Remote and/or delay-off switches

[dpb]

I've looked some but haven't found what really catches my eye...

I'd like a "delay off" for the barn overhead light so in dark can turn it off and have it last long enough to get to the house before going off

-- this is only some uncounted number of seconds, generally, altho since occasionally may stop along the way for another minor put away chore or the like 30-sec to a minute may be more like it.

I've seen some digital w/ a few pushbuttons to select the delay but they all start at like an hour and go up (ones I've seen, anyway, surely there's some w/ more granularity???). Or, there's the mechanical like the old stove mechanical timers--would work but a little annoying to have to set rather than just throw the switch.

So, anybody got suggestions?

Or, the real cat's meow would be to be able to turn it on/off from the house. Dad wired in remote locations to the garages for the house spots but didn't run anything across the driveway and I'm not prepared for doing so at the present time. Eventually, maybe...

So, is there some reasonably inexpensive alternative there, maybe, I've just not run across?

[gfretwell]

There are plenty of timers that will run in increments of 5 minutes or so

[gfretwell]

If you want multi point switching, X-10 might be an option for you. You might be able to find some cheap used stuff on Ebay or just buy a starter kit with a controller and a couple modules on the net. They even make regular switches that fit in a device box.

[tom]

I've used spring-loaded timers, as suggested above, for years for various applications. Leaving a porch light on when departing the house, running a fan(when hooked up to an outlet) to dry a damp\musty basement and my current application is on a bathroom exhaust fan. The air is frequently not cleared after use so leaving the fan on for 5-10 minutes after departing is much appreciated by next user.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I have one wall switch with SMALL green led indicator being all the time(easy to spot in the dark) it has 5 push button for off,delay of 5 min.-10-15-30. Luton brand.

[trader_4]

I second the Maestro recommendation. Have them here. They aren't cheap, but he only needs one. To get the delay turn off he wants, you just push the switch like you would to just turn it off, but *hold * it. A series of LEDS on the side start to light one at a time, indicating how long a delay you'll get. The longer you hold, the more LEDs light, the longer the delay. Holding it for maybe 5 secs will give you about 30 secs, so it's easy to do.

[DerbyDad03]

Just keep in mind that X-10 can be, shall we say, finicky.

I tested some X-10 at my house to see if it would work for something that my elderly Dad wanted to do at his house. After finally getting it to work in the first place, and then after a couple of weeks of testing, I decided against it. I lived with my finicky set up for a year - light fixtures on motion detectors than wouldn't turn off, even in bright sunlight; modules that wouldn't work in GFI receptacles, etc. I just recently took out the motion sensors and control module and installed 2 off-the-shelf motion sensing light fixtures. I left the X-10 switches in for the dimming function that they add.

On the other hand, I have an X-10 motion sensor in my basement for when I come in the back door and it has worked flawlessly for over a year - after adding a incandescent night to the set-up so the module would work with a fluorescent tube light fixture.

I also used the modules I had purchased last Christmas to control the lights on the tree and around the windows inside the house. I used the buttons on an X-10 motion sensor as the master switch for all the lights. However, I had to find specific receptacles in the house so that all three control modules would turn on and off consistently when the button was pushed.

Like I said, finicky.

[DerbyDad03]

...snip...

I assume the Maestro switch requires a neutral. The Levition count down timer I just installed for a bathroom fan/heater unit does.

I like it better than the Maestro because it has preset buttons for various time delays. No need to hold it until it's set where you want it. The Leviton unit comes in various time delay options. I chose the 10-20-30-60 minute model but I believe they go as low as 5 minutes and up to 12(?) hours. HD probably doesn't carry all models.

[DerbyDad03]

Having just installed some timer switches for a bathroom fan/heater unit, I thought I'd toss out this caveat...

Many of the timer switches require a neutral. An electronic timer installation might not be as easy as just swapping out the old switch for a new one if all you have is a switch leg at the current switch location. A spring loaded timer should work in all cases.

[trader_4]

Finicky is a good word. Craziest thing I saw with it was where it was working close to perfect for a couple years, then all of a sudden, it would not turn on a light that used one of the plug-in modules. So, figured it was the module and replaced it. Still wouldn't work. Nor could I get it to work with swapping modules, trying any of the nearby outlets, including ones on different breakers, etc. And nothing had been changed in the house, no new appliances, moving stuff, or anything like that.

One big problem is that to make it work it should have an amplifier bridge at the panel to bridge the two legs. But they don't tell you that. In the above case, I even tried using a cap, which while not amplifying, will help bridge it. Didn't do a thing.

Also factor in that AFAIK, nothing is going into new X-10 products, it's just the same cheap crap from a decade+ ago. Like you say, for $15 it can be OK to try for some simple projects but no way I'd use it as the basis for a more extensive home automation project.