(Photo: Hugh Cairns)

Permanently installed exterior lighting fixtures are candidates for DLM (Digital Lighting Management). Timers, photocells and astronomical time switches are easy to install and quite affordable.

If you’re a 9 to 5’er you are now pulling into your driveway and it's dark out. Wouldn’t it be nice if the lights were on to welcome you home?

Your outdoor perimeter lighting can afford you the handiness of lighting your way as well as providing security. It makes sense to use your outdoor lighting especially when it is getting dark earlier. One of the ways to conveniently control your lighting is with a timer switch that includes an astronomical time clock computer chip.

Astronomical time clocks, make seasonal adjustments to the timer and know the sunrise and sunset times all year round. When you set them up, you enter the day, time and year, and the latitude and longitude of your city. The computer chip does the rest and voila!, it calculates the dusk time all year round. If you don’t want your lighting to turn off at dawn, just choose a time suitable to you. The switches come with a large on/off button that you can use manually just like a regular switch.

Another handy switch to have at the front door is an occupancy sensor. They are really handy, especially when the switch is right near the door. When you walk up to them they sense motion and activate. They are really nice when you are coming into the house. Likewise, if you have an outdoor porch light, it could activate the light to help you see who’s at your door. They are also great if you have an interior hallway that you are tired of walking through in the dark. Enter the hallway, the light turns on and then shuts off when you are out of range according to the delay you set it at, as little as 15 seconds.

Digital lighting management has advanced significantly in the past few years. Many of The DLM features used commercially are now trickling down to residential use and are affordable.