We purchased one of these four years ago to control our entry lights. That was the last time we touched it. The unit asks you to set the turn on - off times, and set the time and date when you install it, then you really don't have to do much else. With the auto adjust feature, it resets for daylight savings time, and one setting will automatically turn the lights on when it's getting close to dusk, then off at your preselected time - nice if you don't want to install a photocell or manually change start times throughout the year.
My only complaint is that the LCD screen is very small, particularly showing day of week, which means when you do decide to change times you'll have to really squint to see what you're doing. But fortunately, for most, this won't be a regular event. Intermatic EJ500C Indoor Digital Wall Switch Timer
The timer is electronic and works well with incandescent lighting. The reviews differ on using this timer with compact fluorescents, and the labeling states that it is NOT compatible.
Like many other electronic timers, it appears to "leak" current through the circuit even when off. That's ok with incandescents and the old magnetic ballasts, but CF with electronic ballasts flash when the switch is off.
A workaround if there is more than one bulb: include one ordinary incandescent bulb in the circuit (40 watt may be the minimum), and the compact fluorescents stop flashing.
After going through three Intermatic SS8Cs in three years, I gave up on them and bought one of these. It's only been in a month so I can't speak to its long term reliability, but so far it's been working better than the SS8C. It's quieter - no mechanical switching (I guess it must be all electronic), it offers all the same programming options as the SS8C, plus it looks a bit sleeker on the wall. Not only that, it's cheaper than the SS8C by about $14. I did take off one star, though, because it's not DST 2007 compatible. I had to turn off its built-in DST feature and now I'll just manually spring forward and fall back.
Regarding compact fluorescent bulbs, last night we bought eight 40 watt-equivalent "n:vision" brand soft white compact fluorescent bulbs (9 watts, 550 lumens, green and white package) from Home Depot and installed them this morning. I was concerned they might not work since the packaging says the EJ500C is not compatible with compact fluorescent bulbs, but happily they do work absolutely fine! I took down eight 60 watt bulbs and am now saving 408 watts of electricity. The only thing I can think that might not make the EJ500C work with compact fluorescent bulbs is that it supposedly requires a load of at least 40 watts, so possibly too few compact fluorescent bulbs might not be enough of a power draw. For me, though, I'm happy to be saving electricity and hopefully I've got a porch light timer that will stay working more than one year.
UPDATE: After nearly three years, this still working fine, no problems like the old SS8C.
Pros:
- easy to install
- works
- looks good
Cons:
- CFL lights work only with a regular incandescent added. Otherwise lights keep flashing all the time and run hot even if they are off. I use 40W incandescent light to save cost which produces marginal amount of light. Apparently, timer tends to produce power spikes since I have replaced the incandescent light 4 times in 2 months period
- ST01C Intermatic timer which Amazon sells for $29.99 can control CFL and heavy loads, so even for $10 less it isn't worth to buy this one
I've had one of these set up on my porch light for over 2 years and have not had a single problem. Some of the complaints I read about surprise me. Why would you hook this thing up to your Christmas lights? That isn't what it was designed to do. There is a comment about not being able to use the thing with fluorescent lights. I replaced the regular incandescent bulb in our porch light with a CFL a year ago and have not had any problems. Frankly, I am little concerned about energy savings. I use this to have the porch light come on in the evening and off in the morning. Regarding comments about programming. It has an auto set function that controls when the light comes on and off. You don't have to tell it anything. It is preprogrammed with when it gets dark and light in whatever time zone. It even changes the on time randomly by 15 minutes everyday to make it seem like someone is home. You set the clock, tell it whether to adjust for daylight savings, and turn the function on. I have not had to make any adjustments since day one. As far as the time display being too small, how often do you actually need to look at the clock? Only when you are programming and standing right in front of it. The display is certainly larger than your watch. The door may be a little flimsy but, I have not had to open it since I first installed the unit. You can manually turn the light on and off just by pressing the door which acts as a switch. It includes a "watch" battery for storage of time and program in case of power loss. There are other models but few have the auto settings feature. Another bonus to this one is that it installs flush. Other models I have used and seen stick out or have the buttons showing. This one looks much cleaner. How good is this one? I went to HD to get one for my folks and they were all sold out.
The way this (and the GE model I've used) work, they will NOT operate in a strictly fluorescent application. If however, you're turning on a light that has two bulbs, or has a whole row of bulbs (porch), you can use this. For a single fixture with two bulbs, the mix of fluorescent and incandescent is handy since one puts out lots of light if you turn it on in the dark, as we might do very late at night after the timer has shut it off. The key however is, you must have one incandescent bulb in the circuit. The reason is rather ingenious. They "trickle" electricity thru the incandescent bulb to complete the circuit that runs the timer. Since some switches and 3-ways don't even have the other leg available at the switch, this is slick.
The form factor on this one (industrial design) is way better than the GE one. We run ours for a few hours in the evening, one in the morning, and it works great for us. - Intermatic - Programmable - Light Switch - Timer'
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