Greetings.

I have bought myself a Contactor to wire into the garage lights so they switch on when the electric garage door is raised.

DSC_0156.jpgDSC_0159.jpg

Unfortunately it did not come with any literature and seeing as how this is the first time I have ever wired one I thought I would ask here for a bit of advice.

I am guessing that terminals 1 and 2 are for the feed signal from the door and terminals 3 and 4 are for the load which is the supply to the lights.

Is this correct?

The garage door has a small light that illuminates when the door is opened and I was thinking of wiring the feed to the Contactor in parallel with the light.

The supply to the garage lights (load) would go from a 6 Amp MCB, through the Contactor then to the lights and then back to the neutral of the board so the Contactor will be wired in parallel with the garage door light as a feed and in series with the garage lights which are the load.

Can anyone help me with this one?

Thanks very much.
 
A1 and A2 is the coil when you apply 230v to the coil it will close the contactor, check your garage door light is the same voltage as the coil on the contactor, then bring your mcb feed into terminal 1 and switch out of terminal 2, is the light you want to bring on existing and controlled by a switch or is it an independant light running of the contactor only.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
perhaps La poste is not seeing the wood for the trees, the A1 and A2 screws are the ones dead in the middle in front of the double pole inputs and outputs
 
The issue I forsee is that the lamp in the door motor unit may be a different voltage to the coil contacts in the contactor.

Also, terminating additional cableing to the lamp terminals may be a right PITA.
 
That's great thanks.

I didn't realise A1 and A2 had terminals behind the screws, I was being a bit thick, I couldn't see the terminals at first glance.

The supply/feed to the garage lights will feed two switches.

Each switch will feed one bank of lights, each bank of lights consists of 2 six foot fluoro's so in total there will be four six foot fluoro's supplied by two switches.
Each pair can be switched independently.

So this Contactor is double pole with line load going through 1 and 2 and load neutral going through 3 and 4.
Is this correct?

The lamp in the garage door is definitely 230 Volts I checked.

Also the garage door light/ control signal has a timer built in and so this timer will be handy for turning the garage lights off automatically after about two minutes.

I am not sure what a limit switch is, I shall have to do some reading.
 
Last edited:
Does the indication lamp remain on when the door is open or just when the winding motor operates? If it’s on all the time the door is open your OK, otherwise you’ve got problems.
 
It's a small lamp, low wattage 230V light bulb at the top of the control unit.

When the garage door is switched to open the lamp illuminates and stays illuminated for about two minutes after the garage door has finished opening then switches off.

The same is also true when the garage door shuts. The lamp illuminates when the motor kicks in and the lamp stays illuminated for two minutes after the door has shut.

If I can get the control feed wired OK I will take the supply from a 6 amp MCB, through the Contactor, through the switch and thence to the lights and keep my fingers crossed.
 
Last edited:
You could wire coil as suggested and have a feed from light switch feeding 1 and looping to 3, then 2 is switch to one bank of lights and 4 is switch to other bank of lights, you dont need to run neutral through contactor, this way all lighting will work via contactor.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Some garage door unit lamps are supplied via a solid state device ie diac or triac. I would check the circuit first and if the lamp isn't supplied via a relay then use a separate limit switch to operate the contactor as previously suggested.

Also sometimes the garage door unit flashes the lamp several times before the door opens or closes by means of a warning. This would play havoc if you're using the contactor to supply fluorescents.
 
why not just fit a PIR to switch the lights on, leaving the manual switch in parallel. that way the lights will come on if you enter by the back door as well.
 
If you want the lights to operate with the door I’d go for a limit switch. As Marvo pointed out the lamp could have a solid-state driver, which could be damaged by the inductive load of the coil. If you want to use the contactor try this

View attachment 11419
 
Best EV Chargers by Electrical2Go! The official electric vehicle charger supplier.

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Green 2 Go Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses Heating 2 Go
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Advert

Daily, weekly or monthly email

Thread starter

Joined
Location
South east

Thread Information

Title
Contactor Conundrum.
Prefix
N/A
Forum
UK Electrical Forum
Start date
Last reply date
Replies
30
Unsolved
--

Advert

Thread statistics

Created
La Poste,
Last reply from
Knobhead,
Replies
30
Views
3,142

Advert

Back
Top