Parking lot lights

[Opie11]

Good morning all,

120v parking light circuit has 3 lights on it and all 3 stopped working at same time. They are all on individual photocells. Verified voltage at all 3 locations and even put a load at 2 locations to verify voltage stability. Used breaker in multiple tests and seems to be working fine. Bucket truck is currently in the shop so unable to do any checks at the lights themselves. Is it really plausible that all 3 lights could be kaput at the same time?

 

[petersonra]

s it really plausible that all 3 lights could be kaput at the same time?

I had two photocells that died the same day. Just about anything is possible.

You won't really know till you get your bucket truck and check it out. Might be something else but you seem to have exhausted the testing you can do without testing the most obvious thing.

 

[Fred B]

Is it really plausible that all 3 lights could be kaput at the same time?

Seen it. All installed at same time, maybe.
Or if you don't have first hand knowledge related to their functioning / failure timing the actual failure could actually be days or even months apart before the customer calls an electrician to investigate.

Had that, 1 light, then 2 lights out "we'll let it go" months go by and now 3 lights out, now the AHJ has taken notice and writes it up to be repaired "or else".

 

[Opie11]

The interesting thing is we were informed this morning that another parking light circuit with 7 heads is now out. All have individual photocells attached.

 

[Fred B]

Guy with bb gun?

 

[ptonsparky]

Guy with bb gun?

A good BB gun.

 

[AUUL]

Kali Here with AUUL, are you experiencing any faulting on the lines? we see this typically when there is a fault somewhere along the line or possible loose connection inside of a junction boxes.

Another option and what has been happening alot in our region is people opening hhs/ junction boxes and cutting the wire out which could also cause this.

Kali Rushing
Advanced Underground Utility Locating Inc

 

[Tulsa Electrician]

A good BB gun.

A good shot

 

[RdmanElect]

What type of lights are they?

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

 

[PaulMmn]

Power surge pop all the bulbs (or photocells) at once? Recent lightning in the area??

 

[texie]

I wondering what the branch circuit(s) type(s) is. Is this by chance a MWBC?

 

[Opie11]

The lights are 250w HPS. What was discovered is that all 10 lights I referenced above are on 1 circuit. We can trace the circuit from the panel to where the conduit goes into the ground. The 3 lights that currently do not work are wired with #6 thhn and the other 7 with #4 thhn. There is a junction somewhere after the conduit enters the ground. The circuit in the panel is #6 thhn. Plans are to try radio detect to find junction location.

 

[Opie11]

What doesn't make sense to me is we put a test lighting load on the 3 non working lights and it worked. Proper voltage is also present. Seems obvious issue is with photo cells and/or lights but all 3 at the same time seems a little strange to me.

 

[Fred B]

Any recent excavation in parking lot?
Seen one that had been damaged by an excavator. Also had another one that the damage occurred some time prior and eventually the damaged conductor gave way to corrosion and it would show good voltage under testing but under load would drop out.