Is there any SAFE way to install a switch like the Leviton Decora
5618-2 or 5628-2 that illuminates when ON without needing a neutral wire attached to the pilot light?I have a switch in my garage that controls the outside lights, and my wife is continually forgetting to turn it off when she comes home after dark ... maybe a lighted switch would help her remember!
i had this trouble with a pole lamp.
Tried motion sensors, ahh poor operation:(
Finally put pole on a timer with light sensor.
it powers on at 8am, and off at mid nite.
any dark periods in between the lap is on.
you might also consider a key fob lamp. like a garage door remote it turns lights on when ypu push button and off after a length of time you adjust. sometimes built in garage door openers the light control can go where you want.
a neighbor has one he drives up and his home is instantly illuminated
Not that I know of.
Perhaps put the lights on a photo-control and leave the switch on?
Assuming you want to leave the light on for her (instead of motion detectors), you have a few options.
First, as mentioned, put in a timer so the lights go off at a certain time.
Second, use a timer like in a hotel bathroom so when you turn them on, you turn it on for a certain amount of time, say 2 hours.
Thirdly, plug a radio in on the same circuit and put in on an annoying station so the only way she can turn it off is to turn off the switch.
Finally, if that's her biggest flaw, consider yourself lucky and pay the electric bill without grumbling.
No. And using a ground wire/grounded box isn't a good/safe/up-to-code solution.
You can get a "lights up when off" switch that doesn't use a neutral (it uses a trickle current across the filament of the light bulbs to get to the neutral).
In addition to the timer solutions mentioned, you could use X-10. Replace switch with an X-10 swtich. Then have a second controller send an X-10 OFF event on that address every night at whenever the light should be off by. You don't need to ever have it come on automatically if you don't want, just off (if the light is already off when the OFF command comes, the command is ignored).
-Tim
Have you wife paint one side of the switch with the reddest fingernail polish she has so that the part that shows when on is red and the rest is not painted. If the light is left on, it will show red.
It's pretty easy to use the existing light wiring to chase in a neutral for your switch. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it should take an electrician all of about half an hour to achieve.
Not so easy if the original wiring is stapled Romex behind finished walls...
-Tim
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