Wireless light switch for house to detached garage

[Andy_GTS]

I have a detached garage with some nice exterior lights I'd like to be able to turn on from the house. Distance is about 50ft. I have conduit buried and a subpanel in the garage. I doubt I could pull wire.

That got me thinking about wireless switches. I've seen some at stores but not sure they will meet my needs/requirements. Which are:

-Looks like a normal switch (something that fits under a regular switch cover)
-Over 50ft range (preferably 75-100)
-Can be a 3way setup so my hardwired switch in the garage still operates the lights.


Anyone have experience with products that may work for me?

Thanks.

 

[penright]

I think you are looking for some form of home automation (HA). HA can be simple to complex. There several wireless technologies.
All HA start with a controller then you have the devices. Some examples of a controler are SmartThings, Almond, ....
My experiance is with Almond and Zwave devices.

If I was starting over, I would go with a Almond3 then add the Zwave USB to it.
I would start with
https://www.securifi.com/almond3
Link to a Zwave device at Newegg (too long for the link)

Oh and by the way, if you went with the Almond3 then you have a pretty cool wifi router also.

Take a look at these, then look at SmartThings, then google Home Automation and then see what kind of questions you have.

 

[DirtyJersey]

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Lutron-Cas...mote-Control-Kit-White-P-PKG1W-WH-R/206754146

I've used this a few times...seems to work well with no complaints yet

Can be wired as 3way, put switch in garage and use remote at the house or whereever

Sent from my LG-K550 using Tapatalk

 

[prostreetamx]

X-10 is still alive and kicking and does not require any special central hub to work. It sends it's signals over your existing wires and you can add as many switch locations as you want and costs far less than the newest tech stuff. I've had this stuff in my house for 15 years and it still work just fine. Pretty low tech by today's standards but it works. SmartHome.com still carries them as well as other outlets.

 

[tailshaft56]

Scott the Electrician on Ask This Old House recently used the wireless switch on a recent episode. I don't know about range but you can test it before final mounting of the indoor switch. The only downside I see is the need for a battery.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have a detached garage with some nice exterior lights I'd like to be able to turn on from the house.

Simple wireless 3 way switches exist and are a lot cheaper than home automation.

My buddy put one in his barn for the outside light. Simply replace the existing switch with the new one and the "remote" switch (looks like a normal wall switch with fatter plate, but a bit thicker) you literally just "stick" on the wall in the house.

 

[Showkey]

I use WeMo switches..........works well, only needs wifi signal and does not need a separate hub or hardware.

 

[maitman99]

With a similar challenge I did the following.

Insteon wi fi enable single pole switch (They have one that is about 1600 watts)

Insteon wireless battery operated on off switch, wall mount.

Installed the single pole wifi enabled switch in the garage, replacing the regular outdoor light switch

Mounted the wireless switch on the wall by the back door.

Works like a charm, plus it is compatible with most home automation systems.

Good luck

 

[The Cobbler]

2nd the x-10. it works just fine most of the time.

 

[klassenl]

Do you only want to operate it every so often - Caseta. If you want it every day then think about a timer or a photocell - much cheaper.

 

[AntonLargiader]

From what I can see, Caseta is all about dimming. There is one device they list which is a tandem switch, but it's kind of an oddball. There must be a better way to just turn stuff on and off.

 

[wes73]

If you have a lifmaster
They make Myq switches.

I second this. And you can set them to on/off off/on schedules with their devices

 

[AntonLargiader]

Seems like Insteon has a straightforward smart toggle switch for $50. Since I have a lot of Apple stuff I'm more interested in the Homekit stuff and Insteon has a Homekit hub that apparently puts all of their stuff onto HK. I have only begun to look at it but it looks like it does what I want and stays within the technology that I want to use.

The Insteon Homekit-enabled hub is $150. There are only a few things I want to remotely control or automate right now so I need to see if the total cost is something that justifies jumping in right now. One light - $200. Two lights - $250. Oh, and add the Apple TV onto that bill. Arrgh. Now I know why I haven't made any progress on this.

 

[Pythong]

I use z-wave products and they have been proven to be really reliable for myself. I tried the Wink & Smartthings HUB. Smartthing is deff better than Wink but it didn't provide the flexability i truely wanted. For a simple home user ST is great.

Since i'm in the IT field & have programming knowledge i ended up going the opensource route and using a piece of software called OpenHAB running on a raspberryPi. This is a all-in-one ecosystem that can integrate every HA technology, the downside is the learning curve and programming. Again if you don't know programming i would stay away from this!

None the less, this system allows you to do ANYTHING you can imagine/program.

For instance, here is my HomeSeer WD-100+ dimmer switch in my house sycing with my garage lights.

I'm able to double tap the switch to sync house & garage soffit lights together. When i control the dimmer switch in the house, the garage changes