Tuesday, September 18, 2007

INSTEON SwitchLinc Relay Countdown Timer


We are trying to conserve electricity where ever we can.  We have switched all of our light bulbs, that aren't contolled by dimmer, to compact florescent bulbs.  We also turn off all unnecessary lights.


The lights that have been usually left on, are the one down to and in the garage.  Since we normally keep the garage door closed, I tend to not notice that the light is on, so the light gets left on.  The other problem is that when we are rushing out in the morning, the lights get left on


I wanted to find a solution that would automatically turn off these lights, but I also wanted the light switch to look like a regular light switch.  Unfortunatelly, the motion sensing light switch that we used in our previous house wouldn't work with florescent light bulbs.  Also, many of the timer light switches aren't as easy to use as regular switches.





I found the INSTEON Switchlinc Relay Countdown Timer, and it does exactly what we want.  When you press the upper part of the light switch, the light will stay on for 15 minutes.  For every subsequent press, the light will stay on for an interval of an hour.  (Obviously, you can turn off the light by pressing the lower part of the switch.)


Unfortunately, I should have read the instructions closer, as there is one thing that it doesn't do.  One of the lights is controlled by a three way switch.  With the Switchlinc, only one of the switches actually controls the load.  The other switch sends an INSTEON signal to the primary switch. 


The problem is that, when you use the Switchlinc Timer switch to control another switch/device, when the timer fires, the load is not turned off.

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