Outdoor Light Timer

October 21st, 2012

Hey guys!  Hope you’re all doing well.  We had another not so productive weekend, only got a couple small things done.  Small steps though, right?  This week, I’m hoping to get to fix some cancerous rust on my Jeep and maybe get some more work on the garage shoe rack.  Yesterday I installed a light switch timer for our outside garage lights.  We discussed these very lights a few months ago when we replaced the regular filament bulbs with LEDs.LED-garage-lights-1024x682

 

I bought this outdoor light timer switch from one of the home improvement stores MONTHS ago… maybe even a year ago.  As part of the effort to clean this garage mess up, I finally installed it.  It took about 30 minutes.  If you’ve never done electrical work before, I don’t recommend you start with this one.  It’s not overly difficult, it’s just a little different than most single pole switches or outlets that you may already have in your home.digital-light-timer-1024x682

 

It’s also a little more difficult to work on boxes that have two switches in it.  The wires can get kinda crowded.  It went in okay though.  No major problems.  The switch cost around $20-$30 and can probably be installed by a licensed electrician for maybe $150 more.light-timer-switch-1024x682

installed-light-timer-switch-1024x682

 

If you haven’t noticed, these switches are programmable.  Once the power was back on at the breaker, I set the time and then entered the schedule for the lights to turn on and off automatically.  No more leaving it on all the time and no more having to go out into the garage and turn it on and off.  The best part about these switches is its added security.  Even if you’re not home, the lights will activate, making it look like you’re home.  Plus, this particular model has a “random” mode that will turn the lights on and off occasionally.  That’s perfect if you’re going to be away for a few days or weeks.  Even though they’re programmed, you can still tap its pad and control it manually.

It’s a small project, but I’m happy to have finally wrapped it up.

Any small projects hanging over your head at the moment?

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