Bud-- wrote:

John wrote:

"John Grabowski" wrote in message
...

"Kramertheman" wrote in message
. ..

I have a house that was built in the 60's. The lights in my house
use a


low

voltage lighting system that uses relays and rocker switches. You must
press down on the on side of the rocker switch to operate the
associated
relay and turn the lights on or the off side of the rocker switch to
turn
the lights off. Apparently this is an outdated system and replacement
switches an relays are impossible to find. Does anybody know of a
source
for this type of equipment or a modern equivalent that can be used as a
replacement.?

Thanks

Kramertheman



Replacement parts are available. Check with some of your local
electrical
supply companies. The relays may not be identical, but they should
work.
You probably will not be able to get identical replacement switches,
but a
substitute should be available. There are two wire systems and three
wire
systems. It sounds as though you have a three wire system. One common
wire, one wire for off, and one wire for on.



I'm curious about this type of system since I've never seen them. What
is the purpose of the relay? Why not wire the lights to the switch
directly? And if the lights operate on low voltage, wouldn't there be
a high line loss, high line temperature (due to high current)?


The lights are line voltage. The relay control is low voltage. The
realys may be in a central location or distributed. The switch wiring is
all low voltage, more like doorbell. It is easy to have multiple
switches for a light, and they are all like a single pole switch, no
3-way/4-way circuits. I think low cost of switch wiring and flexibility
were attractions. Some systems could have pilot lights at the switch -
also low voltage. And there could be features like one switch operates
like a master over multiple circuits. You could have a switch in the
bedroom to turn off all lights or turn them all on in an "emergency".

bud--

Should also have said - the switches were all momentary contact with
latching relays. With 2 wire systems pushing the switch would change the
relay/light between on and off. As John said, on 3 wire systems, pushing
the on side of any of multiple switches would turn the light on, pushing
the off side turns the light off.

bud--