Does an automatic shutoff energy saver light switch exist?

Does an automatic shutoff energy saver light switch exist?

My parents always yelled at us to shut off our lights constantly and now I find myself constantly yelling at the kids to shut the lights off. I know it's a losing cause.

Maybe there is a better way?

Do they have automatic-shut-off light switches I can simply remove and replace my existing standard light switches is? Are they inexpensive enough to be practical?

Better yet, do reasonably priced light switches exist that automatically turn the lights on and off as you walk by? Do they also fit in the existing light switch boxes?

Please advise. Thanks

Reply to
Michael Balarama
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They work fine and the time left on after motion detected on most are variable.

LJ

Reply to
Old_Boat

Hi, Lots of choices. Timer based, motion sensor based, light based, etc. Also florescent light use lot less energy. Now you have this in many different light spectrum the intended use.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

They exist. And they exist in a wide price range from low-end units available at every big-box homecenter up to sophisticated high-end commercial units. I have a few low-end units, one in my garage, one in the entry hall from the garage, and one in the laundry room and have and no problem with any of them unless you include a seeming unwillingness to work with a CF-only load. The size is the same as a typical light dimmer and they fit fine in a standard box but be forewarned that they seem all to be compatible with "Decora" plates like you see with GFCI outlets, not regular toggle switch plates. Whether they are worthwhile depends on what your electricity costs, how often you leave the lights on in an unoccupied room, what the lighting load is, and what you have to pay to obtain and install the switch. I can&#39;t recall what I paid for my switches but it seems likely that it must be < $20 given how cheap I am.

Reply to
John McGaw

Heat lamp timer.

Reply to
Steve Barker

My foray in this started when I figured out my wife and kids were using the refrigerator as a night light in the kitchen. I took a garden varirety motion detector head and hooked it up to a small light in the kitchen (now rope light in the toe kicks and over the uppers.) As the idea caught on I added motion sensors and occupancy sensors. Now the lights follow you around the house, inside and out and go out shortly after you leave, Don&#39;t let those PAR38 flood lights confuse you. These can be hooked up to any sort of light you want. For "walking around" light a fairly small amount of indirect lighting is plenty. Spend your "watts" on task light where you need it. BTW the difference between a motion sensor and an occupancy sensor is a motion sensor is a "one shot" that times out and has to be retriggered. An occupancy sensor gets retriggered on the fly and will not time out until there is no more motion over the given period..

They do have Decora occupancy sensors.

Reply to
gfretwell

Shouldn&#39;t you be able to detect a light-on event, and stitch in an accompanying light-off event for ten minutes later using some sort of home automation controller?

Michael Balarama wrote:

Reply to
Greg

Reply to
BruceR

Take a photocell and connect it to a timer, and connect the timer to a very loud alarm that can be heard for miles, such as the ones that cities use for tornados. It works like this. The photocell senses the light which turns on the timer. If the timer runs for lets say 10 minutes, it flips on the alarm. That alarm will deafen anyone nearby, and not only the kids know they are about to get the worst spanking in history, but you are alerted that you need to arm the electronic, remote controlled spanking paddle, which of course has electronic sensors built in, so that it delivers the most painful spanking but without leaving any permanent scars or bruises. When all is complete and done, consider this: The electricity saved by shutting off the lights is used to spank the hell out of the kid that left the switch on. This is the ultimate in justice.

I must say this. Since your parents had to yell at you for not turning off lights, and your kids are doing it now, this proves it&#39;s hereditary. You passed this harmful and wasteful gene onto your children. Remember this as you spank them, and be sure you place yourself in the spanking machine after the kids are well done or beaten raw. You too deserve a major whalloping.

Tester

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Reply to
tester

I have a timer switch

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that I got at Lowe&#39;s that works fine with a CF-only load. It does require a neutral connection.

I wish I could find a motion-detector switch that would work here. The ones I have are 2-wire , and don&#39;t work with the CFs.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Replacing the bulbs with LED-bulbs would drop the energy consumption low enough so that whether you turn the lights on or off would have no real effect on your bill.

Reply to
Goedjn

? ?????? ??? ?????? news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I have a better solution.The OP would hire me to brainwash his kids.I could drone on and on for hours, to persuade them on the value of money, and the singularity of electricity.I could accompany my (deliberately) boring speech with scientific facts.Even if you include the flight cost from Greece to USA, in the long run you&#39;ll save enough. Come on, why not shut the lights off yourself;-)That&#39;s what I am doing, anyway.

-- Tzortzakakis Dimitrios major in electrical engineering mechanized infantry reservist dimtzort AT otenet DOT gr

Reply to
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios

Someone has been spending way too much time watching Howard Stern. :^)

Reply to
Robert L Bass

What is a CF only load?

Reply to
Got Chalk

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

I have one of these deals as well and it&#39;s a bit annoying that it won&#39;t work with bulbs that are too low a wattage (as in CF&#39;s).

Reply to
Todd H.

Reply to
Bennett Price

You know, some people want to make that spanking thing illegal. Maybe they have a plan to control all of the juvenile delinquents that will be created by prohibiting parents from disciplining their children properly.

I have a question about turning lights on and off. I have been told that leaving a light on maximizes its life and turning it on and off frequently will shorten its life. Is this true? My background is in transformers and it is better to leave them running than to shut them off. Of course, we&#39;re talking about several thousand volts versus a

120V light bulb. Thanks.

Steve Lockridge Manager Alfa Transformer Company

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Reply to
Steve Lockridge

A tungsten filament lamp almost always expires the last time you turn it on. (Sort of like why you always find something in the last place you look.) The current surge in a cold filament and rapid expansion causes the failure. The total time before this last gasp is probably about the same even if the lamp is cycled on and off.

So if it were left burning, it&#39;s total hours would be longer than if you had not turned it off, and then on, the last time.

Fluorescent lamps rely on a starter mechanism which degrades with use. They may benefit from fewer on-off cycles.

As an aside, in the UK and other 240V lighting countries, an expiring lamp will often cause a large enough "plasma arc" to take out the circuit protection. Hence the lamps commonly include an "internal fuse". This not needed at 120V.

Reply to
VWWall

Read "The Great Internet Light Bulb Book" at...

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snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Reply to
Dave Houston

Strange thing few people seem to realize about most incandescents - a cold start does not cause much actual wear, but kills a filament that would have survived a little longer if it was not turned off.

The usual cold start burnout is from a temperature overshoot in a thin spot in the filament. The thin spot is a hot spot, and on a cold start the thin spot can overshoot in temperature before the remainder of the filament has warmed up. Resistance of the filament material varies directly with temperature, so a thin spot overshoots in temperature from the current surge before the remainder of the filament has full resistance and the current drops to normal.

However, a thin spot is is hotter than the remainder of the filament even during steady operation (but to a lesser extent than during a cold start). The hotspot will evaporate faster and get thinner at a faster rate, making it hotter and thinner. This downward spiral accelerates in a manner worse than exponentially. By the time the thin spot cannot survive a cold start, the filament&#39;s hours are numbered!

The bulbs also suffer actual wear from starting. How much life is lost varies with the type of ballast and starting means and this has been improved over the decades. I am under the impression that a typical figure is 10 minutes of life lost per start. As for how much off time is needed before the electricity saved from turning off a fluorescent exceeds the fraction of the bulb&#39;s cost associated with life reduction of a start - this varies with electricity cost, bulb (lamp, tube, whatever) cost, and ballast and starting method, but is typically a couple minutes for 4-footers, ballpark of 10-30 minutes for lower wattages 9-22 watts, and ballpark of 30-60 minutes for wattages

8 watts or less.

My experience in the USA is that 120V gas-filled incandescent lamps often have an internal fuse. In the USA that bright blue flash from a cold start burnout is this "plasma arc". At 120V that arc tends to die at the next end of a half cycle and some incandescents lacked this fuse and usually got away with it, but sometimes things got nastier and one thing that sometimes happened (I would guess mainly when this fuse was lacking) was that wires between the glass bulb and the base would either fuse explosively or vaporize adjacent glue - and the glass bulb pops from the base! These "burnout arcs" sometimes also blow dimmers with the large amount of current that they sometimes draw even at 120V.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

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