Wire Light Post Outdoors?

Question

I have a lamp post in my front yard. Which was already prewired with a sensor to go on at night and off by day. The sensor went bad and stayed on all the time. I bought a new sensor (but different than previous one) that you just s***w into the light socket instead of wiring. First night and its not working? I bypassed the old sensor wires by removing the old sensor. The wires coming out from the ground are white, black and copper. The wires coming from the Light itself are also white black and copper. I connected the wires by color, tapped and covered them. Light turns on at night but is VERY Dim..hardly tell its ON and it kind of flickers?Tried new bulb..same effect?? What did I do wrong..Any Suggestions?

Answer 1

Mike:

Invest in a $10 voltage tester. That way you can check the voltage in the wires to make sure you know which ones are hot. It sounds like you did it right, but what you may not know is if the other end of the wire is done correctly. The copper wire is the ground and should not have any voltage. The black wire is hot an should show voltage. The white wire is neutral. The voltage flows out of the black wire to the white wire and rapidly reverses flow (AC or alternating current) The copper ground wire is designed to ground any stray voltage so that it does not flow through you if you touch a fixture.

Answer 2

You can buy these photocells at Home Depot in the lighting section. I am sure Lowes, ACE, and other home improvement stores carry it as well.  It will have a wiring diagram in it.  The white on the photo cell goes to the other two whites.  The black on the photo cell goes on the hot wire (black) coming in.  The red on the photo cell goes to the hot wire (black) going to the socket.  I am betting that your s***w in cell is not making contact with the bottom contact very well.  The silver around the bulb is the neutral, and the bottom contact is the hot.  It sounds like it is intermittant.  Barely touching like that would act as a resistor, causing it to be dim and flicker.  You can try to fix it by first turning the power off,  make sure the power is off, did you check if the power is off.  Reach inside the fixture and carefully pry the bottom tab up.  don't let it touch the sides, and don't break it.  It is easy to break.  If it doesn't fix it I would change it. Chances are the voltage is correct if it was working before.

Answer 3

This is typical of some photo cells, the light will be dimmer than you want.  Some other photo cells will be quite close to full brightness.

Answer 4

i am a master electrician and let me Began by saying that the reason that the light is dim is because the sensor that you s***w into the socket is picking up light from the light bulb therefore the light is not very bright. the best thing to do is to buy a post light photo cell or sometimes called a pin photo cell. on the photo cell you have a black wire, red wire, and white wire.  you connect the black wire coming out of the ground to the black wire on the photo cell then the black wire for the light to the red wire on the photo cell. then connect all the white wires together and then both of the copper wires together.  that should solve the problem.

Answer 5

resplice it.  make sure the connections are tight. cut, then re strip the wires,  exposing 2" of copper, align the wire at the insulation, twist them tightly together clockwise untill you get 2 full twist in the insulated part of the wires.  then cut them back so that only 1/2" of copper is exposed, then s***w on a wire nut as tight as you can even if you have to use a 5/16" nut driver to tighten it.  If you do it right there will be no copper exposed below the wire nut.  No need to tape them but when you put them back in the pole make sure the wire nuts are pointing up.