Timers for outdoor lights???

[tiggerlover]

Do they make such a thing as outdoor lights that are on sensors for light and dark? Or is it possible to put a timing mechanism on outdoor lights? I know this probably sounds like a dumb question, but I really am clueless.

 

[clh2]

They definitely make both. I know I have seen them for the home market (as opposed to industrial which they also sell). For example - a quick internet search brought up: light sensitive switches. I do not know if these are for the home market, or for industrial purposes. They also make a variety of switches on timers. We've got one, and they sell them at any good harware store.

 

[Tracey1974]

We had a dawn to dusk timer thingee for our Christmas lights- they sell them at Home Depot

 

[laurajetter]

For Christmas we got my dad one of those post lanterns for him to install out next to the driveway. We got it from Home Depot in the back of the light section. Right next to the lamp we bought was some kind of attachment that was light sensitive so the lights will come on automatically when it starts to get dark out and go out once dawn approaches. I don't remember how it attached, but they do have things like that.

If I were you, I would stop in Home Depot in the lighting section and tell an employee what you're looking for to see if they have one for the specific type of outdoor light you need it for. They should be able to help you!

hth

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We bought some at Christmas from Walmart--

You can set it to come on at dusk and off at dawn...OR turn it on say at 6pm and set it for however many hours...it goes off and comes back on the same time next night.

We used them at Fort Wilderness this weekend and they worked great for that as well so we didn't come back to a dark camper.

 

[fan_of_small_world]

Are you talking about your porch and/or garage lights? In our old house my DH got a timer (from Lowes or HD) that replaced the switch by the front door that controlled these lights. It went on at dusk and off at dawn, and once you entered the time it accounted for changes in sundown/sunup as well as daylight savings.

 

[SleepyMom]

If you are talking about one to control outside lights, like the garage and front door, we have one.

We always turned our lights on at night and off the next morning, but since DH goes to work so early he would leave them on for me to turn off. Well, I, 9 out of 10 times would forget and he would do it when he came home for lunch So we called our electrician and had him order one so we wouldn't have to remember, plus it is nice for when we are out of town.

He replaced the switch closet to the front door that we used to use to control the lights with the timer, we can adjust the time to anything we want and voila, no more remembering if we need to turn the lights off. The brand is Intermatic, I have no idea if it is a good one or not, but it works fine for us and it's been in for just over a year. Hope this helps.

 

[rkrivas]

I think you can get either a timer where you set when the lights come on or off; or there are light sensor outdoor light fixtures where the lights will come on and off depending upon the outdoor light. We've used the timers for our outdoor Christmas lights and we use the light sensors for the light fixtures that are on our garage.

 

[Imzadi]

Target sells solar lights that stick into the ground around your garden or walkway. After charging all day from the sun, they turn on by themselves all night & stay on till morning. But they don't use up your electricity. It's nice to have a little light on all the time.

For security purposes by the front or back door, you can get a floodlight with both a light sensor AND a motion sensor. So it stays off during the day, but comes on at night only if someone comes in range of the sensor. Then it stays on for like 5 minutes.

These are great for the backyard, where no one goes. If the light turns on, you know someone is back there. You can set the sensor so it doesn't go on if something as small as a dog crosses in front of it. Otherwise, you can leave the power on all the time & forget about it.