"Old Style" Low Voltage Light Relays

[LifeLongWNYer]

I'm getting ready to build a garage and would like to wire the lights into easily controllable "circuits" so I may only turn on what I need.

In a prior garage/family room addition, I made wide use of the General Electric low voltage relays and I am very happy with them. I mounted a majority of the relays in two locations, and over the years I was very easily able to "reconfigure" which lights came on together, and which were switched separately. PLUS, the system allows the lights to be controlled from several/many locations, without the need to run Romex all over the place. I ran power to the relay locations, then Romex to the fixtures, and I used 12 and 20 conductor low voltage commo cable from the relays to the switch locations. It worked well, absolutely no problems since it was finished.

As I plan the new garage, two things have come up.

#1 is that the GE relays and the momentary contact switches, which go with them, are no longer in production, and while they are available, who knows how much longer they will be.

#2, is that I built that structure ( and used those relays ) in the early-to-middle 1980's, and while it all worked ( and still does work ) very well, there must be "something better" out there now.

One advantage to the old-style relays, is that they were first used in the 50's, and remained in used ( and widely available ) well into the early 90's, over a 40+ year period. A concern is that a new system available today, will not last that long.

Finally, and for informational, purposes, I really don't "think' that I need to incorporate something like a computer to control the lights, BUT I can easily be persuaded, either way. Also, this building will be about 100-125' from the house.




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[Shiftless]

IMHO, simpler is better. I also believe that for a garage, you will save a lot of money besides a lot of headaches later on if you simply go with the usual “running Romex all around” rather than installing a bunch of relays and specialized momentary switches.

How big is your proposed garage and what will you be doing in it?

I would think you would want the ability to turn lights on and off at the doors. You probably have one or 2 man doors to your shop building right? Standard issue on-off or 3 way switches at each door will do the job.
You want the ability to turn on a few of the lights for the times you are just going in to get something. Then you want the ability to turn on lots of them when you have a big project going. That’s about it.
Task lighting above a machine like a lathe or a drill press can be switched from that location.
With modern LED lights, the energy savings from having individual control of small groups of lights is not worth the hassle unless for some reason that process gives you joy.

In my little 20x20 I have one switch that turns on 2 banks of LED flood lights that illuminate the storage shelves and one work bench. There is another switch that controls all the overhead LED tubular work lights. That one only lights up when I need brighter lights for big projects in the middle of the garage.
I have 2 outside lights controlled by a timer so it’s not so dark outside the door. Easy.

 

[Falcon67]

Run romex and if you want controls, then use wifi controlled switches. Unless you want to shoot the moon and use networked LED lights with a controller. That's a bunch of $ for sure.

 

[matt_i]

If its to be inspected, I'd stay with romex and typical residential wiring devices.

 

[cybrdyke]

Caseta

www.casetawireless.com
Good luck,
CD

 

[75gmck25]

I installed a sub-panel and wiring in metal conduit for my detached garage, and then figured out it would be nice to turn on lights and other things from the house.

So far I've only installed one Lutron Caseta switch with pico remote, but have found it very convenient. I replaced the light switch in the garage with the lutron remote-control switch, and then mounted the pico remote on the wall just inside the back door of the house. Its a simple solution for now, but apparently it uses standard protocols, and could be expanded to do more.

Bruce

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

This place will be 40'x40', over all. ROUGHLY, dividing it into 1/3's, the west "bay" will be summer vehicle storage, the center 1/3 is for working on vehicles, with a lift there eventually, and the east portion with a work bench, drill press, grinder, etc, for working on non-vehicle stuff.

I understand what Shiftless is saying, sometimes I tend to over engineer/complicate things, I will think about this. Perhaps I can live with one circuit with a fixture, or two, for running in to grab something and leave, and one circuit which "lights things up" for working on projects.

Just in case, thanks, Cybrdyke, for the Caseta link, I will look into that.

On the inspection matter, my Dad taught me well, and wiring is easy. While I don't know many of the new changes to the code, and I KNOW there are many in each cycle, I should be okay with the lights and receptacles in this. I did a couple of other additions, and was passed with flying colors.



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[Two Sheds]

I put a GELV lighting control system in my house. It's old technology, but it's robust and reliable. GE might not be selling panels for new installs, but spare relays and other parts are plentiful. I don't like paying full price, so I bought my RR-7 and RR-9 relays on Ebay. There's a huge installed base of these, so spares should be available for a long time. If you have an interest in this system, there is a discussion list for GELV on Yahoo Groups.

 

[Git]

Well, since you mentioned computers - they have some pretty smart 'smart switches' out there

For example, the HomeSeer software with their dimmable switches. The software is capable of detecting a double or triple tap of a light switch (either off or on) and then you can program other lights to be turned on/off from that one switch. Or even use something like an Amazon Echo to turn control your stuff with voice commands

Their latest line of dimmers even have different colored lights that you can program as status lights for different things - like you air compressor is on

https://homeseer.com/lighting/

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

Thanks TwoSheds, Since I first posted, I did look into buying those GE relays on the internet, and found that you are correct, they ARE available. They are a little pricey, but the Caseta setup is about 80-90 bucks per circuit, the relays in the 18-28 dollar range.

Switches are not a problem, any momentary contact switch will work, even door bell buttons, if necessary.



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[Ole Slewfoot]

I lived for awhile in a house that was built in the 50s as a showhome for a lighting company, and frankly it sucked. there were outlets everywhere, and 3-4 ceiling fixtures in ost rooms controlled by a bank of relays in the hall closet. I don't think the light in my bedroom ever stuck on more than 3 consecutive days

 

[matt_i]

Thanks TwoSheds, Since I first posted, I did look into buying those GE relays on the internet, and found that you are correct, they ARE available. They are a little pricey, but the Caseta setup is about 80-90 bucks per circuit, the relays in the 18-28 dollar range.

For the same coin you could own about 500' of 14-2 Romex for each circuit....

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

Hi Matt I. I understand that running the Romex is probably less expensive, but, ( in my outlook ) a big plus is that the low voltage relays allow me to put switches for all my lighting circuits at each door, plus at the work bench, and where ever I wish without running Romex to each location for 3-way or 4-way light circuits. If I have 4 or 5 circuits in the garage, running Romex to each location where a switch will be may not cost as much as the relay scenario, but I'll have quite a sizable bundle of wire running down the walls at each switch location.

I think I'll draw out a schematic and see what would be involved with 4-way circuits. Thanks for the suggestion.



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[86turbodsl]

I'm familiar with the GE low voltage lighting. The closest thing i can think of these days is Centralite lighting, which i used in my house build. Those are home run SSR's with ethernet switches. The SSR's allow dimming and other functionality. But the GE system was very good for it's time. The Centralite panel was NOT cheap though. I had over 4G in my panels ALONE.

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

Okay, thanks for the tip. I'll dig up some info on the Centralite. Thanks.




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