Day Night Switch

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Shane2113

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How many lights can one wire to one day night switch.

Currently I have the following:
-Two tube light each with two tubes 5w led
-One 30w led floodlight
-One 50w led floodlight
-One energy saving 16w light
Easy guess is that it is too much because since adding the two floodlights everything remains on.
Some advise please...
Rookie home improver...
 
As long as it's a good quality switch, you could wire all the lights in your house and it would be fine, remember these switches can be used to run halogen flood lights, incandescent bulbs. So led will be like nothing for it
 
Most day/night switches have 5 amp contacts. So that is good for at least 1100 watts

However: If there is a power interruption during the day, it will switch on and stay on and only switch off at daybreak the next day

In the past 5 years I have had 3 day/night switches. These were "reputable makes" yet failed

All came on and stayed on. Possibly load-shedding hastened their end
 
The day/night switch will have a rating on it like 10amp/230vac. You cannot exceed these. So you need to check the rating on all lights.

In most house wiring I have seen only 5A or 10A breakers used for lights (20A for old 300W mercury lights). So if the breaker doesn't trip when you turn on all the lights at once then you are fine. I say all at once because they will all come on at once when the sensor kicks in.

Check the prices. It may be better to drop R160 on a locally sourced Sonoff Basic or R300 on a POW2. The Basic is rated 10A/2200W and the POW2 16A/3500W. And they let you set your own timers. Like sunrise/sunset off/on. Or control via the internet. They are super easy to install. Actually easier than a day/night sensor as you can put them anywhere along the wiring.
 
chrisc said:
Most day/night switches have 5 amp contacts. So that is good for at least 1100 watts

However: If there is a power interruption during the day, it will switch on and stay on and only switch off at daybreak the next day

In the past 5 years I have had 3 day/night switches. These were "reputable makes" yet failed

All came on and stayed on. Possibly load-shedding hastened their end
Click to expand...

really?
 
chrisc said:
However: If there is a power interruption during the day, it will switch on and stay on and only switch off at daybreak the next day
Click to expand...
Steamy Tom said:
really?
Click to expand...
Some of those day/night sensors have the option of using a power cycle to bypass the sensor. You turn the light switch off and back on and the lights stay on. You would use this if you want to check the lights are working. Some
sensors just come with a little black bag that you can put over the sensor to simulate dark.
 
can you swap the wires around in the switch so it comes on during the day and off at night? i am looking for something for the pump in my water feature. don't really want it running 24/7 and the box where the plug is is too small for a timer
 
simonbee said:
can you swap the wires around in the switch so it comes on during the day and off at night? i am looking for something for the pump in my water feature. don't really want it running 24/7 and the box where the plug is is too small for a timer
Click to expand...

what
 
simonbee said:
can you swap the wires around in the switch so it comes on during the day and off at night? i am looking for something for the pump in my water feature. don't really want it running 24/7 and the box where the plug is is too small for a timer
Click to expand...
You could, but then you would have to use a normal closed contacter. Easier to go with s timer
 
Shane2113 said:
How many lights can one wire to one day night switch.

Currently I have the following:
-Two tube light each with two tubes 5w led
-One 30w led floodlight
-One 50w led floodlight
-One energy saving 16w light
Easy guess is that it is too much because since adding the two floodlights everything remains on.
Some advise please...
Rookie home improver...
Click to expand...
so that's like 106W check the rating of the switch but a decent one should handle that - as long as your wiring is good, though i would swap that energy saving 16W energy saving to a Led just because LED is better
I am running a lot more wattage on one switch and it never had any issues (it was there when i moved in and has yet to be changed), i have a 50W LED Floodlight , 2x10W LED Floodlight , 2x20W LED Floodlight and 2X5W LED (it actually was a lot more wattage i started changing all of them to LED and actually added more lights)
 
isie said:
i have a 50W LED Floodlight , 2x10W LED Floodlight , 2x20W LED Floodlight and 2X5W LED (it actually was a lot more wattage i started changing all of them to LED and actually added more lights)
Click to expand...
Last time I looked I think it was 500ma per 10W for LED floodlights. It is not just the watts but the amps too. Notice how your breaker switches are all rate in amps not watts.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
Last time I looked I think it was 500ma per 10W for LED floodlights. It is not just the watts but the amps too. Notice how your breaker switches are all rate in amps not watts.
Click to expand...
Amps are the main thing, there is a relationship between amps and watts. So generally high what's means more amps
 
Dairyfarmer said:
Last time I looked I think it was 500ma per 10W for LED floodlights. It is not just the watts but the amps too. Notice how your breaker switches are all rate in amps not watts.
Click to expand...

mines comes to like 120W at 220v is like 0.5 amps ;)
typical DB board breaker for lights is like 20A, typical light switch / day night sensor can handle like 15/16A
remember our bulbs have dropped in wattage, but our plugs and switches haven't really changed, they still built to handle old high wattage tech, incandescent globes can run like 40W to like 150+W flip you even get those halogens that would run in the 1500W mark

you would need to go over 3000W to get to 15A that would be the upper limit of a day night switch

Man when i look at those numbers it reminds me why I love LED's
 
I think when these Day/Night switches fail, they fail "On" so you have lights at least.

Probably dead, so buy another one.
 
isie said:
typical DB board breaker for lights is like 20A
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have more than a 10A breaker unless you are running high wattage lights. You should not have more than half your house lights on a single breaker. A good electrician will balance the outlets and lights depending on their usage. i.e half the bedrooms and half the living area on each breaker. That way you are not putting too much through each breaker. Outlets should be on 3 or more breakers. High draw areas, like the kitchen, should not share with the laundry. Also you wouldn't have your whole kitchen outlets on one breaker.
 
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