Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!


Dont discount a battery wired bell on the grounds of reliability. The
batteries on a basic bell will last for years. I suspect the €œbing bong€�
type bell will run for decades. (When we moved into out current house I
replaced after about 10 years. They were the orange HP11 batteries. God
knows when they were last produced...

http://moblog.net/media/r/i/c/richcolour/ever-ready.jpg

Tim


--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 20/02/2020 13:53, Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

My mains wired bell does the same thing. It is more to do with bad
contact at the doorbell push than being wireless. IMHO

On 20/02/2020 13:53, Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John


I have used these "Bell Transformer HSBT1A Hispec 4,8,12V Fused 240v"
which have a choice of ac output voltages.

You can buy din rail transformers.

When I replaced some door bell push buttons I was surprised at how many
holes there were in the wooden door frame for previous push buttons.

The problem with drilling a plastic door frame is that you won't know
whether any metal is not perpendicular to the drill. You might learn
something from the hinge mountings.

--
Michael Chare

Tim+ wrote:
Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!


Dont discount a battery wired bell on the grounds of reliability. The
batteries on a basic bell will last for years. I suspect the €œbing bong€�
type bell will run for decades. (When we moved into out current house I
replaced after about 10 years. They were the orange HP11 batteries. God
knows when they were last produced...

http://moblog.net/media/r/i/c/richcolour/ever-ready.jpg

Tim



+1

Weve got an old style battery operated bell ( the traditional ding dong
type). I think I may have put new batteries in it shortly after we moved
in, in 1997 but Im not even sure that is the case. I replaced the push but
only as Senior Management wanted one to match the new front door fittings.

I looked at it a few months back - we are half thinking of getting one of
those RING Beasts- the batteries arent showing any signs of corrosion.

On 20/02/2020 13:53, Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

I bought a nice brass bell push, drilled a hole in the door and mounted
the wireless gubbins on the inside with the button blanked off and the
external button wired to the PCB. Much nicer.

One failure mode of these is the battery becoming dislodged when the
door's slammed. That can be alleviated with foam packing.

Cheers
--
Clive

In article ,
Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

The most sensible thing you've ever done. ;-)

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

That seems to be the norm with wireless bells on all my pal's houses. My
wired one - or rather two, one upstairs - is some 40 years old. With only
the push changed to match new door furniture.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

An ordinary twist drill for steel (rather than one just for wood) should
have no trouble. Just use a low speed on the drill and reasonable
pressure.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Just have a look at what TLC sell. Or Google for a wider selection of bell
pushes, to perhaps match door furniture.

The major work with a wired bell is of course concealing the cable - if
such things matter to you.

Cheers
John

--
*It's not hard to meet expenses... they're everywhere.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

What would be nice is if somebody made a good wireless intercom where the
outside bit could be powered from the mains, and which also allowed you to
initiate the intercom from inside as well as out. I too have suffered from
poorly constructed bell pushes on the intercom or battery box. What I did
for a while is found out how the door bell bit worked. it worked by shorting
out an in line capacitor in the speaker wire, thus making it low resistance.
This meant I could just fit a bog standard doorbell push on the box over the
crap button they supplied. Sadly though, it eventually succumbed to uv and
frost and fell to bits, now I have an intercom, but its drawback is that you
cannot instigate a challenge unless the bell has been activated. You would
be surprised at the number of nutters who bash on the door and you cannot
answer them as you cannot activate the intercom from the remote unit!
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Another John" wrote in message
...
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:53:55 +0000, Another John wrote:

Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).

I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

I solved this problem by getting a bell with a kinetic push - no battery and
IP55. Here are some:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...at=0&_s op=15
and with 2 sounders (probably not 111dB!)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-...AOSwceNaazA R

Note that most of these require the sounder to be in a 13A socket. Mine are
placed so that they're audible all over the house but can't be heard next
door.
The push on mine is 'hinged' at the top - possibly a good design re. IP
rating - and it is stuck on the door. The adhesive is v. strong, so it needs
to be in the right place, especially as I cleaned the area first.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

In article , Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\)
wrote:
What would be nice is if somebody made a good wireless intercom where the
outside bit could be powered from the mains,

I think the one by Ring (sold by Screwfix) does just that.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

I get the impressionthat the buttons get pressed too hard and it damages
the innards. Likely to happen when you can't hear the bell from the outside
- the courier just presses harder.

The button is the weak link.

I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated bell push
.. However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix it. Transformer
is in the Consumer Unit.

Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote

What would be nice is if somebody made a good wireless intercom
where the outside bit could be powered from the mains, and which
also allowed you to initiate the intercom from inside as well as out.

Quite a few of the best surveillance cameras can do that and work
much better than just an intercom so you can see that its someone
delivering a parcel or just another ****wit sales fool or a Jovey etc.

I too have suffered from poorly constructed
bell pushes on the intercom or battery box.

They should be using a decent optical sensor
when mains powered, much more reliable.

Or a kinetic switch when not mains powered.

What I did for a while is found out how the door bell bit
worked. it worked by shorting out an in line capacitor in
the speaker wire, thus making it low resistance. This meant
I could just fit a bog standard doorbell push on the box over
the crap button they supplied. Sadly though, it eventually
succumbed to uv and frost and fell to bits, now I have an
intercom, but its drawback is that you cannot instigate a
challenge unless the bell has been activated. You would
be surprised at the number of nutters who bash on the
door and you cannot answer them as you cannot activate
the intercom from the remote unit!

"Another John" wrote in message
...
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

On 20/02/2020 13:53, Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).

25 years ago I installed a traditional ding-dong as the sounder for an
IR beam across the entrance. As a 'temporary' measure I fitted batteries
(4 AA cells). I've had to replace the batteries four times in 25 years.
Bear in mind that the ding dong sounds every time anyone enters or
leaves the property, so probably an average of ten times a day.

For a different application I've just installed a Honeywell DW915
sounder. It works for wireless and also wired. The only thing I don't
like about it is that the connections for the bellpush are not screw
terminals; you just shove the wire in.


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

I was often asked to do this when I was working. Don't do it if you can
avoid it. Could you mount the bellpush on masonry adjacent to the door
and drill through the masonry using a 300mm x 8mm SDS drill bit?

It can be nice to mount the bellpush on a small polished hardwood
plinth. It's much easier than mounting it direct on the masonry.

Bill

On Fri, 21 Feb 2020 06:50:06 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


Quite a few of the best surveillance cameras

Oh, ****! And this little thread was Rodent-free, so far! tsk

--
Website (from 2007) dedicated to the 85-year-old trolling senile
cretin from Oz:
https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/r...d-faq.2973853/

Is that the one that needs an app?
I was thinking stand alone and can be initiated by either end to deal with
idiots.
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"charles" wrote in message
...
In article , Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\)
wrote:
What would be nice is if somebody made a good wireless intercom where the
outside bit could be powered from the mains,

I think the one by Ring (sold by Screwfix) does just that.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated bell
push . However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix it.
Transformer is in the Consumer Unit.

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed the
silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have their
uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and persuade
delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to wireless ones
not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if you press my push,
you can hear the bell working from outside.

--
*It's not hard to meet expenses... they're everywhere.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 21 Feb 2020 11:13:55 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated bell
push . However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix it.
Transformer is in the Consumer Unit.

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed
the silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have
their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and
persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to
wireless ones not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if you
press my push, you can hear the bell working from outside.

You can't hear ours from outside, but there is a brass plarte telling
people to use it.

I think I'm going to put a 'glass speaker' on the transom and play the
Westminster Chimes.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

Dave Plowman wrote:

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed the
silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs.

Yes I did the same a couple of years ago, worried that back EMF from the
solenoid might zap them, without some sort of flyback diode, but they've
been fine, had to swap to a lower value resistor than the one I'd
calculated.

They do have their
uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and persuade
delivery drivers the bell actually works.

They did used to rap the door a few seconds after ringing the bell, but
they do seem to have learned now, just be be sure if I'm upstairs, then
I turn on the downstairs hall light as I leg it down the stairs.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated
bell push . However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix
it. Transformer is in the Consumer Unit.

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed
the silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have
their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and
persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to
wireless ones not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if
you press my push, you can hear the bell working from outside.


I like the idea - I suppose I could but a new Bell push and adapt it. I
guess it was a fiddly job as even the bulb it very small. What voltage
tapping do you use on the transformer? Have you seen any LED equiped bell
pushes for sale?

On Friday, February 21, 2020 at 3:47:10 PM UTC, John wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
I have a mains powered bell - I liked the idea of the illuminated
bell push . However, the bulb has failed and I can't be arsed to fix
it. Transformer is in the Consumer Unit.

I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed
the silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have
their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and
persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to
wireless ones not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if
you press my push, you can hear the bell working from outside.


I like the idea - I suppose I could but a new Bell push and adapt it. I
guess it was a fiddly job as even the bulb it very small. What voltage
tapping do you use on the transformer? Have you seen any LED equiped bell
pushes for sale?

Just to put in my penniworth while I am here as I had to solve this problem some years back.

The problem is caused by the lack of waterproofness of the inexpensive push button switches. It is a well known problem in the electronics industry that if something is not fully sealed, the changes in air pressure draw moisture and airborne chemicals into small spaces like those between both switches and batteries and their contact points. The moisture plus chemicals dry out forming an insulating film that the very low current - designed that way by the manufacturer so that battery life is extended - does not break it down.

So a fully weather sealed bell push is required.

I solved this by refitting an old brass bell push with one of those tiny sealed printed circuit board switches that are so ofter used on electronic toys and similar gizmos. I was fortunate in that there was a cable in place going to my roof space which I wired into the wireless transmitter such that it effectively worked remotely from its switch; this works excellently as I can now move the sounder around the house if needs be.

Been in place that way in excess of 10 years and no bothers - having said that I also have a large cast brass door knocker and often enought the bell goes off at the same time as furious operation of the knocker !!

In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
They do have their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight
too. To try and persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works.

They did used to rap the door a few seconds after ringing the bell, but
they do seem to have learned now, just be be sure if I'm upstairs, then
I turn on the downstairs hall light as I leg it down the stairs.

Me too. ;-)

--
*I don't suffer from insanity -- I'm a carrier

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
I recently changed my bell push. To match new door furniture. Removed
the silly little tungsten bulb and fitted a pair of LEDs. They do have
their uses. They are bright enough to see in daylight too. To try and
persuade delivery drivers the bell actually works. Many are so use to
wireless ones not working they simply knock on the door. ;-) And if
you press my push, you can hear the bell working from outside.


I like the idea - I suppose I could but a new Bell push and adapt it. I
guess it was a fiddly job as even the bulb it very small. What voltage
tapping do you use on the transformer? Have you seen any LED equiped
bell pushes for sale?

I have the transformer set for best results with the pair of under dome
bells in use. So chose the dropper resistors for that. As Andy said, sort
of adjust under test, rather than calculated.

It was a fairly pricey brushed stainless steel type from a door furniture
supplier, rather than a generic from Friedland, etc.

--
*Don't squat with your spurs on *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Brian Reay wrote:
I looked at it a few months back - we are half thinking of getting one of
those RING Beasts- the batteries aren?t showing any signs of corrosion.

Is that one with significant volume, or one of these?

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/ring-...t-to-know-more

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/0...ing_data_sale/

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/1...police_spying/

#Paul

On Thursday, 20 February 2020 14:18:01 UTC, Tim+ wrote:
Another John wrote:
Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not..

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!


Dont discount a battery wired bell on the grounds of reliability.. The
batteries on a basic bell will last for years. I suspect the €œbing bong€�
type bell will run for decades. (When we moved into out current house I
replaced after about 10 years. They were the orange HP11 batteries. God
knows when they were last produced...

http://moblog.net/media/r/i/c/richcolour/ever-ready.jpg


True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just when the bell is pressed.

True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.

--
*Caution: I drive like you do.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.


Agreed - my bulb has burned out!

On Saturday, 22 February 2020 12:04:02 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.

I have a small LED lamp with PIR at the front door - runs for over a year on 3 x AA batteries.

It could be a quite noticeable if the two were combined so that the bell push illuminated when someone approaches it.

Owain

On Saturday, 22 February 2020 12:04:02 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.

Strontium aluminate not sufficient? (Obviously, it might not be, but a thought to avoid the need for an electrically driven light emitter.)

In article 2,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.


Agreed - my bulb has burned out!

Why I fitted LEDs to mine. They do have their uses. ;-)

--
*Beware - animal lover - brakes for pussy*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
harry wrote:
True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just when
the bell is pressed.

Do you unplug everything in your house when not in use? Things like the
cooker which has a clock etc? If not, I'd be most surprised if a decent
bell mains power supply makes any measurable difference to your bill.

--
*If you lived in your car, you'd be home by now *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 22/02/2020 11:18, John wrote:


True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.


A small SMPS - eg phone charger - uses less than 0.5 watts no-load,
often much less (let's say 0.25W). By my reckoning that's 4.4 or 2.2
kWh per year. Current cost around 60 or 30 pence per annum.

And even cheaper of course if you can take power from a pre-existing
supply (eg alarm).

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Sat, 22 Feb 2020 12:08:06 +0000, John wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.


Agreed - my bulb has burned out!

Ours won't light up as it's connected to an input on an Arduino!

--
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On 22/02/2020 13:33, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Feb 2020 12:08:06 +0000, John wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.


Agreed - my bulb has burned out!

Ours won't light up as it's connected to an input on an Arduino!


I intend it as nothing but a compliment when I say that I'd expected
pushing your doorbell to cause (among other things internally) the
caller to hear externally something like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPMKlEwrIs8

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Sat, 22 Feb 2020 13:43:58 +0000, Robin wrote:

On 22/02/2020 13:33, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 22 Feb 2020 12:08:06 +0000, John wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
John Not.responding.@dotcom wrote:



True plus the mains transformer uses power continuously. Not just
when the bell is pressed.

Seems significant.

As significant as the cost of the batteries?

But I actually want an illuminated bell push. Try doing that with
batteries.


Agreed - my bulb has burned out!

Ours won't light up as it's connected to an input on an Arduino!


I intend it as nothing but a compliment when I say that I'd expected
pushing your doorbell to cause (among other things internally) the
caller to hear externally something like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPMKlEwrIs8

That's a good one. I'm actually in the middle of setting up the hardware
for playing an arbitrary MP3 file. Not sure what to use yet.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

Ours won't light up as it's connected to an input on an Arduino!

If you use multicore wire such as alarm cable then an illuminating LED with appropriate resistor can be wired to the power supply terminals of the Arduino for permanent illumination or to an output of the Arduino if you want it to illuminate when the switch is pressed.

Richard

On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:53:55 +0000, Another John
wrote:

Any views or advice on this, please:

We have a wireless doorbell: bells (2) plugged into the mains, and the
bellpush fixed to the outside of our porch.

I'm now finally fed up of the bellpush failing spasmodically -- Damp?
Cold? Battery failed? -- any and all of these causes have been
identified, and fixed, over the years.

Whenever it fails (due to cold and/or damp anyway), it usually corrects
itself .... so we never know when the bellpush is going to work, or not.

And so I've resolved to get a mains-wired bell instead (with the
approved transformer).


I'm looking for advice on drilling through the porch (door upright) -
it's UPVC, with a steel frame, of course.

And also any hints (make of doorbell, fitting transformer ... anything?)
would be much appreciated!

Cheers
John

I have an old house with a wired bell (through the door's wooden
frame), but it uses batteries. They last for many years.

One factor that nobody's mentioned is that an old-fashioned bell gives
an indication of how desperate the caller is, as the length of ring
(or gap between ding-dong) depends on how long the bellpush is
pressed, unlike wireless devices that trigger a standard response.

There is a slight drawback in that if the caller can hear the bell
then it may well govern how long the bell gets pressed. In my case
with a small echoey hall it's so loud it can make the caller remove
the finger instantly, and then the ring is too short for me to notice
it faintly upstairs. I've fitted a slave bell upstairs now to solve
that problem.
--
Dave W

On Sat, 22 Feb 2020 06:49:25 -0800, Tricky Dicky wrote:

Ours won't light up as it's connected to an input on an Arduino!

If you use multicore wire such as alarm cable then an illuminating LED
with appropriate resistor can be wired to the power supply terminals of
the Arduino for permanent illumination or to an output of the Arduino if
you want it to illuminate when the switch is pressed.

Oh, there are 12 cores in the cable and I'm only using 6 so far. I might
do that at some point.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

My bellpush must me over 100 years old
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9NggL2CgEQje7ZnFA

and my doorbell must be 50

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wUbW7AVJNoZF5Uty5

But things are never quite what they seem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIwZuu1fK-c

On Sunday, 23 February 2020 00:09:32 UTC, Graham. wrote:
My bellpush must me over 100 years old
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9NggL2CgEQje7ZnFA

and my doorbell must be 50

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wUbW7AVJNoZF5Uty5

But things are never quite what they seem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIwZuu1fK-c

The really old ones are mechanical. A system of rigid steel wires and bellcranks. (What they were invented for)

The bells to summon the serfs were similar too.