RPLS740B ECONOswitch 7-Day Solar Programmable Switch, Lights and Motors, Indoor and Outdoor, Energy Saving, White

I am very pleased with this neat timer. I bought one to control the lights on the front of our house and was happy enough with its operation that I bought another for our rear patio light (all LEDs). I have had them since September and October of last year (about 8 months now) and they have performed flawlessly. I installed them after I learned that a house several doors down our street had a break-in.I installed the timers myself. As has been mentioned, you do need to have a neutral wire, so you'll need to confirm you have a neutral wire in the junction box where it's going to be installed. The timer does take up more room, so you'll also want to confirm there's some extra room for it to fit properly. I installed one switch in a box that contained three switches, and the other in a box that contained two. Some wire re-arranging was necessary. Also, the three-switch box had three neutral wires coming in to the box and the supplied wire nut was too small, so I had to use a larger wire nut (which I luckily happened to have on hand from another project).Programming on/off times for the timer isn't even necessary if you're satisfied with the default settings, which is turn on at sunset and off at 11:00pm. I originally programmed mine to come on at sunset and off at sunrise. After observing operation for a few weeks it appeared that there was adequate light at sunset and sunrise, even on cloudy days, so I thought, what the heck, I'll save a little more money (after all, that's one of the reasons for using a timer) so I reprogrammed them to turn on 10 minutes after sunset and off 10 minutes before sunrise; a good compromise between clear and cloudy days. I considered 20 minutes but decided against it due to inadequate ambient light on a cloudy day. (on or off sunrise/sunset offsets can only be done in 10 minute increments) Some have complained of the complexity of programming the switch. I found that it did seem to be just a little tricky to learn, but my instructions came with several examples so, once I learned the "flow" of how the switch works it was pretty straightforward. My instructions came with a flow chart of the different programming modes which also was handy. You'll want to hold on to the instructions to serve as a "memory jogger" if you ever wish to reprogram the timer in the future. The default latitude/longitude location is roughly in the eastern US, so you'll probably want to change it to your location. Easy enough since the instructions include a good number of major and minor cities and you can use the closest one, or use something like Google maps to find your lat/long.Some have complained that the timer makes a click when the lights come on. It does make a very soft "click" when the internal relay is actuated, but it's no louder than a "soft click" manual toggle switch. I have one timer installed near a couch where we watch TV and more often than not we don't even notice the click, and we don't blast the TV. If in a quiet room it will be just noticeable enough for you to think "oh--the outside lights just came on. That's nice" and you'll go back to your reading or whatever task at hand.A few complained about the blue LED that comes on when the internal relay is actuated. I found it to be a nice reassurance/confirmation that the lights are on, especially if an outside light is around a corner where you can't readily see that it's on. I didn't find it to be that distracting.The screen on this timer has a clock that is easily readable, as are the icons that indicate the different modes. The days of the week are somewhat small, but you'll realistically only need to see them when programming the timer, and even then just move a little closer. The back-light on the screen can be programmed to stay on bright, or to go to dim or off 3 seconds after pressing any button. I set mine to go to dim; another cool reassurance that things are working as normal. I discovered a nice little side-benefit: when in normal "run" mode, if you press the left or right side of the slim rocker button the screen will momentarily display your current sunrise/sunset time.The timer will automatically adjust for daylight saving time (DST). We live in a DST area and the switches have gone through two DST adjustments flawlessly.We've experienced one 30 minute power outage and the timers did not have to be reprogrammed. From what I understand even after the 4 hour limit you'll only have to reprogram the clock, and won't loose any programming.All in all I am very satisfied with the quality and operation of my timers. It is convenient to not have to remember to turn the lights on at dusk and off at dawn every day. And it's very nice if we've been out all day and return after sunset to come home to an automatically well-lit house. Sure, you could use IOT smart-switches. But sometimes it's a good idea to spread your technology risk around--some self contained (as this is), and some computer/internet controlled.

I just purchased 4 of these timer switches. Little to dislike, other than the instructions that somehow leave out the fact that an OFF time must be programmed even though sunrise/sunset mode is selected. Actually, the time itself is not entered, but you must still scroll through the ON setting, then select OFF and then the preset sunrise time appears and YOU MUST ACCEPT THAT. If you don't follow this step, there is an 11 pm default OFF time. I may not have explained that very well, but neither did the instructions! Just be aware that you must scroll through to the OFF setting even though the Latitude/Longitude has been entered. One other slight drawback is discovering how to set multiple timers (I have three in a row controlling six outdoor lights) to have the exact same time of day, but I figured that out on the flow chart under 'time menu' where the step is labeled 'time starts'.As for the awesomeness, the fact that this unit will not lose the programming for up to 4 hours of power failure is great! The Daylight Savings Time feature is terrific, as is the aforementioned Latitude/Longitude feature! The backlight feature is very cool too. My older Honeywell timer switches had a hinged front door thing that was a giant PITA, but that design is gone, thankfully. The programming is much more intuitive than older units, too. I can't speak to ease of installation since I had an electrician friend swap out the old units for the new (I know my limits), but he certainly had no complaints.I have only had these timer switches installed for two days, so I have no idea how they will perform, but their features are outstanding and programming is so much easier. 5 star rating definitely. HTHEdit in after 2 years... I love that the timers hold their programmed settings for up to 4 hours during a power outage. I have noticed that the time of day on the units began to get further apart as the months went by, until about 8 minutes separated two different timers. I didn't feel like going back in and resetting the time of day to clean up the discrepancy. Today I had to reprogram after a 12 hour power outage. I had to go through the instruction learning curve all over again. Not fun, as the print is tiny and the steps are more confusing than I remembered. But I was successful in my efforts! One more tip that you won't find in the instructions... when setting 24 hr or 12 hr time, if you want 12 hr, I suggest setting the 24 hour first, THEN go back to the 12 hr, and it will then know whether or not it is AM or PM. Otherwise, if you try to set the time of day via 12 hr first, you'll discover that there is no way to toggle back and forth between AM and PM. So set the 24 hr time first! And be aware of that default 11pm shut off time if you don't do as I noted near the beginning of this review! Have fun, and good luck.Edit in after 3 1/2 years ... These light timers continue to function perfectly. I am very pleased that I installed these particular switches!