ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Need some help with Contactors

What about a Lutron Radio RA or simular.
The only changes needed are the switches.
When the model is sold as a home they could:

Easily remove the Radio RA system and use it in the next location.

or

Make the lighting control a selling feature of the model home. Might just need to be reprogramed and that is it.

Yes they would spend some money on the system but to do contactors with switch legs run to a panel etc. would never be recuped when sold.

Anyways if you did still want to use the contactor instead of controlling the switch legs switch the hots. Use seperate circuits for lighting only.

What about shunt breakers?

X10 Switches he can come in hit one switch and all lights on, or each switch can work in normal mode.

What's wrong with e57's first suggestion of just using the main? Sonce it's just a model home, none of the other loads are going to be used anyway. if they have to have a contactor and switch, put it in front of the main.

Active 1, I thought of making that type of sugestion for Radio RA, but real-estate types are notoriously cheap tweeks - If they weren't, and wanted to use/spend anything to sell the house other than it proximity to the golf course, they would install Homeworks with full Crestron automation of the self-cleaning toilet and other virtual reality self-esteem mind control devices. Now that sells a house! When you can proudly say, "I'm rich enough to have a house that can wipe my butt via the internet from anywhere in the world." But the 'people' who actually do that are not human, and who would want androids for neighbors?? (Sorry its friday night... Long week.)

jraef, my suggestion of using the main was a joke, MOCP devices would generally not be rated for use as a switch. These people are just lazy and don't want to go shut off the lights after they show the house, and don't realize, or are too cheap to automate in a sensable way for a house they cut every corner in for max profit.

The contactor box next to the panel seems to be about as easy and cheap as it gets. It is very portable and only takes about an hour to remove and install at the next house. They switch 6 single phase circuits with the ones I have seen. That is plenty to have enough lights on to give the house a lived in look. You certainly don't want to be flipping the main. That would turn off the HVAC and refrigerators. (think: mildew and broken icemakers)

jraef,
How many POCO's would like anything before a switch that turns off the supply to a house??.
Over here, you are not allowed to put anything before the line side of the Main Switch.
Otherwise you would have people stealing power.

i like e57's idee of having/getting my butt wiped anywhere on earth via the internet, That has been a continual problem...do you use html or just those old ones and zeros and what about homelan security...oh, sorry, too long at work on a beautiful Ozark mountain autumn afternoon, then a phone call halfway home to come back to the lumberyard because they couldn't get their burglar alarm to set and since I had been fooling with the wires today, must be my fault...turned out to be a 35 cent residential grade receptacle with both screws vibrated loose from the air compressor plugged in, feeding the pressurized sprinkler system, same circuit also fed the shack where the yard man who checks tickets sits, his radios, space heaters, AND a half dozen mercury vapor lights in the warehouse, all on a 20 amp breaker stuck away in a closet. More work for next week. Many of you folks would not believe Arkanese wiring standards or the lack thereof.