A Little Job

In the backyard way up in a tall tree is an outside light with a photosensor on it which turns it on every night and keeps the boggymen away. The people we bought the house from said how reliable this light was - it has been up there for 10 years and it faithfully came on every night. So two days after we get down here it stops coming on at night. It's way up in a tree so to check it out I have to first buy a 24 ft extension ladder. It turns out that the light uses a high pressure sodium lamp so I take the bulb out and for $21 I buy another bulb.
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Wow, that was too easy, it's fixed since it came on that night. But three days later it's out again. So up the ladder I go again and I change the photosensor on it. That was only $8 so not bad - but it doesn't come on. There is a ballast in it but I'd have to take the light down and take it apart to get to it so I opt for the easy way and say maybe the bulb I bought wasn't good. To check that out I buy another bulb and try it in place of the first - didn't fix it - returned the bulb - found that Lowes sells the entire fixture for $36 - Took the old fixture down and replaced it with a new one and everything is finally working. Only five trips to Home Depot and Lowes and it's fixed. If I save the extra new bulb and photosensor for 10 years and I'll have all the parts to go through the repair again for free.

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