I just a new home. There are just a few odd things about this place.

One is that the only switch for the kitchen light is on the back wall of the kitchen near the side door and where you go downstairs to the garage. You got to wonder what they were thinking on that one when they built this place. This place is dark. I have no outside lights to illuminate the house like the old place so I need to fumble through a dark kitchen to get to the switch, not to mention darn inconvenient to get to the switch.

I would like to add a switch to the entry of the kitchen but wring would be problematic. I was thinking about wireless but not sure how they work or how well they work.

Can they be wired in a double pole configuration? Or is it simply push on / push off? If so, can one work in conjunction with a normal light switch? But I assume I would need to replace the normal switch with a wireless one? Can they be placed in a normal switch receptacle? (I currently have a two gang box where the light switch is, on is for the kitchen, the other the side porch light.


Now if anyone can help me with the narrow steps to the basement. No not the width of the stairs, the area where your foot is placed. And if you saw the boats I have you would appreciate the problem.

 

Have you thought of motion sensors and LED strips?

 

Maybe but it would still need to be wireless I think. Where the switch is located, I doubt it would see me as I walked in from the dining room end.

I might make use of an LED strip under my microwave. Another odd thing about this place is they placed a cabinet above the microwave, microwave is above the stove but because of the cabinet, it leaves very little clearance and because it is so close very hard to see the controls. I am tall and really need to bend to see the controls. Plus there is little light under there. There are under cabinet lights but not under the microwave. I might add an LED strip for now and looke into moving that one cabinet and raising the microwave.

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Wirel...gclid=CJ-ym_PIhcwCFYSAaQod5NwBpQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

I was thinking something like this.

 

I was thinking something like this.

That reminds me of a wireless door bell I installed. The A23 battery and the 100 foot range are identical to the door bell specs. It's an FM transmitter.
I am happy to say I only had to replace the transmitter once to get the door bell to keep working for more than a year. Looking inside it and seeing the fragile contents frightened me. I can pray that this light switch is not so shoddy, but I wouldn't bet on it. Keep your receipt handy.

 

You can also get plug-in RC lampholders, like this.

 

You can also get plug-in RC lampholders, like this.

"Sorry, we can't deliver this item to the United States"
spinnaker Thread Starter Senior Member
Location:
Pittsburgh, PA U.S.A.

 

I only said "like this". I'm sure similar ones can be sourced in the US . (I expect they all come from China anyway . )

 

If fumbling is the problem....Wendy has the cure. If you don't like walking to it, then a R/C.

As for the stairs.....go down sideways.

 

As for the stairs.....go down sideways.

I tried going down the stairs on my side...once.
Now I live in a one story house.

Back to the Topic...I have LED night lights all over my house. At 0.4 watts each, you can run a dozen of them, 24 hours a day, for 38 cents a month.

 

Have you tried X-10 yet. https://www.x10.com/ss15a.html

 

The point is, he has to walk to the back of his house (past the kitchen table) to the back door to turn on the light in his kitchen. Then when he leaves, he has to turn the switch off then walk back through the dark kitchen. The electrician missed the second switch (at every entrance and exit to a room). This issue is not just lack of light, it is lack of common sense design and convenience and whether or not an easy-to-install and reliable wireless switch technology exists.

So, he moved into this house recently and thought "WTF, why did that previous family settle and put up with such a crappy design for so long?". He doesn't want to be the person the next owner is saying the same thing about - "why did he settle for such a bad design and not do anything about it?"

 

Have you tried X-10 yet. https://www.x10.com/ss15a.html

Back to the future! I had a Sears garage door opener in 1993 with an extra button that would turn on an X-10 outlet adapter that had a lamp plugged into it - my wife loved not having to come into a dark house (especially in that neighborhood!).

 

I did some service work at a factory years ago. The factory had an addition built onto the parking lot side, they neglected to move the light switch to the new outside door. Anyone entering through that door had to walk about 75' in near total darkness to the switch. It was like that until they shut down years later..
We use some X-10 in my class, mostly because it's mentioned in 2 of our books, old technology but it still works..

 

I have some experience with a wireless remote switch. I got one at Radio Shack 25 years ago to place near my hot tub. Code requires the normal switch to be too far away to be useful. With the jets on, you cannot get out of the tub to turn them off because they'll spray all over the bathroom when the water level drops as you exit. So using the jets put you completely at the mercy of someone else to work the switch.

The wireless switch uses a 9V battery and works fine, with just two "issues". One is that the switch mechanism has no detente positions and just flops back and forth very easily. This really isn't a problem but it just feels wrong. The second issue is that there has to be a resistive load on the receiver circuit for it to operate. I think it's wired in series with the load? I don't quite recall the details but I know I had to put a lightbulb in a plug-in socket on the circuit to get it to work. But it does work, and has been a luxury for all these years.

 

I got one at Radio Shack 25 years ago...
...and has been a luxury for all these years.

Not a pair of words I have heard often - RadioShack and Luxury, but I see how it can work out that way.

 

FWIW, my switch is just like this Heath Zenith product. I may have gotten it somewhere besides the Shack.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Heath-Zenith-Wireless-Add-On-Switch-Ivory/13029297

 

I use WEMO controllers, and they work great. You can operate them with your andriod device. But you'll need to have an outlet and lamp as I don't think they make a direct wired unit.

 

I think LED light is right for you. It is best lighting technology has revolutionized battery powered, install anywhere lighting options, offering extremely bright illumination in the small form of anyone who can’t change or upgrade the electrical in their home.