z-wave bulbs for outdoor posts?

wkearney99

Senior Member
I purchased an Amazon Echo for my 80 year old mother-in-law and it's been working quite well for her.
 
She's mentioned having trouble with the sensors in her outdoor lamp posts failing.  Basically they're 35 year old fixtures, no longer made and she's not had success finding anyone local to do repairs to them. Fixing them is not my question.
 
I'm debating whether it'd be workable to replace the bulbs in them with some z-wave units.  
 
They're fed by AC voltage, of course, but I don't know if there's a neutral in the fixtures or if they're just switch legs.  I'm assuming they're going to be switch legs.  And, yes, I understand the whole 'powered through a wall switch' complication.  That's not one of my questions here.  But they are classic toggle-style switches with some in 3-way configurations.  Again, not an immediate issue, the assumption would be she'd leave 'em switched live and she's still savvy enough to get that right.  If need be I'd have a local electrician join me there to handle replacing switches.
 
To complicate matters her house is several hundred miles away in Buffalo, NY.  This is normally a 'good thing' but not when it comes to my being in the area for a limited amount of time and finding repair items.  I'd very much like to have a box of parts to be taking there with me to make it a 2-day job.
 
My concerns are two-fold, one is distance and the other is temperature.  
 
Buffalo, as you can imagine, gets pretty danged cold for extended periods of time.  The fixtures have glass enclosures, so I'm not talking about bare bulbs here.  Inside of outdoor sconces, either on the wall or on yard posts.  But I have no idea whose lights are reliable enough for the job.  Any suggestions or warnings?
 
Then there's the distance issue.  Wi-Fi was a bit of an adventure finding effective coverage locations in her single-level rancher-style house.  So I'm assuming some number of devices for repeating signals is going to be necessary.  The longest distance is a lamp post that's about 40' from the main building.
 
I may well prove to be more effective to make the change at the wall switches instead of the bulbs.  But I have no idea how the wiring circuits are run and nobody up there able to figure it out for me.  
 
So my questions here are what z-wave bulbs are known not to be a problem in cold climates and able to communicate over 40' distances?
 
Here have only tested outdoor style Z-Wave appliance switches on the periferals of the property berms.
 
I have read OK comments on the Z-Wave bulbs on Amazon but not much relating to outdoor use.
 
Test it out.  VOM check the wires on the light post however many they are.  Guessing 35 years ago the electrician would have maybe run the wires to a box before going to a switch eh?
 
Put a Z-Wave light bulb on a long extension cord outside to the post distance.  Move the Z-Wave hub around and see the reach?
 
Personally I would just switch the post HV at the house.  That is me. 
 
Testing 3 new Z-Wave devices in the basement but have not extended their reach much.  I put one RPi2 / GPIO Zwave me device in the attic POE powered and it will not reach one end of the garage right now.  I sprinkled 5 Z-Wave devices in the garage.  I  haven't tested the POE GPIO ZWave device with outdoor Z-Wave switches because of that reason.
 
They worked fine with the Leviton Z-Wave PIM in the basement and the Hometroller Z-Troller PIM on the second floor.
 
I installed a glass block top and use a Halogen bulb for the mailbox here today.  It is using a UPB switch.  There are two 3+1 runs of electrical wire in PVC piping running out to the mailbox.  IE: two switched loads there and one always on load.   I dim the 60 watt halogen lamp to around 30% and its been over 10 years now and never have changed the bulb.  I have gone to putting a small Christmas tree on the mailbox and it is today switched on and off by an outdoor X10 appliance switch (Freewire)  at the mailbox and works fine.
 
Outdoors I have 7 HV coach lamps in clear glass and metal housings.  They are all identical looking.  They are all still halogen lamps dimmed down to 30% or so and I rarely touch them.  I am still on the fence as I want an LED Edison style clear outdoor bulb for them that I could dim and get the same look that I have today.  IE: I care more about their appearance than what they utilize in electricity.  That is me though.
 
That said my entire low voltage lighting now is using 12VDC / LEDs at up to 300 feet plus zones of lighting.
 
I have two berms with 5 LED lamps each and haven't touched these in more than 2 years now.
 
You could maybe take the two wires (if that is all you have) to the post and convert the post to 12VDC and use a Z-Wave relay inside of the home to turn the 12VDC LED post lamp on or off.
 
Thinking some more about this and that you only have 2 days; I would just fix the electrical to the lamp post stuff so that it can be serviced by any body using the KISS principal.  That is me though.
 
What is going to control these bulbs?
I doubt your MIL is going to want to pull out a mobile phone and run an app to operate these. :)
 
Yeah, the switching at the house is probably less complicated, but will require figuring how how the N-way circuits have been set up.  Not impossible, of course, seeing as it's just lighting, but potentially time-consuming.  That and screwing in a bulb doesn't "change anything".  There's the 'old dog new tricks' perspective to consider.  That and I believe some of the faceplates aren't a generic color or style, but that ALL of the switches are old-school toggles, not Decora paddles.  Whereas unscrewing a bulb is 'less worrisome' to an 80 year old mother-in-law... which is directly proportional to how much stress I get for it.
 
I'm going to have her do a Skype/Facetime call for me to run down what's-where.  
 
GE does make a toggle Z-Wave switch.  (that said I don't have much confidence in GE these days).
 
Or present the Decora switch newfangled easy to use technology (use one that is illuminated with an LED (or LEDs)) and call it a computer gift.
 
If it is a 3 way switch leg; then you will have to play some more with the HV electrical figuring out what is what which is easy to do with a VOM.
 
Here on the second floor I had a switch to the hallway lights outside of each of the four bedrooms.  I left the travelers in place and with with regular UPB switches and links to turn on the hallway lamps.  (same thing here in the two downstairs hallways).
 
pete_c said:
GE does make a toggle Z-Wave switch.  (that said I don't have much confidence in GE these days).
 
Or present the Decora switch newfangled easy to use technology (use one that is illuminated with an LED (or LEDs)) and call it a computer gift.
 
If it is a 3 way switch leg; then you will have to play some more with the HV electrical figuring out what is what which is easy to do with a VOM.
 
Here on the second floor I had a switch to the hallway lights outside of each of the four bedrooms.  I left the travelers in place and with with regular UPB switches and links to turn on the hallway lamps.  (same thing here in the two downstairs hallways).
 
I have some of the GE Zwave switches - I started out having only GE devices on my Zwave network. I've only started switching to Leviton devices because they provide Status Feedback to my HA system when they are used locally, whereas the GE switches (as well as most all other Zwave) don't support status feedback.
 
I remember you mentioning it was a project of sorts.  Did you fix the outdoor lamp post lighting by your mother-in-law?
 
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