Home Repair forum - News about timers

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News about timers

2008-02-18, 9:25 pm

I havent' read every day for about 6 months, but until then we had a
lot of posts about timers that don't work on fluorscent fixtures. My
apologize if someone else has already posted an update.

I was in Walmart today to buy something I can't find anywhere else***.
I haven't looked for wall timers elsehwere but they had them (mostly
for ceiling fixtures) that the box says work on either tungsten or
fluorescent (and I would bet, a combination of the two.) 18$ and 20$,
One has the same program for each day and the other has that, m-f,
sa-su, and M-Sa, it seems. Both in white.

BTW, before I went on a very long trip last November, I tried to make
my home look occupied and put in a timer for the kitchen ceiling
light, but I forgot about the compact fluorescent and the thing was
funny. It was almost ok in the on setting but it had a flicker. In the
off setting it was off 80% of the time but also had a dim flicker.
But I ran out of time, and that's the way I left it, and so far after
2 months away and one month back, it's still that way, and neither
bulb has worn out.

I also had trouble with the car alarm, and was supposed to install a
new home alarm before I left, but neither job got finished. But
nobody bothered my car or my house anyhow. The car alarm started
working again almost on its own.

***They no longer sell the Leviton "current tap" a little box that
plugs into an outlet and a plug plugs into it, with a toggle switch on
top. And so far, I can only find the GE 3-prong version at Wal-mart.
It looks much bigger than the old one, but each dimension is only
about 1/8" bigger.

2008-02-20, 3:25 am

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:52:47 -0500, mm <NOPSAMmm2005@bigfoot.com>
wrote:

>I havent' read every day for about 6 months, but until then we had a
>lot of posts about timers that don't work on fluorscent fixtures. My
>apologize if someone else has already posted an update.
>
>I was in Walmart today to buy something I can't find anywhere else***.
>I haven't looked for wall timers elsehwere but they had them (mostly
>for ceiling fixtures) that the box says work on either tungsten or
>fluorescent (and I would bet, a combination of the two.) 18$ and 20$,
>One has the same program for each day and the other has that, m-f,
>sa-su, and M-Sa, it seems. Both in white.

These are not very good for actual use. They have the Brinks brand,
and seem designed mostly for timed lighting, not manual use, even
though they have a manual switch. If you go into the room when the
light isn't on, to turn it on, you have to open a snap door, push a
little button, and close the door or it looks bad. Same thing when
you leave.

OTOH, I went to Home Depot and the brand they had still didn't work
with fluorescents. They do have a model now that has a timer, and
also adjusts for sundown and daylight savings time. I guess I'll wait
until someone has one with fluorescent, a good on/off, and sundown.

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