Re: photo eye vs. dimmer switch
Hal,
I'll second that. It appears to me that we are in a new era of energy efficient and inexpensive compact flourescent lamps. I've recently seen blister packs of eight 13 watt lamps selling for $8.97. . .total. . .$1.11 per compact fluorescent; and with a form factor almost equal to a 60A19! Light as a feather.
The ballast has to be a switching power supply / high frequency generator, which means the "bulb" is now highly nonlinear, that it is far from the resistive nature of an incandescent bulb.
I ran across some really good looking compact fluorescent reflector floods rated for exterior, exposed, and to operate down to -20?F. I snapped up a few and put them in a motion detector flood. . .no joy! The triac switch in the motion detector and the CF ballast won't play together.