LED wallpacks on photo cells

[solis]

Has anyone had any problems with LED wall packs on photocells? Have a recurring problem with some wall packs, there are two photocells, each control half the buildings wall packs. Another company recently replaced the wall packs with LED's. There has been 2 service calls since, all regarding these wall packs. Initially, the retrofit company forgot to turn the breakers back on. Turned breakers on, covered photo cells, all came on, no problem. Get another call the next day, half are off. Going back to troubleshoot and maybe replace the photocell. There are 8 37W LED's on the photocell rated for 1000W. Idea's?

 

[GoldDigger]

Because of the capacitive inrush at turn on a solid state photocell unit may be at 1/4 or less of its tungsten rating for LEDs.
You may need to add a contractor.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[chris1971]

Has anyone had any problems with LED wall packs on photocells? Have a recurring problem with some wall packs, there are two photocells, each control half the buildings wall packs. Another company recently replaced the wall packs with LED's. There has been 2 service calls since, all regarding these wall packs. Initially, the retrofit company forgot to turn the breakers back on. Turned breakers on, covered photo cells, all came on, no problem. Get another call the next day, half are off. Going back to troubleshoot and maybe replace the photocell. There are 8 37W LED's on the photocell rated for 1000W. Idea's?

Photocell isn't rated to operate LED. Start there.

 

[mgookin]

Has anyone had any problems with LED wall packs on photocells? Have a recurring problem with some wall packs, there are two photocells, each control half the buildings wall packs. Another company recently replaced the wall packs with LED's. There has been 2 service calls since, all regarding these wall packs. Initially, the retrofit company forgot to turn the breakers back on. Turned breakers on, covered photo cells, all came on, no problem. Get another call the next day, half are off. Going back to troubleshoot and maybe replace the photocell. There are 8 37W LED's on the photocell rated for 1000W. Idea's?

Well that first trip doesn't count. You (someone) hired a guy who forgot to turn the breaker back on. You can't blame the lights or the control for that.

As to the 2nd trip, at what time of day were the lights not on? Photocells are very unpredictable. If one side of the building is on and the other is off, sometime in the afternoon as clouds go over, maybe it's sunnier on one side and darker on the other, or maybe one photocell is dirtier than the other. Some lights on and some lights off are the number one complaint with photocells. Their best use is as a paperweight or to fill up a landfill. A 1kW photocell is not very much of a photocell. If you're going to install a new photocell, get one with some kahunas. 1.8kW is an industry standard.

As others have touched on, inrush from LED lighting is a steeper waveform and of a greater magnitude but shorter duration than that of conventional lighting technologies.