Hi,
Could someone suggest a good solution for reminding my family members that the lights are on in a particular room. For example, if I could have an LED light in a decora format I would be more than happy to run the necessary wires.
Thanks,
Aaron
Put the switch outside the room?
A little more info on the use and dynamics of the 'particular room' would be nice...
One solution, and I'm sure there are many others, is a timer... perhaps something similar to the ones listed below under 'countdown timer switches'.
Or a motion detector. Common in institutional washroom apps.
Hi, That is what I installed in our master bedroom walk-in closet. Wife used to keet lights on frequently.
Constant, annoying buzzer any time light is on.
If they can't see that the room lights are on, how do you expect them to notice your indicator light?
I'd never thought of a motion detector for closet or room lights. Makes sense, though. Thanks for a great idea.
Years ago, my Dad noticed it was a total PIA to check see if the garage door was up. It's not a high crime neighborhood, but he does like to keep the garage door down. He ran a wire from the light that was already on the garage door opener. And put an indictor bulb over the garage door button which was inside the house. So, now when the garage door is open, the indicator light goes on.
Perhaps one answer to the OP and the "light on" is to run a wire, and put a compact fluorescent bulb in the hallway.
on 9/26/2009 9:13 AM (ET) Stormin Mormon wrote the following:
I don't know how that works since most garage opener lights only stay on for a few minutes after door operation, whether the door was opened or closed. One would have to notice that light only within those few minutes.
Two points.
If you are using electrcity for heat during the winter (as we do) doesn't much matter? The 'wasted light' merely becomes heat/warmth inside the house.
Another solution is to hook up a door bell transformer to the 'offending' light. Then run low voltage wires to wherever you want and connect to a small 12 or 6 volt bulb and/or LED. If that's on the errant light is on! That cost however of around, say, $20* will buy many, many hours of electricity use.
But what, really, is the problem? Even a 100 watt light left on for say ten hours electricity only costs about 10 cents!
Twenty dollars* will buy the electrcity for one 100 watt light bulb for 2000 hours. 80+ days.
Or ten 100 watt light bulbs for 200 hours.
Hard to know why or what, apart from the general principle of conserve and do not waste, the objective is? It DOES come to mind here when you drive down a street at say 1.00 AM and there is someone's house with six or seven outside lights on all the time. It might be better to have motions-sensor lights and have them connected to an alarm (Hey the the outside lights just triggered! Is that the wind blowing, a local cat prowling, or someone snooping around?).
BTW neighbour asked me why our motion sensor light over garage door was on. It is normally off and triggers as he walks up driveway. Just realized that we had a couple of short power interruptions during some very windy weather and when the power came back on the motion sensor had reacted as it should and came on permanently! Realised that having to reset the m.wave and the PC had been indication that there had been at least one short interruption! Very unusual here.
VERY old opener. Though, perhaps it does have a timer. I'm not sure. In any case, it's better than no light.
We have a house rule. $2 fee for leaving a room with each light on. First month collected $72. Second month $8. After that, nothing at all. We really don't need a bunch of gizmo gadgets, just a little behavior modification.
The light on my garage door opener only stays on for a couple minutes, so that won't work. An open garage is an invitation for theft--a "nice" neighborhood makes no difference, it may be worse. I was thinking about some kind of switch, maybe a mercury switch to trip a low voltage DC circuit.
Whoa. Now we are talking garage door openers? The OPs question was, I thnk, about leaving lights switched on?
"A door is ajar. Caution. A door is ajar"
No. A door is a door. A jar is a jar.
A car is a car until it turns into a driveway.
That of course depends on what kind of ligts they are. For example, if they are typical recessed lights in a cathedral ceiling or in a ceiling with attic space above, very little of the heat is going into the house. And even if it is going in the house, it only helps during heating season and has the oppostie effect during cooling season. Plus, however much energy we all waste in small amounts does add up to a lot of extra fuel burned in most cases.
I'm assuming he means that he wants an indicator in a room other than where the lights are. But we don't know because there isn't enough info, like are the lights in question on one switch or table lamps? He could put an indicator light from radio shack into a blank cover plate. If the indicator is going to be any distance from the switch running the wire could be a bitch. And like you said, there is no guarantee that anyone will pay any attention to it anyway.
I was looking for a simple one pole wall switch for my garage where the switch would light if the switch was on so I could see it in the laundry room. I couldn't find one at HD, Lowes, etc. Everyone they had was designed to light when it was off so you could see it in the dark. I'm sure somone makes it, but I eventually just forgot about it.
Excellent way to go. And several other ways to do that. Please write what works for you, so we can learn.
Think about what you just typed, above. If the light is off in the switch, the garage light is on. The dog that didn't bark, etc.
But ISTR the suckers glowed all the time, not when they were switched. Maybe the brightness changed or something. My family's 1966 folly had several of them, but I haven't seen one in many years.
-- aem sends...
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