Lights mysteriously turning off..

[Bobby Boucher]

Sigh.. So.. according to my temp/rh logger, my lights turned off at 10pm last night, and turned themselves back on around 6am. They should have been running 9pm-9am.

2 month old digital intermatic which has ran flawlessly so far, no loose connections, no flipped breakers, month old bulbs, new enough magnetic ballasts.. kinda worried at this point that something like this might be indicative of old or bad wiring.. Nothing else in the house seemed to be effected. Any guesses? Trouble shooting advice?

 

[justanotherbozo]

...any chance it's the logger with the problem? ...maybe giving you wrong info?

peace, bozo

 

[Bobby Boucher]

That was my first thought, but the graph is pretty clearly indicative of lights out.

 

[Bud Green]

I'd re-check the settings on that digital timer...or determine if your entire house lost power..

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Checked timer settings, all appliances still held time and settings, veg tent stayed on.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

FWIW, the two lights in question are 2x600s on a dedicated circuit.

 

[Bud Green]

possibly sounds like your magnetic ballasts overheated and shut off..??
when they cooled down they re-started...
do they have a reset button on them?
best I can offer...doesn't sound like your house wiring..

 

[Floridian]

Get a mechanical Intermatic little gray box and set and forget,once you have ruled out everything else,I just don't trust digital timers especially for anything over 1K watts

 

[chris harris]

Had some cheap bulbs do something similar to me. If you got some spares, throw them in and see if your problem goes away.

 

[AvidLerner]

digital timers are the worst for high power lighting. At the most 200w @ 1.5 amp. For what you are using you should be using solid state relays with a mechanical timer circuit to handle the switch and load currents. other poster got it right it overheated the contacts fell off, after cooling reconnected again. that was how long it took them to cool off. think about that for a minute. They should have cooled more quickly than 8 hours. a possible fire could occur from that setup.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

Are the bulbs new? If not, you need to replace them. Common occurance with old worn out bulbs.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Thanks guys. I'll just ditch the digital and go mechanical again. Seems a little bit suspicious how both ballast overheated and then fired up simultaneously, but I'll rule out one thing at a time, starting with the timer. Thanks again.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Are the bulbs new? If not, you need to replace them. Common occurance with old worn out bulbs.

Bulbs are less than 8 weeks old.