Hi guys, can someone help me out with the following queries? :
We have 240V 50Hz electricity supply in my country ( Malta ). Can I convert this to 120V at the light switch socket? - I like the Wemo switches but on their site they mention: Electrical Ration: 120V/15A/60Hz/1800W
Does it cause any harm or damage to appliances if power supply is turned off at the power socket before switching the appliance off properly ( like TV, Coffee Machine, Oven, etc )? - I’m interested to buy smart power sockets ( from BG Electrical )
Is there a way how to configure light switches to support double tap, triple tap, hold press, etc functionality? Or is it that these features need to be supported by default?
1/ Don’t try it. You need transformators that probably won’t fit in there.
2/ Normally not. Except for computers. They need a proper shutdown before switching them off.
3/ Buy light switches that support double, triple tap and hold. Not all do.
Conversion like that consumes power. This has to be disseminated somehow. If you place a transformer make sure you can cope with the heat.
Yes, it can harm. Take for example a simple LED circuit with some caps. Those caps will be filled very quickly after you switch the light on. Depending on the phase in the sine wave you have a different in-rush current. Timing when to switch it on, will likely increase the lifetime of the LEDs. The more expensive your equipment, the better they will be able to handle switches. As a manufacturer we can also time when we turn on a device. You measure “zero-crossing” (when in-rush will be minimal) and exactly then you switch on the device. This requires you to measure very accurately though and most manufacturers will use “smart meter” like ICs that don’t deliver this type of information.
If you have a pulse switch and a switching/dimming device at the light (where it has both neutral and live wires) and if it has enough capacity, it can measure its supply voltage and see multiple consecutive dips in it. This can be encoded towards different actions. However, this I’ve not seen any other manufacturer do. Again, probably, because you have to measure your incoming supply voltage very accurately to detect the pulses (which are typically 5 ms).
I hope this gives a bit more useful in-depth info.
Yes, I know. However, I was describing another method to configure your light switch that does not require a neutral wire at the switch nor a tiny current that might accidentally switch on your low-powered LEDs. We call it “switchcraft”.
