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[pes]

I want to put a motion sensor on my porch lights. There are 4 recessed canister lights that make up the porch light(s). I am concerned the socket rocket will cause the bulb to extend beyond the canister housing. Does anyone have experience using socket rockets in this configuration?

[dave w]

U-u-u-h, yeah. But what are you asking?

We don't know how deep your cans are or the length of your bulb?

Socket Rocket adds 1.5 inch to bulb.

You can always go to a shorter bulb like a PAR20.

As a side note,  If you use SRs in a "base-up" position in a heat restrictive housing, you probably want to limit incandescent bulbs to 75 W or 100 W max. CFLs and LED bulbs shouldn't create a heat problem.

[Brian H]

I would also be careful of how warm it gets inside the can.
Heat rises and with the socket rocket upside down. It may get warmer than expected.

[lflorack]

I have three outside lights in open bottom but bulb-down configurations and even 75 watt incandescent bulbs produce too much heat for the socket rockets to always turn off properly.  I had 100 watt clear bulbs in them and thy almost never shut off reliably.  I used to have CFL's in them and they were much cooler and always ran OK -- except that as they grew older, they produced so much extra X10-like noise, I had to remove them because they were interfering with the rest of the X10 devices..

[pes]

Thanks for the response and sorry I was not clearer.

The bulbs in the canisters are the 65W flood type which are approx. 5" from tip of socket to end of bulb. I am interested in knowing if anyone has used  a bulb like this with a socket rocket without the bulb protruding beyond the housing of the canister.

It is sounding like with the base up configuration and the heat the bulb is going to produce this is not going to be an option to control the lights. Since I am just becoming familiar with the technology, perhaps someone can make a suggestion for an alternative method of turning the lights on with  the motion sensor.

[paizano1]

I would guess that the lights are controlled by a switch, so just buy an x-10 wall switch and replace your current switch. Then the switch is what would respond to the signal of the motion sensor. Also besides a motion sensor you will need a transceiver (TM751, cm15a) of some sort to put the x-10 signal on the power line. The tranceiver will receive the signal of the motion sensor and then put the signal on the powerline and the wall switch will turn the lights on. Just one idea for you.

[dave w]

perhaps someone can make a suggestion for an alternative method of turning the lights on with  the motion sensor.

paizano1's suggestion of replacing the wall switch with a X10 switch is the best solution, however you need to plan ahead a little.

The WS467A and WS12A switches will work ONLY with incandescent bulbs. If you have plans of going back to CFL's or LED's in the future you should use a non diming switch like a WS13A or XPS3. These require a neutral line along with the hot and load lines.

[pes]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes the lights are controlled by a switch and that seems so straight forward.  Simpler is better.

[dave w]

  Simpler is better.

Yepper. That's what attracted my wife to me.

[Dan Lawrence]

My wife LOVES X10.  We've had it since the late 1980s and we NEVER come home to a dark house.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

My wife LOVES X10.  We've had it since the late 1980s and we NEVER come home to a dark house.

If the power fails when you're out, you don't come home?         

[Dan Lawrence]

We seldom have a power failure, the last one was 1987. I was on my way to get ice when my wife called my cell and said "the power just went on".  Our gas and electric supplier is the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company and they are very good about outages.  Even the high winds in Baltimore two weeks ago our power never went out.   

[stoney]

Yeah, when I lived in Florida in a previous lifetime, the electric company was called Florida Power and Light (FPL).

It was so unreliable that practically everyone called it Florida Flick and Flash!! 

I'm also a customer of BG&E and like Dan mentioned, they really do quite a credible job of minimizing down time even during winter storms. Pretty
good track record. Hmmm...maybe we can farm the power companies out in an effort to save some more money.

I think they're talking about doing just that!! Sorry to say!

[dave w]

Yeah, when I lived in Florida in a previous lifetime, the electric company was called Florida Power and Light (FPL).

It was so unreliable that practically everyone called it Florida Flick and Flash!! 

In Ft Lauderdale we called it "Florida Flicker and Flash". Summer lightning flashed and the power flickered. Drove my X10 nuts...everything would come on after a clap of thunder during a "palmetto bug buster".