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[lgb0250]

I am using the AM466 appliance module to control my outside holiday lighting.  They all work fine for about 2 hours.  If I leave them on any longer than this they won't shut off with the SC503.  At this point I have to go outside and manually disconnect them.  I have five of these setup on separate circuits.  None of them have more than 10 amps running on them.

Does this sound like an overheating problem and if so is there anything I can do to still automate my outside holiday lights?

Thanks for your help.

[Brian H]

How cold is it in your neck of the woods?
Standard Lights or newer LED types?

[lgb0250]

Standard lights.  Lows in the 40's at night.

[Puck]

None of them have more than 10 amps running on them.

The AM466 is only rated for 500 Watts. That's roughly 4 Amps maximum.

Does this sound like an overheating problem and if so is there anything I can do to still automate my outside holiday lights?

Lower the load to less than the modules rating.

[dave w]

$0.02 FWIW (i don't charge for this drivel.

Pucks caution is noteworthy for safety, but I don't think it is a heat related problem. Excess current would likely "weld" the appliance module contacts closed. Huge amounts of current overload would be needed to overheat the relay contacts.  I come nearer thinking it is a noise problem generated by the lights, although the 2 hour time window throws a big question mark into that theory.

Do you use X10 elsewhere (non holiday) in the house? If so, assumably everything works fine - all the time? If you don't have X10 elsewhere: does anything else in the house get turned on in the time frame the appliance module decides to go on strike?

As a test; try waiting long enough that you are sure the appliance module will not work. Go out and unplug the lights and have someone immediately use the SC503 to turn OFF the appliance. If it clicks, it probably isn't a heat problem. Turn the module back ON, plug in the lights and see if it will still turn OFF. If it doesn't click OFF,  have someone cycle the appliance module while you unplug lights, one string at a time until it works again. (Walkie Talkies will help with this).

[lgb0250]

I'm not using anything other than my holiday lights on the X10 system.  Although I'm not doing that very successfully.  Half of my inside holiday lights aren't working at all.  I've installed a plug in phase coupler with no success either.

I think I'm going to take Puck's advice and put more of the 466's out to reduce the load on each and see if that helps when it's time to turn them off.

Thanks everybody for your help and suggestions.

[lgb0250]

Wanted to give an update on this.  Based off of Puck's recommendation I added another 466 to each run of lights.  With two 466's on each run I was able to run my lights the first night for 3 hours with no problem shutting them off.  Last night I let them go the normal 4 hours that I run them and still had no problems getting them to all shut off correctly.  Thanks Puck.

[Brian H]

Thank you for the update.

[dave w]

Well, I need to write that down in my "to be remembered" book.

Thanks