Timer Switch Failures

[Medved]

Hello Forum Members,
I would really appreciate any advice you can offer on this problem. I live in an apartment building in Montenegro. There are a large number of lights around the outside of the building and these are controlled by a timer switch to illuminate the car park and front entrance steps at night. Over the last year, we have had two failures of the timer switch which has been quite costly to replace. Some of the outside bulbs have also failed. Can anyone suggest why the timer keeps failing? Should there be some additional form of protection to safeguard it, or is it just a matter of the quality of the timer?
Thanks very much.

 

[Darkwood]

Welcome to the forum, firstly, what is you Electrical background?.. this will help members tailor there responses to suit, secondly we need to know where exactly the timer is with regards to the wiring.

Does it control contactor(s)
Does it switch the lights on direct with its own integral relay, if so what is the rating of the contacts and what is the nature of the lighting load attached ie - what type of lamp, rating and no'.

 

[Marvo]

As DW says, usually the timer would switch a contactor and the contactor in turn does the hard work of switching on the lights. Contactors are far more capable of taking a fault current should a fault occur on one of the lights, they're also more capable of handling the inrush current you get momentarily on lighting circuits when power is applied. If the timer is switching the lights direct it's going to be very prone to failures.

This type of contactor is usually suitable for your application but check with a sparky first before running out and buying one.