On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:00:46 -0000, (Chris
Lewis) wrote:


Control circuit should be independent of load, sounds like a poor design.
Would be interesting to see a schematic of this circuit.

Dimmers need to be able to operate the electronics when the light
is off. If the light is off, there's no current in the bulbs. Where
would the power come from then?

Instead, they leak a bit of current through the load and scavenge
what they need off that. If the bulbs are too small, there might
not be enough current flow to energize the electronics.

How di we get into talking about dimmers? This is about sensor lights
or security lights as some call them.....

Whoops. Got postings confused, and said "dimmer" when I should have
said "sensor". Sensor light electronics need power when the bulb is
off. Electronic timers do to.

Dimmers don't.

Two-wire dimmers (or 3-wire 3-way dimmers), don't have any power when
they are off.

But all (or most?) light sensors are 3 wire, and have power all the
time.


They should be designed to be independant of load, but in my other
post, I urged him to try the second bulb, just to know for sure about
his specific sensor.