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I installed a dusk to dawn sensor on my porch light but the porch overhang and surrounding trees prevent enough light during the day to turn it off.

Does anyone know if there is some kind of extender or even a base with a timer similar to what you use indoors where I can specify the time?

Thanks

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    I have mounted the sensor outside the porch area. Mine had access above so I routed the cable in the attic. You could do the same with conduit but it would not look as nice.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 14:24

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Did you leave it energized continuously for 48 hours before condemning it? Many light sensors these days have a learning feature, where they know what "24 hours" is, and measure the brightest and dimmest times of day reagardless of solarization in absolute terms... and learn to turn the light on for the dimmest 8-14 hours. If your sensor doesn't have this feature, get one that does.

Unfortunately people who don't realize this feature exists, get impatient with them and interrupt their power so frequently that they never get a chance to store 48 hours worth of data. (the memory isn't non-volatile; NVRAM costs money, and the chip that does this feature wholesales for like 14 cents. It's in a lot of even low-end sensors.)

I have installed a $6 Walmart-tier sensor in a very shaded location on the back of a porch because that is where the receptacle is... The first day it was on continuously, but I left it alone; 48 hours later it was acting exactly right.

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    I had no clue about that. I'll give that a try. Thanks!
    – slock
    Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 18:09
  • Unfortunately this did not work. I'm guessing it's just to dark under the porch for the sensor to work properly.
    – slock
    Commented Aug 3, 2017 at 23:06

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