Been on my list for a while - a quiet replacement for the noisy bathroom pull cord switch. If it came to it I could look into the kinetic/wireless type switches, although that'd be quite expensive and relatively involved. Or a PIR. But really a quiet pull cord would do. Any suggestions?
I've never understood why a lot of the modern pull switches for bathrooms make an *exceptionally* loud "clock-clonk" noise every time they are turned on or off. When we had some building work done and a new bathroom made, the electrician replaced an old and rather battered (but fairly quiet) pull switch with one with a power-assisted clonk. I know some of the noise is exacerbated by the switch being on a wooden batten in the ceiling rather than attached to a masonry or plasterboard wall. But a lot of it can be heard even with a "loose" switch before it's been mounted anywhere.
Is the noise "accidental" or is there some new building regulation that new switches must make a noise to prevent them being turned on/off surreptitiously?
It's the same with computer keyboards and mice. I have a new "silent" keyboard, but there's a loud drumming as the keys hit what I presume is a rubber noise-deadening pad, and the buttons on the mouse still make an audible click - not as bad as many, but still very irritating.
I've never understood why a lot of the modern pull switches for bathrooms make an *exceptionally* loud "clock-clonk" noise every time they are turned on or off. When we had some building work done and a new bathroom made, the electrician replaced an old and rather battered (but fairly quiet) pull switch with one with a power-assisted clonk. I know some of the noise is exacerbated by the switch being on a wooden batten in the ceiling rather than attached to a masonry or plasterboard wall. But a lot of it can be heard even with a "loose" switch before it's been mounted anywhere.
Is the noise "accidental" or is there some new building regulation that new switches must make a noise to prevent them being turned on/off surreptitiously?
It's the same with computer keyboards and mice. I have a new "silent" keyboard and mouse. It's a lot better than many, but there's still a loud drumming as the keys hit what I presume is a rubber noise-deadening pad, and the buttons on the mouse still make an audible click - not as bad as many, but still very irritating.
Well, when there is a heavy current involved (such as an instant heat shower), you've got a switch which will have to take 40 amps or more, so that will require some heavy-duty contacts and a pretty powerful spring to make sure make/break occur cleanly.
It's much less important with a light switch. I was looking at the same problem 20 years ago! In the end I decided that the easiest thing to do was get some wire-cutters rated for spring steel and cut a length off the light-switch spring. I think I might also have had to stretch what was left a bit so that it still operated correctly. It was many years ago, and I can't remember, but it's possible I tried to use the old switch's spring in the new switch, but it didn't fit.
Agreed: you want to move the contacts from fully separated to fully in contact (or vice versa) as fast as possible. But for a light switch, especially with modern low-current LED bulbs, there's not much current so much less chance of sparking at the changeover point.
I wonder if modern switches are rated for much higher currents (a rating which is almost never needed) whereas older switches were rated for lower current for lighting circuits and didn't need such a strong (and noisy) spring.
There was quite a long discussion about this on MSE, recently. Amazingly enough, it actually reached quite a helpful conclusion!
Is this for a light or for an electric shower?
If it's for a shower then it will be rated for high current and will generally make a bit of noise.
If it's for a light, then you may find that one with a low current rating like 5A will be fairly quiet. When I last changed mine the replacement one was rated at 16A and made quite a noise.
Thanks - looks like a wireless switch - about £50 I think, I'll take a proper look. Seems daft someone hasn't come up with a quiet option pull switch, but hey.
We have those same (h/d - noisy) pull switches in a few places and I have 'replaced' them with smart switches / PIR sensors via a d-i-y Home Automation solution.
For the kitchen, hall and landing they are all on PIR's and so very handy when carrying stuff up / down the stairs (laundry etc) or entering / leaving the kitchen whilst carrying plates etc.
With the kitchen PIR I have it set up as 'occupancy' and as yet, it's not gone off whilst anyone has been out there but they go off after 5 mins of no movement.
If you want to retain the existing bathroom lighting (it won't take 'smart' lamps etc) you can do so with a suitable (~£10) switch (that can be overridden with the existing switch).
Mines currently running on a Raspberry Pi with a £5 (ZigBee) dongle and the basics were very easy to set up.
My BIL had an occupancy sensor in the wet room they built when the MIL became less mobile and lived with them and I was always envious / fascinated with how 'efficient it was.However, I think if you sat on the loo it would switch off so I'm going to try putting a PIR in ours to see how 'good' it could be (see if it maintains the 'occupied' status when I'm in there reading). ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Not just showers. Not so long ago, bathroom lights were combined with radiant heaters.
I have fitted one of these:
If you buy the bulb and button separately they have ES, SES and GU10 bulbs, but no BC. You can pair multiple bulbs to the one button.
(for bonus points the bulb is enrolled in my Zigbee setup and acts as a powered repeater for other devices)
Theo
You just need to add a weight sensor to the seat ('strain gauge')...
Theo
LOL!
When we re-wired we put normal light switches out side the bathroom doors to avoid this problem
Jonathan
However in some (many?) cases the click has nothing to do with the switching. Our fairly new bathroom light switch does a load click when you pull it and only switches when you release the switch which you can do as gently and slowly as you like.
'loud', typical typo that *could* be misinterpreted. :-)
That's what we have done for the same reason. ;-)
I put ours where the bottom of the pull cord was and it comes very naturally to hand. It also means you can operate the switch with your elbow. ;-)
I bought 5 off the lamp and remote (E27) for £10 each pair.
And if you had their / a hub and / or app could also control them remotely and / or automate them. 'Turn off after one hour' or to go on / off when away are potential benefits / uses.
Cheers, T i m
Hehe.
Actually, I had considered the use of strain gauges for use under the doorstep as a proximity detector (and I've already made some scales with the beam type gauge), similar to my mates solution where the step 'rocks' slightly so he can hear someone stepping on it though the house. ;-)
Joking aside, having to turn the lights on / off as you use any place temporary soon becomes a right PITA, something that goes though my mind as I enter any room now that isn't 'automated'. I walk into a room and pause, wondering why the light hasn't already come on and then have to do it manually. How very last centaury! ;-)
One thing I'm trying to help a mate with is a remote sensor that replicates his electric meter LED flashes and transmits them inside his flat. He had one of the battery powered clamp-on gadgets but it failed but the transmitter part used to run for a very long time on batteries. I have an ESP32 node that uses WiFi to send pulse counts to Home Assistant but I can fit a power socket near the meter, he can't, and they aren't suitable for battery power.
So something that detects the optical pulses and relays them (legally) via RF and then he could use several solutions from there .
Back to the toilet light ... once everything is 'smart' it's so easy to make things do things with other things.
I wonder if you could set up a trigger that turned on the downstairs toilet light as a result of passing by the hall then kitchen PIR's quickly. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
And it would actually be pretty easy to do, especially if you could get a hollow seat with room to run the two sensor feed wires though. ;-)
You could also detect the settled weight and play personalised music. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
sounds like it's likely to get bogged-down in complexity
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