Question about the Mains Plug In Socket Timer Switch clock

[manyaonisland]

Hello helpful people out there!

I am looking forward to some guidance before purchasing one of these.

As me and my wife both has late night shift we come back home late in the night. I want to switch the lights on and off automatically to create the illusion that house is occupied to deter the unwanted guests.

I am planning to buy Mains Plug In Socket Timer Switch clock which can let time come on automatically on the set time. The description says that this can be programmed for 7 days which I think what it means is one can have different settings / day of week.

My question is would this continue to operate on the same set time in following week as well or will this needs reprogramming? So let us say I out the light on at 5 PM to 8 PM on Mon-fri.. will it come on the same time the next week as well ?
Also it says that it uses internal battery to maintain clock. It sounds good but doesn’t that mean that it all will stop once the battery is drained or does it charge itself when it is in socket?

Please help me clear my doubts..

Thanks a ton in advance

Regards,
Manya..

 

[macfudd]

My question is would this continue to operate on the same set time in following week as well or will this needs reprogramming? So let us say I out the light on at 5 PM to 8 PM on Mon-fri.. will it come on the same time the next week as well

Yes it will follow the same programme week in week out.Remember to alter the time of day on it when the clocks change.

Also it says that it uses internal battery to maintain clock. It sounds good but doesn’t that mean that it all will stop once the battery is drained or does it charge itself when it is in socket?

The battery is there so that if you move it to a different socket you don`t have to reprogramme it,battery life is usually about a week and yes it does recharge,but like all batteries eventually it will lose it`s chargeability.

 

[manyaonisland]

Thanks a lot for help and advice. So good news is that battery charges when it is plugged in ... yeah understand about the finite battery life. Have to live with that!

 

[Mickymoody]

Had one of these timers, and rather than a boiler timer, seemed more unreliable, until it burned out...good job we caught it, otherwise a fire would ensue.

Also had a remote trip, switch off at standby, and everything is switched off, that blew up.

Additional devices seem crude, basic devices, that simply don't work, in my experience.

 

[manyaonisland]

my plan is to put the energy saver lamps on the timer? i hope it can cope up with those if not the boiler switch!

the last thing i want it to blow up when we are not around....

can someone confirm they have these and fine for lights please? i need to make a decision and i am worried after Mickymoody's post above !!

 

[Burnerman]

Go ahead and use your timer - the electricity consumption of your energy lamps will be far below the switching capacity of the timer.
As for the choice of one, I tend to avoid anything made in China, if possible!
John

 

[JohnD]

I use timed table lamps with energy saving bulbs on the landing, hall, living room and spare rooms, where they go on and off a few times during the evening. The stairs are always lit at night, which one day might avoid an accident. No need to remember to put them on or off when we're away. The living room is set to about the times we're actually about, whether we're in or not. At Tesco you can usually pick up CFLs for 10p, and they are very cheap to run. I prefer the bulb-shaped ones to the sticks.

I actually prefer the segmented disc timers that rotate like a clock. They have actual metal contacts and no electronics. Only trouble is they need resetting in the rare event of a power cut.

cheap and simple

like me

 

[manyaonisland]

Thanks Burnerman & JohnD for your comments

John, re: the segmented disc timers that rotate like a clock

does they also work every day ... i know they are only for 24 hrs so you cannot vary the on and of time but do they work every day

so if set it to come on at 7pm and go back to 9pm will this happen every day till the time the socket is in mains ??

i really wonder how does the dial rotate ? does it get power from mains to rotate ?

 

[JohnD]

yes, yes, and yes.


assuming you get a 24-hour one. You can also get 7-day ones.