Remotely operated relay for industrial lighting

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Remotely operated relay for industrial lighting john.golden 09-17-2008
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Posted by on September 17, 2008, 4:32 pm


I am searching for a remotely activated contact relay with 120v coil
and 12vdc contact capacity. The relay will be used to individually dim
high bay lighting in an industrial situation. I want to activate the
relay with a hand held device with a range of at least 100'. I have
124 lights that I want the capability to dim remotely. The relays
should all have the same signal ID so that multiple hand held
activation devices could activate any light.

Posted by cadcoke4 on September 17, 2008, 7:37 pm


On Sep 17, 3:32 pm, john.gol...@asexcellence.com wrote:
> I am searching for a remotely activated contact relay with 120v coil
> and 12vdc contact capacity.

Smarthome.com has a lot of that type of stuff for home use. Most of
their stuff are improvements over the old X-10 stuff. They do have RF
remotes. I know the Insteon line has the kind of range you are
looking for.

Joe Dunfee

Posted by John F. Eldredge on October 11, 2008, 11:05 pm


On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:37:42 -0700, cadcoke4 wrote:

> On Sep 17, 3:32 pm, john.gol...@asexcellence.com wrote:
>> I am searching for a remotely activated contact relay with 120v coil
>> and 12vdc contact capacity.
>
> Smarthome.com has a lot of that type of stuff for home use. Most of
> their stuff are improvements over the old X-10 stuff. They do have RF
> remotes. I know the Insteon line has the kind of range you are looking
> for.
>

Did you [john.golden] accidentally get the coil voltage and contact
voltages reversed, or are you indeed using a 120V control voltage and a
12V DC lighting circuit? As I recall, most of the SmartHome equipment
assumes that the lights will be at full line voltage, although they may
have some low-voltage equipment for outdoor use. I would have assumed
that an industrial lighting circuit would be powered by line voltage.
Also, since you said you wanted to dim the lamps, you will need a dimmer-
based (TRIAC-based) device, rather than a simple relay, which would only
give you on/off control, not dimming.

--
John F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

Posted by John Nagle on October 15, 2008, 1:02 am
john.golden@asexcellence.com wrote:
> I am searching for a remotely activated contact relay with 120v coil
> and 12vdc contact capacity. The relay will be used to individually dim
> high bay lighting in an industrial situation. I want to activate the
> relay with a hand held device with a range of at least 100'. I have
> 124 lights that I want the capability to dim remotely. The relays
> should all have the same signal ID so that multiple hand held
> activation devices could activate any light.

This is very confused.

First, relays are on/off devices, not dimmers.

Second, you apparently want a whole remote control system, not
just relays. That's available.

Third, only some kinds of high bay lights are dimmable. Mercury vapor
lighting is not dimmable. Metal halide lamps are dimmable only with
very special controllers; most can't be dimmed below 50% before lamp
life gets much worse. Fluorescents are dimmable, but require suitable
ballasts and controllers. None of this stuff is cheap in the ratings
required for big high-bay lights. But all the gear is available, and
it's probably installed at a mall near you.

Read this:

http://www.aboutlightingcontrols.org/education/papers/hiddimming.shtml

                John Nagle


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