In article ,
bob haller wrote:

i had a photocell on my pole light. perodically it would burn out for no
apparent reason.

till one day it was just getting dark and i witenesed its death.......

the pole lighht turned on. the incandescent bulb burned out in one of those
brilliant sun bright displays.

i went and got another bulb but it didnt light

so i went and got a new pole light sensor from inventory. they were hard to
find so i bought several at a time.....

changed the light sensor and all was well.

conclusion..... the brilliant light was from high current that wiped out the
sensor. about this time CFLs came out. that light sensor must be over 10 /
15 years old......... the plastic sensor window has discolored turned milky
white. i am going to restore my vans headlights, i will try a bit on the
sensor

if the OP is using incandescent bulbs you might try a LED bulb.

longer life may be your reward.

LED and CFL bulbs won't work in my mercury vapor lamp. After 15 years,
I noticed that the light was coming on when it got a little overcast.
Replacing the photocell with an exact replacement returned it to normal
operation.

About the same time, a photocell did the same thing on another lamp. I
had added a small photocell to a lamp that used CFL bulbs. Even though
they use less power, there is still some heat involved with CFL and LED
bulbs. I believe it is this heat that makes the photocells go bad, and
use of incandescent bulbs would only accelerate the process.

For that lamp, I made a bigger hole and mounted an external photocell.
When/if the mercury vapor lamp's photocell goes bad again, I will use
the external replacement on it too. Its mounting hole happens to be the
right size for the external photocell.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_7955-30209-A...v12l__?product
Id=3438410&pl=1

Fred