic, there is nothing there either.
They are coach lights. I’ve looked at them pretty close and I do not believe they are triggered by motion or dusk/dawn, but since there seems not to be a switch that would make sense. I have put in standard incandesent 40W and 18W compact flouesents bulbs and they both turn off and on the same way. The garage has its own breaker box, and they still do this even with everything turned off. They three light turn off and on together. Thanks for all your suggestions.
Great! I found the sensor. It was located near an eave on the back of the garage, and I can hear it cycling. Adjusting it didn’t do anything, but I’m going to swap in a new one and see if that does the trick.
What kind of lights are these? Are they coach lights, resseced lights, do they have built in motion sensors on them, What else is on the circut, do they have thermal overloads in them? are you putting in to big a bulb? Before you instal a switch you should figure out the problem. Are all the conections tight? are the wires that feed these lights twisted properly. I cant count how many times i run into bad conections because “handy” homeowners do not properly twist wires, they think that the wire nut is supposed to do that. [who]
If these are automatic lights that come on at dusk, I would suggest that the cause might be the light sensor that turns the lights on is malfunctioning or the lamp light is providing feedback to the light sensor and turning the lamps off; and then the cycle repeats. The thing that suggests that is the constant 10 second interval you noted. that is, the darkness turns the lamp on, the sensor sees the light from the lamp and turns it off, the darkness turns the lamp on, etc with a 10 second response time.
With all the lights cycling at the same time, it sounds like one sensor controls all. So you should probably try to locate the sensor in the system and see if maybe it has been moved away from it’s proper position [who]