HoneywellHome RPLS740B ECONOswitch 7-Day Solar Programmable Switch, Lights and Motors, Indoor and Outdoor, Energy Saving White

Great timer. I use this to control my porch light. Although it provides the capability to program whatever on-off schedule you want, I use the latitude-longitude functionality so that the light turns on at sunset and off at sunrise. Programming is not intuitive, just read the instructions. I had an earlier generation of this timer which I loved, but it doesn't support the newer low-voltage light bulbs. The new timer doesn't have a minimum draw, so it works with energy-efficient bulbs.

I really like this switch. Works as described. And for only having 3 buttons, the using interface and navigation is surprisingly very well done.If you've installed or modified an outlet or switch before, you should have no problem installing this product. If you haven't done this before, then the process is still doable, but it'll take you longer while you get confident working with the exposed wires and figuring out which wire goes where. Don't be scared; as long as your circuit breaker is off, you can't get hurt. Here are the steps I went through to install the switch. Your process will likely be similar.--PREP WORK--1. Turn off the circuit breaker at the electrical panel. Just turning off the switch is not good enough because at least one of the wires in the box would still be live.2. Unscrew the existing wall plate.3. You'll see that the switch is screwed into a blue box. Unscrew the old switch from the blue box and pull it out a bit (with the wires still attached) so that you that you have access to the wires and the space behind the switch. Don't worry, the wires are way less brittle than they seem. Unbend them instead of pulling them if you're paranoid.4. (Optional) If you need more space to work in the blue box and/or you don't have easy access to the white neutral/return wires, you might need to unscrew and pull out the other switches that are there. I had to do this because the white wires were folded up behind the other switches.5. Bear with me.5a. Long story short: You should have two black wires attached to two different screws on the old switch that you're replacing. Figure out which one of these is the line and which is the load. Mark or identify them in some way.5b. Long story long: One of the black wires attached to your old switch supplies power from the electrical panel to the switch. This is called the 'line.' The other wire, called the load, is connected from the switch to the light itself. When the switch is off, there is no electrical connection between the electrical panel and the light (between the line and the load). When the switch is on, you are physically connecting the line and load, which allows current to flow from the electrical panel, through the switch, to the light, then back through the neutral/return wires (which are white), eventually returning to the circuit panel. For typical boring switches like the one you're replacing, it doesn't matter if the line or the load is on the top or bottom screw of the switch. All that the switch is doing is connecting the two separate wires; doesn't matter if current is flowing up through the switch or down through the switch. However, it does matter for the Honeywell Econoswitch (and any other fancy programmable switches). This is because programmable switches are always using a little bit of power to display the current status, keep accurate time, charge the battery, etc. Therefore, you need to make sure that turning the switch off will disconnect the light from the switch and not the electrical panel from the switch. Okay, now in order to actually figure out which black wire is the line and which is the load, I personally turned the circuit breaker back on, made sure the old switch is in the OFF position, and used a voltmeter by putting one lead of the voltmeter on one of the black wires/screws of the old switch and the other lead on one of the ground wires that should be hiding in the blue box somewhere. (The ground wires are easy to spot because they have no plastic insulation around them.) If you do this and you get no reading on the voltmeter, then the black wire you're touching is the load (connected to the light). If you do get a reading, you have identified the line (connected to the electrical panel). Just to be sure, you should test the other black wire on the old switch to check that you get a different reading. Again, keep the other lead of the voltmeter on the ground wire. You could also use a white neutral/return wire instead of the ground here, but at the time I didn't expose any of the white wires' copper conductor.6. Turn the circuit breaker back off so everything's safe.--INSTALLING THE NEW SWITCH--7. Remove the old switch by unscrewing the black line and black load wires.8. Gain access to any of the neutral/return wires. These are white. If the box you are working on only contains switches, then all the white wires are probably just twisted together with a colored wire nut/cap. Untwist the wire nut (CCW to loosen) and pull it off. You now have access to the neutral/return wires. You will eventually shove the white neutral wire from the Honeywell into this twisted mess and put the colored wire nut back on.9. You should now have three conductors in the box that you'll connect to the Honeywell's three wires: a black line wire that was connected to the old switch, a black load wire that was also connected to the old switch, and one or more white neutral/return wire that are probably just twisted together. Use one of the supplied wire nuts to connect the line wire in the box to the line wire of the Honeywell. Do the same for the two load wires. Do the same for the white neutral/return wires, noting that you might have to use the old wire nut in case the supplied nut is too small.10. Everything is now connected and ready to be tested. Turn the circuit breaker back on, and make sure the switch works. Pushing the big button on the bottom should control the light as normal.11. Turn the circuit breaker back off.--SHOVING EVERYTHING BACK IN--12. For me, showing the wires back into the box is always the hardest part. Electricians have a knack for fitting a mess of wires into a small box. I apparently can't do this well. Anyway, do remember that the wires are less breakable than they seem. The worst that can happen during this stage is that a wire is pulled loose from a wire cap. That's unsafe, so make sure it doesn't happen. There are techniques to ensuring a secure fit; find them online.13. Screw the switch(es) back onto the blue box. I always have trouble making sure that the switch are flush to the wall and not crooked. Again, bend those wires. They're sturdy.14. Screw the new* wall plate on, and you're done. *New because your old wall plate was probably only big enough for a toggle switch. You need something like the Leviton 80401-W 1-Gang Decora/GFCI Wallplate, Standard Size, Thermoset, Device Mount, White.

I am very pleased with this neat timer. I bought one to control the lights on the front of our house and was happy enough with its operation that I bought another for our rear patio light (all LEDs). I have had them since September and October of last year (about 8 months now) and they have performed flawlessly. I installed them after I learned that a house several doors down our street had a break-in.I installed the timers myself. As has been mentioned, you do need to have a neutral wire, so you'll need to confirm you have a neutral wire in the junction box where it's going to be installed. The timer does take up more room, so you'll also want to confirm there's some extra room for it to fit properly. I installed one switch in a box that contained three switches, and the other in a box that contained two. Some wire re-arranging was necessary. Also, the three-switch box had three neutral wires coming in to the box and the supplied wire nut was too small, so I had to use a larger wire nut (which I luckily happened to have on hand from another project).Programming on/off times for the timer isn't even necessary if you're satisfied with the default settings, which is turn on at sunset and off at 11:00pm. I originally programmed mine to come on at sunset and off at sunrise. After observing operation for a few weeks it appeared that there was adequate light at sunset and sunrise, even on cloudy days, so I thought, what the heck, I'll save a little more money (after all, that's one of the reasons for using a timer) so I reprogrammed them to turn on 10 minutes after sunset and off 10 minutes before sunrise; a good compromise between clear and cloudy days. I considered 20 minutes but decided against it due to inadequate ambient light on a cloudy day. (on or off sunrise/sunset offsets can only be done in 10 minute increments) Some have complained of the complexity of programming the switch. I found that it did seem to be just a little tricky to learn, but my instructions came with several examples so, once I learned the "flow" of how the switch works it was pretty straightforward. My instructions came with a flow chart of the different programming modes which also was handy. You'll want to hold on to the instructions to serve as a "memory jogger" if you ever wish to reprogram the timer in the future. The default latitude/longitude location is roughly in the eastern US, so you'll probably want to change it to your location. Easy enough since the instructions include a good number of major and minor cities and you can use the closest one, or use something like Google maps to find your lat/long.Some have complained that the timer makes a click when the lights come on. It does make a very soft "click" when the internal relay is actuated, but it's no louder than a "soft click" manual toggle switch. I have one timer installed near a couch where we watch TV and more often than not we don't even notice the click, and we don't blast the TV. If in a quiet room it will be just noticeable enough for you to think "oh--the outside lights just came on. That's nice" and you'll go back to your reading or whatever task at hand.A few complained about the blue LED that comes on when the internal relay is actuated. I found it to be a nice reassurance/confirmation that the lights are on, especially if an outside light is around a corner where you can't readily see that it's on. I didn't find it to be that distracting.The screen on this timer has a clock that is easily readable, as are the icons that indicate the different modes. The days of the week are somewhat small, but you'll realistically only need to see them when programming the timer, and even then just move a little closer. The back-light on the screen can be programmed to stay on bright, or to go to dim or off 3 seconds after pressing any button. I set mine to go to dim; another cool reassurance that things are working as normal. I discovered a nice little side-benefit: when in normal "run" mode, if you press the left or right side of the slim rocker button the screen will momentarily display your current sunrise/sunset time.The timer will automatically adjust for daylight saving time (DST). We live in a DST area and the switches have gone through two DST adjustments flawlessly.We've experienced one 30 minute power outage and the timers did not have to be reprogrammed. From what I understand even after the 4 hour limit you'll only have to reprogram the clock, and won't loose any programming.All in all I am very satisfied with the quality and operation of my timers. It is convenient to not have to remember to turn the lights on at dusk and off at dawn every day. And it's very nice if we've been out all day and return after sunset to come home to an automatically well-lit house. Sure, you could use IOT smart-switches. But sometimes it's a good idea to spread your technology risk around--some self contained (as this is), and some computer/internet controlled.

After 10 years of operation, never a slip up. Through power outages, seasonal changes, leap year, the switch works perfectly to control my outside lights.

I bought some of these for my old house a few years ago and they did great. The DST and Lat/Long functions made them more or less hands off after the initial install. Programming is super simple. I bought a couple for my current house in December of 2024, but one of them recently failed - the light turned off per its schedule but then the switch malfunctioned and kept turning the lights on and off. Holding the reset buttons didn't stop the issue so I had to replace the switch with one I was going to install elsewhere. Hopefully the 1 year warranty is honored.

These switches work and are a great addition for outdoor lights you want to cycle on and off.I have like 5 of these. You can probably achieve the same thing now with a smart switch if you wanted to go that route.I've liked these from the beginning and they are easy to use.

It works great, is easy to read and easy to program. It is useful to light the multiple bulb front door lanterns and does not require a WiFi or Bluetooth setup. I had a WiFi connected one from the same company, but the WiFi failed after a year, so I did not replace it with the same one.