Thanks so much fellas!

by the way, I'm in Kansas... the wire is probably 14 gauge or whatever
code is. The relay stuff was all that I was concerned with.... sorry
for stating "16 gauge" when it's actually the usual romex.

Very glad to hear I don't have to replace my entire house electrical
just to add a few can lights... From what I've gathered from all of
your comments, I can just work around these relays and switches and
just make new runs from my breaker box.


Art Todesco wrote:
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:17:01 GMT, (Beachcomber)
wrote:


Correct. Momentary switches. The 24V is rectified, so
a DC pulse is applied to one winding or the other of the relay.
The relay then latches magnetically and needs no more input power.
A switch anywhere else in the house can then cause the relay to
change state.

A nice application is a large property where outside lights
can be switched on/off from dozens of indoor locations.
Or, a bank of switches can control *any* light in the house from
one location!

The system *did* catch on and was quite popular.
But this was 40 years ago!!



I remember these. It was sort of like an X10 system with wires.

One big problem was maintenance. These were usually installed in a
home during the original construction. The relays were mounted in
electric box cutouts with the relay mechanism outside the box and
inaccessible behind the plasterboard.

If a relay went bad, it was almost impossible to replace it without
smashing a hole in the wall.

The switches also went bad, from time to time. They were really no
more than SPDT momentary doorbell buttons.



I didn't know they made SPDT doorbell buttons. Every one I've seen has
been SPST. SPST would be enough for controlling relays too.

There is a whole line of switches made
for these things. Actually, they are
not strictly SPDT, but are momentary
SPDT with a center off (the rest
position). They have them in single,
double, triple, etc gang. When my new
church was built about 20 years ago, the
wonderful architect designed 2
multi-purpose rooms, but didn't put in
light switches. The switches, actually
breakers, were far from the rooms. I
can't tell you how many times, during a
meeting, someone at the breaker panel,
while turning off other light, would
plunge our meeting into darkness. There
were 2 circuits in each of the 2 rooms.
I put in the GE relays and 2 switches
in each of the 2 rooms. The circuit
breakers were marked, "you touch, you
die" .... well not actually. They were
moved to the bottom of the breaker box.
Anyway, I used the low voltage units
because I had to snake the wires through
concrete block walls, which is nearly
impossible. So, the low voltage wires
actually come down from the ceiling in
an adjacent closet. I could have run
conduit, but it would have been much
more difficult. I have had 1 of the
relays and 2 of the switches fail in 20
years. I think the switch failed
because the relay was intermittent and
people were pressing it harder and
harder .... finally breaking the switch.
BTW, I 1st saw this stuff in the 60s
in a custom built house. Also, in the
late 70s, I worked for a company that
used them in all their offices for
lighting.