Natural daylight cycle with artificial lights

[herptrader]

A question for the sparkies out there..

What I would like to do is provide a natural day light cycle for my animals inside their enclosures.

Timers are fine but adjusting them regularly to simulate the changing hours of daylight is at best an approximation.

What I would like to do is place a sensor outside that causes a power outlet inside to be on during (natural) daylight hours.

I went though this requirment with Middy's (The sparky supplier with the ugly pink colour scheme) and they suggested that I could get a sensor that was designed to turn lights on at night and run it through an inverter. This is an option I could work with but I wonder if anybody else has solved this problem in a simpler and cheaper way.

[Auzlizardking]

slip_phreak can help you there

[tan]

Will ask my huby when he gets home too - he does all that sort of stuff for a living!

[ex1dic]

yeah ive seen this with pool automation, when it goes dark or the light sensor is covered the lights
come on in the pool.. have set one up to i guess its the same with house automation ect..

[herptrader]

So where would you get this sort of stuff and how affordable would it be?

[tan]

Hi, It's Tan's hubby here. I think there a few "do it yourself" ways to do this. An obvious one that comes to mind would be to us an Arlec light sensor that you get in the garden section (for garden lights) from Bunnings or somewhere. You may need the garden transformer aswell (to power it), but instead of running 12VAC garden lights with it, you run a 12VAC relay with 240V contacts (which you get from somewhere like Ideal electrical or Laurence & Hanson) and wire the contacts the opposite way around. So instead of the lights turning on when it gets dark, the relay (connected to your daylight bulb) will turn on when it gets light!
Aletrnatively, if you were electronic minded, you could make one with a Jaycar kit - part number KG-9090 for about $20 and substitue the relay for your 240V one.
Or even if you were to be happy to settle for mimicing the dark instead of the light, you simply need only to buy part number PS-4074 $20 from Jaycar which is a Bayonet fitting that plugs into your existing light socket, and automatically only provides power to your bulb when it is dark, and turns off again when it is light.
Hope this helps.
Corie

[MoreliaMatt]

thanks for the post corie

would there be any way of (cheaply) automating a dimmer to simulate sunrise and sunset aswell?

ive seen a mates fishtank thats set up like this, i might ask him if the fluro fitting is capable of housing any fluro with the dimming?

[AntaresiaLady]

Herptrader- I've been playing with a similar idea....so you answered my question without me even asking!
Thanks!

If I find out anything more, or find an easy way for the non sparky... I'll post it.

[tan]

There is a professional home automation system for this that I use called Clipsal C-Bus. You use can use a 4 channel dimmer and drive it using the Light level sensor. It automatically adjusts your light brightness accordingly to suit the varying lighting conditions around you, to maintain a constant level. This will also save you power when the room is bright (by dimming your bulbs or dimmable fluros). With this device you can additional "ramp" the light on or off over a period of time to simulate sunset and sunrise. But cheap - I don't think so.
Roughly $1,000.00 later for the parts, you then need someone one who knows Cbus to program it for you. And sorry, but I'm in Townsville.
So yes, there are plenty of other ways. This is just one from a professional level, but sounds like the fish tank light could be a cheaper answer if it'll work for you.

[hugsta]

Get a microclimate thermostat with the Magic Eye function. So much easier......

[dee4]

We used to have these available, I will try and find out what happened to them. These plug into your std bayonet and run a sensor to monitor the light. I will try and track down the munfacturer and let you know if that is what you are after? I think this one of the options Tans hubby was getting at.

[Landscaper]

Hi,

my daylightsimulation is done by 3 different lamps.
There´s a children nightlight (1 W), a neon lamp (8 W) and a 12V-Spot (20 W).
These lights are controled by 3 different clocks.

--- Autumn / Spring settings ---

7:00-8:00 AM Children nightlight = sunrise
7:45-9:00 AM + Neon lamp = starting daylight
8:45 AM -7:00 PM + 12 Volt spot = daylight
7:00 - 8:30 Neon lamp = disapearing daylight
8:30 - 9:30 Children nightlight = sunset

... during that the temperatur is controled by a thermostat and a heat mat.

This looks quite like natural daylight and its a cheap way aswell.

Carsten

.

[herptrader]

thanks for the replies (including the PM) so far... I have some research to do.... including into the JayCar kit.

What I was hoping to do was to have a powerpoint which could be switched to only be on when it is daylight outside.

Carsten, your approach is my plan B but adjusting it to keep track of the seasons was what I was hoping to avoid.

[herptrader]

The Jaycar kit seems simple enough. The specs do not describe the voltage limit for the relay but the 6amps means that it should probably not have its output connected to a normal power point... apart from that and the question of how you power it when it requires 12 volts for the electronics it seems pretty much ideal.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...Max=&SUBCATID=

It seems targeted at mains voltage lighting.

This kit can operate as a twilight on/off switch or as a light trigger relay. Operated from 12 volts, this versatile project triggers a 6-amp relay when the light intensity falls below an adjustable threshold. Turn lights on around the house when it goes dark or trigger an alarm when a light is switched on. Kit supplied with Kwik Kit PCB, relay and all electronic components. Recommended plugpack - MP3002.

Time for a bit of snooping in the Bunnings garden lighting section.

Originally Posted by tan

Hi, It's Tan's hubby here. I think there a few "do it yourself" ways to do this. An obvious one that comes to mind would be to us an Arlec light sensor that you get in the garden section (for garden lights) from Bunnings or somewhere. You may need the garden transformer aswell (to power it), but instead of running 12VAC garden lights with it, you run a 12VAC relay with 240V contacts (which you get from somewhere like Ideal electrical or Laurence & Hanson) and wire the contacts the opposite way around. So instead of the lights turning on when it gets dark, the relay (connected to your daylight bulb) will turn on when it gets light!
Aletrnatively, if you were electronic minded, you could make one with a Jaycar kit - part number KG-9090 for about $20 and substitue the relay for your 240V one.
Or even if you were to be happy to settle for mimicing the dark instead of the light, you simply need only to buy part number PS-4074 $20 from Jaycar which is a Bayonet fitting that plugs into your existing light socket, and automatically only provides power to your bulb when it is dark, and turns off again when it is light.
Hope this helps.
Corie