electrical question

[d1]

not sure if this is the place for this question but here goes


I am looking for a timer that will turn off the light in my chicken coop.

simple you say?heres the catch:I want it come on @ 5:15pm and FADE(not turn off) out/off by 9:00pm

any such device to make this happen out there?

 

[jason_boivin]

thats a long fade out time. I dont think theres any such animal. I would look at www.x10.com they have controllers that plug into the pc and the pc controls the light.

 

[ekemily]

I can't think of any way. If I had to have something like that, i would probably set up two lights of two different wattages and two different timers. I'd have the lower wattage come on when the higher wattage went out. The lower wattage would be low enough to let the hens know it was time to close up shop.
I've read of some hooking up a motor to a rolling dimmer switch thing, but that is way beyond my knowledge. Maybe someone else can come up with something better. I tried!!

 

[thebirdguy]

When I was breeding parrots and had to give them more light etc plus a settling down time at night.. I found that turning the lights on early in the morning via a timer and then letting the natural dusk/sunset happen when it happened was the best way to go. I was able to control the total number of hours of light they got per day by changing the time the lights came on in the morning.. Hope this helps.