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[antivirus6613]

I got x10 setup at my house with a 3rd party reciever ( v572a). I have 12 lights setup on house A. 6 on B.

I want to setup 2 chandeliers on A1 and A2. The chandeliers are 1200 and 1000 watts approximately. I have 2 ws12a and 9 ws14a. One chandelier is a 5 switch and the other is 6. Will this setup work? Last time I tried, I nutted one switch out of the loop and put in 1 ws12a and 3 ws14a slave switches and the master overheated like crazy. Should I try again with all my switches properly wired?

Ps. I have 2 x10 switches in the garage that only turn on using the remotes not off. The switch however turns them on and off. The receiver picks up the signal because it has a flashing led.

[Boiler]

antivirus6613,

Unfortunately your WS12a is only rated for 500 watts and it carries all the load.  The WS14's do not carry any load.

1200 Watts is a ton.  Short of using a heavy relay switch (no dimming) I don't know of anything in the X10 lineup that can handle that load.

Leviton does make a 1000W dimmer but it's still a bit short for one of your chandeliers and it's a lot more expensive.

It sounds like your chandeliers have quite a number of bulbs (12 - 100 watt bulb's?).  Could you switch to lower wattage (75w) to lower the power?

Give us a bit more detail on your bulb/chandelier configuration and we'll go from there.

Boiler

[dave w]

One chandelier is a 5 switch and the other is 6. Will this setup work?

Do you mean you have one chandelier that has five sections that are individually controlled by five seperate switches, and a second chandelier with six sections and six switches??

If so, replace each switch with a WS12 and set each "group" of WS12s to the A1 and A2 addesses. Since you must de-rate the switch power capacity if you put multiple WS-12s in the same wall box, you would need at least four WS-12s to control the 1200 watt chandelier anyway.

[antivirus6613]

The chanderlier has near 20-25 bulbs. Cannot lower the wattage at all. 5 switches control on and off of the chandelier. Not different sections. I have x10 switches and remotes. If I was to buy a lutron switch, I don't really want a dimmer, how much would it cost? I need 11. Would it work with my previous settings of x10.

[Boiler]

The chanderlier has near 20-25 bulbs. Cannot lower the wattage at all. 5 switches control on and off of the chandelier. Not different sections. I have x10 switches and remotes. If I was to buy a lutron switch, I don't really want a dimmer, how much would it cost? I need 11. Would it work with my previous settings of x10.

antivirus6613,

Sorry but I can't help much with the Lutron switches.  They're more or less a Cadillac and I'm more of a Chevy person.

You did mention that you did not really want a dimmer.  That opens some possibilities.  With the load that you have the major concern is inrush current when you first turn on your lights.  Your 1200W circuit will draw 10Amps when operating at full temperature.  During turn on it can easily draw 5-10X this current.  Based on this I'm betting you have a 20amp circuit supplying this lamp.

X10 has a 20Amp relay switch (XPS3) that is similar to your current WS12a.  As a bonus, I believe this switch may be compatible with your existing WS14a slave switches (forum members - if you have experience, please confirm this!). 

Link: XPS3 Datasheet

This switch will produce a audible "click" when activated due to the relay closure (all relay switches produce some noise).  It will be compatible with your existing X10 settings.

Boiler

Edit for SSE (stupid spelling errors).

[antivirus6613]

I think I may purchase that, I just want some reassurance it will work. Also some of my lights turn off randomly ( specifically 2 in garage which are CFL).

[Oldtimer]

X10 has a 20Amp relay switch (XPS3) that is similar to your current WS12a.  As a bonus, I this switch may be compatible with your existing WS14a slave switches (forum members - if you have experience, please confirm this!). 

The XPS3 is the Pro version of the WS13A which uses a WS14A companion switch.  Basically all X10 companion switches seem to be nothing  more then fancy doorbell buttons and are interchangeable as long as you observe caution when wiring the CS227 and its equivalents. See fourth paragraph in this post.

[Boiler]

The XPS3 is the Pro version of the WS13A which uses a WS14A companion switch.  Basically all X10 companion switches seem to be nothing  more then fancy doorbell buttons and are interchangeable as long as you observe caution when wiring the CS227 and its equivalents. See fourth paragraph in this post.

Oldtimer,

Thank you for the confirmation.  I didn't have first hand experience combining the two.

Boiler

[antivirus6613]

I had 8 cfl's and 1 regular and it was controllable via x10. Now I made them all Cfl's and it stopped working. I have about 50 switches in total. Now im going to get rid of them. They are to much of a headache to use via cfl's and most of family doesn't use them anyways. Thanks for all your help though.

[Brian H]

Two wire X10 wall switches will not work with CFLs as they steal power through the load. If you has one normal bulb in the same circuit as CFLs it maybe enough to get power to the switch. I would guess a mix of CFLs and regular bulbs may make for a flaky setup.