The golden rule for using electric timers for lights while you are away on vacation is to make the house look like someone is at home at night. For example if you always turn on the hall light at night and leave it on all night. It should be on a timer with the same cycle. If you always turn on the family room lights at night the same thing applies. However if you never turn on the outdoor lights at night and suddenly they are on all of the time or on a timer, anyone who is monitoring your home is going to know that you are away.
It is as simple as that in terms of when to use timers. Also were to use electric timers for lights while you are away on vacation. Having an alarm system and locking all of your windows and doors is important as well, however in this post we will only talk about timers for lights. We have included additional posts about security for your home at all times as well as when you are away from home.
Electric Timers for Lights
Follow the Same Pattern
When we leave, our lights follow the same pattern whether we are at home or not. Our outdoor lights are on light-sensitive diodes, which means as soon as it gets dark they automatically come on and stay on until dawn. Sometimes they are on during the day as well if it is a particularly cloudy day with dark clouds. I do not need to check them after a power failure, since there is no electric timer involved. They really work well for me and they even have light-sensitive diodes that work with fluorescent lights as well so it does not cost me a lot of money to have them on.
Indoors, I use the standard mechanical electric timer to turn on and off my lights. I use the mechanical ones since they will work with the fluorescent lights and I save money again with these lights. There is probably an electric timer available now that is electronic that is also compatible with fluorescent lights, however I have not purchased any since I already have enough electric timers.
Morning and Evening
We always leave the hall light on at night so there is an electric timer on this light. Same with the family room and the kitchen. I also have one in each of the bedrooms that were used so that it looks like someone is home. We typically go to bed around eleven so the lights stay on in the family room and kitchen until 10 or 10:30pm then go off. The bedroom lights come on at that time until around eleven pm.
The reverse is true in the morning. On in the bedrooms first , then downstairs and then off around the time we go to work. In the summer, the morning is not so important since there is a lot more hours of daylight. However in the winter time, we have the timers turning on our electric lights in the morning as well since it is usually dark when we get up.
That’s about it from the point of view of using electric timers for turning on our lights while we are away on vacation or on business. Comments are welcome,
September 19th, 2012 on 10:40 pm
setting lights on timers while you are away is a good idea, but you also need to make sure that someone checks the timers weekly. The power goes off a lot and the timers need to be reset every time. This is just one way to protect your home.