choosing lighting timers

Lights left on are a common energy drain, and timers a way of avoiding it. Lighting timers are used to control when and how long lights stay on.

Uses

Timers can be excellent for your front porch (in order to turn a light on and off at dusk) or to command the outdoor lights, even if it is just a light fixture in our backyard, primarily for security. By responding automatically to the presence of people, occupancy sensors are more flexible than timers, and are a better solution in many indoor lighting cases. But there also situations when prearranged times to turn lights on or off are the only goal, making timers the right choice.

But they cab also be useful and used in indoor applications like turning the lights on and off randomly, also for security reasons.

Timers and outdoor lighting

Timers are largely used to turn on and off outdoor lights. The inconvenience in such cases is that you may have to reset the timers seasonally, in accordance with the variation in the length of day/night.

But even this inconvenience can now be overcome with some "intelligent" timers. Honeywell, for instance, has a timer with a mode that responds and adjust automatically the timer to daylight variations.Lights left on can be an energy drain. And that’s when timers and occupancy sensors make sense: automatically switching or dimming those lights, saves energy and money.

Timers and security

Because timers turn lights on and off at predefined times, they can be used to give the appearance of human presence in an unoccupied building - a valuable safety precaution in vacation times and whenever homeowners are away.

This feature can be activated - in some timers - randomly, in order to better simulate a presence in home.

Choosing a timer

When buying a timer, consider carefully its features, according to your needs. They vary a lot. Pay attention to...

- The type of lamps the timer works with: incandescent, halogen, compact fluorescent (CFL), LED (the two last ones are the best for energy savings).

- The type of programming: 7-day programming? Number of events per week?

- Modes of operation;

- Warranties: often 3-years, for high-quality timers

- Ease of programming, ease of overriding the programs and ease of installation: very similar models may differ in features like wattage requirements or neutral-wiring requirements, which is important in installation.

- Warnings: some modern timers can emit warnings. They can, for instance, emit a one-minute warning, signaling that lights (or a fan or other cooling or heating equipment) are about to turn off.

Specific features like batteries, backlit display, a night light mode (for easy reading in dark areas), a LED indicating the load status (on or off) can also be considered.

Modes of operation

Typical timers have two modes of operation: manual and automatic.

The manual mode isn’t truly important: it’s just a typical on/off switch. The automatic mode is the key one: it turns lights on/off according to your own programmed times, or, say, at sunrise and sunset, or according to other criteria, often in a weekly base.

Prices and Manufacturers

Honeywell has excellent timers. Stanley is another good manufacturer with excellent models. Leviton has also many lighting timers models, as well as Intermatic.

Prices vary a lot, but run mostly in the $10 to $30 range.

location

Timers are usually located at a light switch, at the wall plug… or in a light socket.

Timers and other lighting controls

Timers are largely used in combination with other lighting controls (or included in other controls). In such cases, compatibility between controls is crucial, and may demand equipment from the same manufacturer.

See: Lighting Dimmers, Dimmer Switches, Whole House Lighting Controls