wiring a taco relay for a closet light switch

Posted by Mike on March 24, 2006, 10:05 pm

A (new construction) closet in my house has a door switch that controls
a light. The switch is wired to some low voltage thermostat wire, and
I have a switch leg that runs to the actual light mounted in the
ceiling. The idea is, the door opens and the light turns on.

My thought is to use a taco one-zone relay to set this up.

I see from the taco wiring diagram pretty much how this works, but I am
puzzled about one thing. The diagram shows that the relay is connected
to a thermostat (in my case, this connects to the closet door), to a
120 vac line (feed in), to a circulator (in my case, a ceiling light),
and to a thermostat for a boiler. Is the latter there so that the
boiler knows to turn on when the relay is energized? Can I just leave
this off because I do not need a secondary low voltage signal to go to
a device when the door to the closet opens?

(Hopefully this make sense...)

mh

Posted by ameijers on March 24, 2006, 11:14 pm

> A (new construction) closet in my house has a door switch that controls
> a light. The switch is wired to some low voltage thermostat wire, and
> I have a switch leg that runs to the actual light mounted in the
> ceiling. The idea is, the door opens and the light turns on.
> My thought is to use a taco one-zone relay to set this up.
> I see from the taco wiring diagram pretty much how this works, but I am
> puzzled about one thing. The diagram shows that the relay is connected
> to a thermostat (in my case, this connects to the closet door), to a
> 120 vac line (feed in), to a circulator (in my case, a ceiling light),
> and to a thermostat for a boiler. Is the latter there so that the
> boiler knows to turn on when the relay is energized? Can I just leave
> this off because I do not need a secondary low voltage signal to go to
> a device when the door to the closet opens?
> (Hopefully this make sense...)

Why make life complicated? I bet a real electric supply will have the proper
110v switch. I think they are called 'closet door switches'. My family's old
1966 house had such a switch set into the frame of the pantry door in the
kitchen. A brass plate with a heavy-duty push-to-open pushbutton, set into a
box the size of a strike plate assembly. Of course, if you have already
rocked the closet and trimmed out the door, this idea won't help much. Keep
in mind, you're not just building this for you- whoever owns the house next
has to be able to understand and service the thing, and anything you invent
is gonna raise flags with a house inspector if it doesn't look 'real' and
have a UL sticker.

aem sends...

Posted by RBM on March 24, 2006, 11:27 pm

It should work fine with the taco or any other switching relay. I'm not
familiar with the relay in question, but it should have two low voltage
terminals marked tt and a line one and line two terminals and at least two
more terminals which would be the switch. connect the hot to line one with a
jumper to one of the switch terminals, connect the neutral to line two with
a pigtail to the white wire going to the light, and connect the black going
to the light to the other switch terminal

>A (new construction) closet in my house has a door switch that controls
> a light. The switch is wired to some low voltage thermostat wire, and
> I have a switch leg that runs to the actual light mounted in the
> ceiling. The idea is, the door opens and the light turns on.
> My thought is to use a taco one-zone relay to set this up.
> I see from the taco wiring diagram pretty much how this works, but I am
> puzzled about one thing. The diagram shows that the relay is connected
> to a thermostat (in my case, this connects to the closet door), to a
> 120 vac line (feed in), to a circulator (in my case, a ceiling light),
> and to a thermostat for a boiler. Is the latter there so that the
> boiler knows to turn on when the relay is energized? Can I just leave
> this off because I do not need a secondary low voltage signal to go to
> a device when the door to the closet opens?
> (Hopefully this make sense...)
> mh
>

Posted by Tony Hwang on March 25, 2006, 12:34 am

Mike wrote:

> A (new construction) closet in my house has a door switch that controls
> a light. The switch is wired to some low voltage thermostat wire, and
> I have a switch leg that runs to the actual light mounted in the
> ceiling. The idea is, the door opens and the light turns on.
>
> My thought is to use a taco one-zone relay to set this up.
>
> I see from the taco wiring diagram pretty much how this works, but I am
> puzzled about one thing. The diagram shows that the relay is connected
> to a thermostat (in my case, this connects to the closet door), to a
> 120 vac line (feed in), to a circulator (in my case, a ceiling light),
> and to a thermostat for a boiler. Is the latter there so that the
> boiler knows to turn on when the relay is energized? Can I just leave
> this off because I do not need a secondary low voltage signal to go to
> a device when the door to the closet opens?
>
> (Hopefully this make sense...)
>
> mh
>

Hi,
If I were you, I'd just install motion sensing light.
You open the closet, light comes on, after delay it goes out.
No mechanical anything to givre trouble.

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