Dusk to dawn light

[Jslys13]

I have a dusk to dawn light on the side of my garage. It's off the garage circuit. When the light is on and I open or close the garage door the light will go off. It comes back on after a few minutes. It also does it if I run a saw or shopvac. I have tried unplugging everything other than the light and the garage door opener and the light still goes out. The light does have a switch in the garage that I can turn the light off. Could that switch be the problem?

 

[klassenl]

I put up some 175 watt metal hallidea lights on the exterior of my dad's garage abut 15 years ago and they did the same thing. I never found a solution.

 

[PhantomEB]

Run it on another circuit. My outside lights, all whopping two of them are on it's own breaker as well I can shut off the one over the big door while leaving the yard man door one on. Dusk to dawn high powered LED keeps a neighbour up all hours of the night!

 

[Jslys13]

Could a faulty gfci In series before the switch that controls the light be a possibility?

 

[Syberia]

I'm guessing the light in question is HID (metal halide perhaps)? It's the motor's inrush current dropping the voltage just low enough for a split second to extinguish the arc in the bulb. HID lights are not instant-on; they take a few minutes to "warm up" before lighting again, so that's why it doesn't come back on instantly. The fix is to either move the light to its own circuit, or bypass the ballast in the fixture and screw in a LED or CFL. I replaced the 175w mercury vapor light over my garage with a huge 65w CFL, not only does it not reset itself when I run a large motor, but it uses less electricity and puts out more light as well.

 

[cybrdyke]

I'm guessing the light in question is HID (metal halide perhaps)? It's the motor's inrush current dropping the voltage just low enough for a split second to extinguish the arc in the bulb. HID lights are not instant-on; they take a few minutes to "warm up" before lighting again, so that's why it doesn't come back on instantly. The fix is to either move the light to its own circuit, or bypass the ballast in the fixture and screw in a LED or CFL. I replaced the 175w mercury vapor light over my garage with a huge 65w CFL, not only does it not reset itself when I run a large motor, but it uses less electricity and puts out more light as well.

What he said ^^.
Except I would recommend just changing the whole arm to a new LED fixture.
Good luck
CD