Exterior Mounted Commercial Timers?

swa

I recently built a small strip mall. The electrician installed four exterior mounted (there is no interior control room) electrical timers for the parking lot lights, street sign, soffit lights and lighted facade signs. These timers are all of the mechanical variety where there is a yellow disk with the hours on it and to set the on and off time you need to screw in a metal pin at the appropriate times. Unfortunately, they are a pain in the ---! The timers seam to have a delay of up to several hours between the tme that they are set to the time that they actually go on or off. The reason that this is the case is the trip lever hits the preset timer screw, however, it does not push it all the way to the on or off position until a few hours later. Is this a normal problem with these type of timers or am I special? Is there any alternative timers that are not a small fortune? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

mdshunk

If accuracy is a concern, these are the wrong timers. It is more typical to have the photocell turn ON the lights, and have the timer turn them OFF. That said, the Grasslin electronic timer guts will clip inside those Intermatic timer housings you have now. Very accurate.

Magnettica

I would consider rewiring this set up and installing a multi-pole contactor controlled by a photo cell and timer like MD suggested. Leaving timers exposed to the elements is a poor design in my opinion. Just because it works doesn't mean it's right.

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