Spring Timer Issues

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sparky_magoo

sparky_magoo

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Reno
I have a customer who has me installing exterior lights. He wants me to power them from an exterior mounted spring timer (12 hour). I coudn't locate a wet listed spring timer. I propose a 12 hour Intermatic timer (Decora style) mounted in a Bell box. I will install an in-use cover.

My questions are this. Does any one make a wet location spring timer switch? If not, does my idea of the in use cover work? The in use cover is listed for switches. Can I call my installation of the spring timer be called a switch? If not, how can I do this to code?
 
I'm not sure what a spring timer is, but what is a 12 hour clock going to do for you on a twenty four hour day? Also have you considered one like a timer used for pool pumps?
 
I'm calling a spring timer a single gang device with a twist knob. You see them in bathrooms all of the time. You turn the knob and the light stays on for the predetermined amount of time. Twist the knob, the light stays on for up to one hour or 30 minutes.
 
This will never pass the new title 24 requirements for either residential or commercial. The standards are online here. So it's irrelevant if it is NFPA 70 compliant or not. You are allowed to use a timer outdoors with a combined motion sensor/photocell, but there is no 12 hour bypass anywhere in that code.

What you've described sounds like a good way to mount the timer. None that I've seen are made weatherproof. The only commercially available item for what you're trying to do that I know of, would be a programmable lighting control system. Folks who can live in Atascadero are much too smart to buy into that stuff. What I would do, is explain the situation to the customer, walk away and let him do whatever he wants.
 
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