Lighting control over distance

86turbodsl

Active Member
Hello,
 
I have an outbuilding / shop about 350' away from my home.  I sometimes need to turn off the lights from the house and don't want to run out to the building due to various reasons.
 
I'm about to re-light the building with T5HO fluorescents and would like to explore control strategies.
 
My home has Centralite Litejet lights, and i'm told that the controller can also do UPB as an add-on.   Then I could install UPB wall switches on each light circuit in the outbuilding and control / turn on/off the lights remotely.
 
An alternative I've looked at is a PLC with SSR's to control the lights and a ethernet uplink to the house.  I have extensive experience with automation direct PLC's and have a copy of the software for programming.  
 
Any insight on the best practices to address this problem?  
 
I think the PLC method might be slightly cheaper, but at the cost of the additional programming and interface circuitry to get the litejet coupled to the plc.  The benefit of the plc is i could also do things like shut the overhead door, turn off machinery, etc. 
 
Do you have ethernet cable between the buildings? Then you could add a JetStream controller and switches to the outbuilding and send ASCII commands from your switches in the house.
 
UPB would be the easiest to implement with switches in the normal locations. Buy a switch and test it.

FWIW...I have Insteon working over a 2-2-2-4 AL cable to my garage and then over 10 AWG circuit to my shed about 150' away from the main panel in the house total. UPB is a stronger signal so I would think it would work.
 
I have a fiber uplink to the building with full lan access to the network.   Sounds like i could possibly do either ethernet or power line control.
 
Sounds like i need to do some testing.  Thanks!
 
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